Top 5 Cooking Automation in the Restaurant Kitchen in 2022

According to January 2022 data from?the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,?employment in food service/bars rose by 43,000 in December 2021 but overall is still down by 653,000 compared to February 2020 figures. With the high cost of recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining staff, automation offers benefits such as simplifying certain tasks, filling staffing gaps, and helping with inventory and storage. For example, innovative technology can increase the effectiveness of handling day-to-day responsibilities, such as employee scheduling, food prep tasks, equipment cleaning, and tracking incoming shipments of products.

Also, a lot is happening inside the kitchen. There are many restaurants that are automating the cooking process. Let's have a look at a few of them:

PANDA EXPRESS UNVEILS A ROBOTIC WOK

Panda Express is automating its woks. The Asian fast-casual on Wednesday unveiled a proprietary robotic wok, dubbed the Panda Auto Wok (PAW), that is designed to cook food faster and ease the burden on cooks. The chain has been developing PAW since 2015 and began installing it in restaurants last year, the company said in a press release.

The bot is now in use at 120 of the chain's 2,316 restaurants and will be in another 240 by the end of this year.?

PAW automates parts of the wok-handling process, including mixing ingredients and cooking large batches of starches for dishes like chow mein and fried rice. It can do this 25% faster than a manual wok and eliminates multiple steps for staff, which the chain said has improved retention.

Panda Express said automation can help restaurants run better as workers become harder to find, adding that it is looking into automating other kitchen equipment in the future.

"While technology is not the sole solution to the current labor crisis, it helps create more efficient processes for restaurant operators and employees alike," the chain said.?

Jack In The Box Is The Latest Restaurant Chain To Test Miso Robotics’ Kitchen Automation

If you still haven’t heard of Flippy, chances are you will soon. Miso Robotics’ kitchen robot has taken over the French fry stations across?much of the White Castle system, and now Jack in the Box Jack?is testing the technology.

Flippy 2 and Sippy products in one of its standalone restaurants in San Diego. Flippy 2 will leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, and data analytics to work the fryer, while Sippy will do the same to facilitate the drink station.

Flippy 2 will certainly have its hands full with Jack in the Box’s famously robust menu, maneuvering products from curly fries to tacos to chicken nuggets. Meanwhile, Sippy integrates with a restaurant’s point-of-sale system to automatically fulfill drink orders at purchase.

Miso Robotics was founded in 2016. The company first teamed up with White Castle in July 2020 during the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic. Shortly thereafter, the burger chain expanded the pilot to 10 more restaurants and then, earlier this year, announced Flippy 2’s deployment to 100 more of its 350-unit system.

Jack in the Box is much, much bigger, with over 2,200 U.S. locations and a strong tailwind for more. Last quarter, Jack in the Box completed 26 development agreements and signed 98 future restaurant openings, bringing total agreements to 50 and commitments to 201–its highest number of unit commitments in company history.

Remy Robotics exits stealth mode with the launch of the third autonomous robotic kitchen

Remy Robotics, a food technology startup leading the disruption of delivery-only restaurants through the use of adaptive robotics and culinary engineering, today exited stealth mode with the opening of a third autonomous robotic kitchen.

With over 60,000 robot-cooked dishes sold and top customer ratings across all major delivery apps, Remy Robotics is now ready to expand its delivery-only restaurant business with more brands and more locations.

The company’s successful track record means it is now ready to offer its autonomous robotic kitchen platform to other food operators looking to scale their business, improve profitability and solve the labour shortage challenge.

Founded in late 2018, the company has been operating five food brands out of two locations, one in Barcelona and one in Paris, adding now a third kitchen in the Catalan capital. In addition to their flagship flexitarian brand OMG, Remy Robotics also offers delivery food ranging from Indian cuisine and chicken wings to vegan Chinese.

The precision that is in-built into Remy’s methodology means, for example, that robots decide autonomously how and for how long to cook a dish, based on where a customer lives and how long the delivery will take.

Thanks to this approach, consumers get their food piping hot and cooked to perfection. Quality is assured through AI-based on computer vision and neural networks, with smart ovens and sensors controlling temperature, moisture, weight, and other key parameters.

Picnic Works Tapped to be Exclusive Automated Pizza Assembly System for Speedy Eats

Picnic Works,?a Seattle-based innovator of food automation technology, and?Baton Rouge-based?Speedy Eats?today announced that they are collaborating to bring Picnic Pizza Station technologies to future Speedy Eats automated kitchens.

Speedy Eats is the world's smallest and fastest automated kitchen which allows customers to purchase hot and cold food without leaving their vehicles. Speedy Eats is a fresh new concept from Bancroft Automated Restaurant Services (BARS Inc.) that places fully contained drive-thru operations in empty parking lots where customers can purchase hot and cold food items at any time of day or night. The current Speedy Eats menu features five pre-assembled pizza options, chicken entrees, BBQ dishes, sides, cold beverages, and condiments.

The Picnic Pizza Station is autonomous and completely customizable for each order – after loading the dough, the Picnic station takes care of applying the sauce, cheese, fresh-cut pepperoni, and additional toppings. The finished pizzas are then loaded into the kitchen's ovens for cooking. Each hour, the Picnic station can assemble up to 100 pizzas.

Picnic and Speedy Eats will continue to envision pizza assembly opportunities for upcoming Speedy Eats automated kitchens starting in 2023. For information on Picnic Pizza Stations, see?hellopicnic.com?and for Speedy Eats, automated kitchens, visit?speedy-eats.net.

Wing Zone Commits to Major Robotics Partnership

Miso Robotics’ Flippy will be making a lot of wings under a new partnership with Wing Zone. The Atlanta-based, 61-location wing purveyor announced it would make the latest version of the robot “a part of the chain’s standard build for all future restaurant locations.”

That’s a landmark deal for both Wing Zone and Miso Robotics, making it one of just a few brands with robotic automation as a cornerstone of the operation. White Castle made a big commitment to rolling out Flippy and Jamba is the only other franchised brand with robotics ingrained in the brand DNA, through a partnership with Presto.

Chipotle, Jack in the Box and Wing Zone are all testing Flippy as well. Sit-down chains like Chili's and Denny's, meanwhile, have been rolling out front-of-house robots that run food and bus tables.

Automation is the way forward?

According to a recent look from the Association for Advancing Automation, robotic purchases surged by 28 percent in 2021. The food and consumer goods portion of that research was even higher than the overall market, robotics purchases in the sector were up 29 percent last year.

Of course, it helps address the historic staffing challenges in a job market that has two openings for every potential candidate. You can’t open a restaurant if you can’t staff it, but building with a customised variety of portion of cooking duties automated makes it easier.?Kitchen automation is a cost-effective solution with long-term benefits.?An automated kitchen can increase employee?productivity and reduce the chance of error.

BTW, Mukunda Foods Our Latest Innovation Wokie - automatic wok is available for demo/trials in Melbourne. Wokie comes with an android tablet attached which tells you what to add when to add, and how much to add maintaining the speed and temperature of the drum as per the set recipe.?

Reach out to me or?Scott Taylor?& Team?Beanice Enterprises?to optimise your restaurant kitchen.

Mukunda Foods Pvt. Ltd.?VIVEK B M?ESHWAR K VIKAS

#innovation #australia?#restaurant?#melbourne