Featured Image Credit: Eatch
Topics: Food and Drink, Technology
Gerrard Kaonga
Impressive new footage of an industrial kitchen that can seemingly cook by itself has left divided opinions on the internet.
When most people think of a commercial kitchen, they picture something loud, sweary and chaotic like Boiling Point or The Bear.
However, a video showcasing the efforts of an autonomous industrial kitchen machine has left some questioning whether stressed chefs could be things of the past.
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The video was shared on Reddit on the ‘Damnthatsinteresting’ board on Friday, with people split between being in awe of the machines and vowing not to eat a meal cooked by a robot.
The clip shows a machine cooking a multitude of meals at the same time from start to finish. The Eatch company shared this video to its YouTube page last month.
The autonomous robotic kitchen is able to cook up to 5,000 meals per day, allows for massive customization and provides ‘gourmet-cooking’ at scale as well as lowering labor costs by up to 90 percent, reducing food waste by 70 percent and lowering energy costs by 50 percent.
However, some Reddit users voiced their concerns of job losses in the industry and removing the aspect of human decision-making during cooking.
"All robotic automaton is stupid and impractical at first, but then the longer you use it the more profitable it becomes," one user wrote.
"Replacing a $40k human with a $500k machine is super expensive up front... but in year two, you're now talking about a huge savings.
"I don't love this of course, we need a lot of low skill jobs, and if they all go away, I have no idea what happens, but it's not likely good."
Another commented: "I am not sure how this would perfectly work every time. Fruit and vegetables are different each time of year, month, day, time.
"Some zucchini are riper (for example) than others and need less time in the pan or more time in the pan or different way of cooking whatsoever, I honestly don't know.
"I am not a cook, and I am not a farmer. I am an engineer and this machine boggles my mind."
However, other users were willing to give it a go if it resulted in cheaper costs on their end or tasted good.
“If it tastes good, I'd eat it. Although so far it appears to be making only stir fries,” one user wrote.
“Those app based ‘ghost kitchens’ are ideal for this. All you got to do next is get rid of the delivery people, it would be impressive,” another user added.
The Eatch company has said its goal is to ensure high quality food in large volumes in places like hospitals, schools and airlines.
“The Eatch Robotic Kitchen just cooks better than other mass production kitchens. And because the whole cooking process is automated we can cut labor cost at the same time. That allows us to spend more money on quality ingredients,” the company has said.
UNILAD has contacted Eatch for comment.