Food processor in Riga prepares a new future for fast food
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A pasta order arrives and the robotic arm kicks in at Roboeatz restaurant in Riga. After five minutes of spinning, a hot plate is ready.
Cafe Riga, located under a crumbling concrete bridge, is designed in such a way that customers can observe the robotic arm at work.
It also has a seating area, although most guests prefer to take out as vaccination certificates are required to be able to eat indoors in Latvia.
A Roboeatz app allows customers to order and pay for their dish before picking it up at the café.
“The food was better than expected!” said client Iveta Ratinika, teacher and member of the education council of the Latvian capital.
Ratinika said she would encourage school children to come and watch the robotic arm in action and thought there might be robots working in the school cafeteria in “a few years.”
– The design of the kitchen is a “real challenge” –
Roboeatz was established in January 2018 by Konstantins Korcjomkins and Janis Poruks, who have run the Woki Toki fast food chain in Latvia since 2009.
Their goal? To revolutionize the fast food industry.
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“This robot replaces four to six human employees, dramatically reducing labor costs,” said Poruks, who has an engineering background.
But he stressed that the introduction of such robots would not drive up unemployment rates since “people don’t line up to turn burgers.”
“The robot will not replace people who are ready to make a career in the restaurant business, to become chefs or other culinary celebrities. The robot will take on those low-paying jobs that most people already don’t want,” he said. -he declares.
There has been growing interest in automated kitchen technology in recent years, and this has been accelerated by the pandemic.
At a newly opened restaurant in Paris, patrons can watch robots build, bake, and package pizzas at a rate of up to 80 per hour.
In the United States, a robot named “Sally” belonging to the startup Chowbotics can concoct salads sold through a vending machine.
And, for the ultimate household luxury, a UK-based company last year unveiled a fully robotized kitchen that will cost customers a minimum of £ 248,000 (291,000 euros, $ 347,000).
The designers of Roboeatz say it’s designed to take over some of the food preparation tasks while improving food safety and eliminating the risk of infection from crowded kitchens.
During an AFP visit this week, the robotic arm was programmed to make three different pasta dishes.
Its creators say it can be programmed to make hundreds of recipes, taking into account owner’s favorites and food allergies.
“The robotic arm is actually the least inconvenient of all, we just program it to do what we need,” Korcjomkins said.
“The real challenge is to design and invent an entire kitchen around the robot, which should contain all the food ingredients, spices, sauces, rotating pans for boiling and frying,” he said.
– “As popular as electric cars” –
The co-founders said the robotic arm would pay for itself in up to two years.
“On average in the European Union, a kitchen worker costs the company around 16 euros ($ 19) an hour, which includes wages, taxes, insurance, training and everything in between,” Poruks said.
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“The robot does not need health insurance, its children cannot get sick, it does not go on vacation or maternity leave, it does not complain and it cannot bring Covid from home to work “, did he declare.
The company has big expansion plans with sales offices in Canada and the United States and a technical team in Riga to program the robots.
The technology was showcased earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in the United States.
The co-founders said they were not concerned about competition from similar bots, like the pizza-making one in France.
“Our robot is designed to do more tasks and jobs than just making pizza. Our goal is to create a robot that can be useful for many types of food, kitchens and dishes,” Korcjomkins said.
“I hope that a robot in the kitchen will become as popular as electric cars! “
© 2021 AFP
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