They say that nothing beats your mom's cooking. In the future, most of the food we'll eat will be prepared by special cooking-robots. Does this mean that "mom's cooking" will become a thing of the past? Not necessarily. But it is going to be defined differently.
The history of cooking
Nobody knows for sure when human beings started cooking their food. While there is evidence that suggest that our ancestors, Homo erectus, were using fire to cook food one million years ago, some believe that cooking was actually invented all the way back at 2.3 million years ago. One thing that everyone seems to agree on is that Homo sapiens have been cooking since day one.
Over the years, there have been many innovations in the ways human beings prepare their food. The world's oldest oven, which was discovered in Croatia in 2014, is dated from around 4,500 BC. Evidence of frying uncovered in ancient Egypt date from around 2,500 BC. In 1913 Fred W. Wolf introduced the world's first domestic refrigerators, and only in 1947 the first commercially manufactured microwave came out to the world.
Nevertheless, while innovative tools and appliances were very helpful, the cooking process itself has always been done by man. That is, until recent times.
The rise of the cooking robots
Zume Pizza is a Pizza place in Mountain View, California where the Pizza is made by a special robot called Doughbot. When you order a Pizza from Zume Pizza, it is actually been baked on the truck that delivers it so that when you get your Pizza it is extra fresh. Last year, Zume Pizza secured $48 million for its pizza-making robots and it's planning to expand widely.
If you think that this kind of culinary innovation can only take place in the U.S., think again. Pazzi is another interesting pizza place with pizza-making robots called Ekim. It's due to be opened by the end of this year in no other place than France! This new chain is planned to expand all over Europe - including Italy.
More than just pizza
Flippy is the world's first burger-making robot. It was developed by a company named Miso Robotics, and since the beginning of 2017 it has been flipping burgers at CaliBurger, a burger joint in Pasadena, California. CaliBurger had committed to introducing Flippy in 50 of its restaurants in coming years.
While Flippy might be the robotic burger-making pioneer, it still focuses only on the part of cooking of the hamburger itself. A new restaurant that was opened in San Francisco just last month claims to have the world's first fully automated burger-making robot. In this restaurant, robots won't only flip the hamburger, but will also do everything else - from cutting the vegetables to adding the client's preferred sauces. This robo-burger-chef was developed by Momentum Machines - a startup that raised 18 Million dollars last year.
Another interesting restaurant that uses a robotic cooking machine is Spyce. It's an Eco-friendly restaurant located in Boston that serves vegetarian, pescatarian, gluten-free and vegan good - all of which are fully prepared by a special robot.
It's all about the money
The reason for this recent abundance of futuristic cooking machines is the same as always - money. While it's true that these robots are not cheap, the alternative is even more expensive. For many restaurants, labor is the single largest expense category. The average labor cost for a restaurant currently stands at 30 to 35 percent of gross sales, while the fact is that labor costs are rising rapidly.
This problem has become especially severe in San Francisco, where the minimum wage has recently climbed to $15 an hour. Many restaurants are coping with this increase by replacing their waiters with self-service systems based on digital menus.
The large food chains are also preparing themselves for this new era. As of 2020, self-service ordering kiosks will be implemented throughout all U.S. McDonald’s locations. Other chains, including fast-casual brands like Panera and casual-dining brands like Chili's have also embraced this trend.
What about home-cooking?
Historically, many innovations started as a corporate product to eventually become a privately consumed product. This seems to be exactly the case for this domain as well, as Moley Robotics has created the world's first fully-automated and intelligent cooking robot.
Moley is essentially a fully equipped kitchen. It consists of an oven, an electric stove, a dishwasher, a touchscreen unit and 2 special robotic arms equipped with tactile sensors. These artificial hands can pick up and interact with most kitchen equipment such as blenders, whisks, knives and more.
According to Mark Oleynik, CEO and Founder of Moley Robotics, the way this machine works is by first selecting properties such as the number of portions, type of cuisine, dietary restrictions, calorie count, desired ingredients, cooking method, chef, etc. from its recipe library. Then, with a single tap the user can choose his or her recipe, place the individual pre-packaged containers of measured, washed and cut ingredients in the designated area and press “start” for the cooking process to begin.
Imitating a human chef
The thing that makes Moley special is its unique ability to mimic the movements of real-life chef. This ability is the product of a special motion capture system, which records each movement of a master chef wearing special gloves with sensors. This allows Moley to perform tiny delicate gestures that are sometimes necessary for the preparation of all sort of special dishes.
As of this time, Moley can produce hundreds of different dishes, and it is constantly learning more of them. Some of these dishes, like Tim Anderson's crab bisque, are considered to be very difficult to cook and require striking a delicate balance between different ingredients. Nevertheless, people who have tried Moley's food said it's delicious and that there is no way of telling that it has been prepared by a robot.
Moley's market price is anticipated to stand at around $15,000 - not cheap, yet not un-proportionally expensive when considering the costs of running a man operated kitchen.
The future of domestic cooking
Moley is an important innovative precedent. While this product may still be ahead of its time, the concept is undoubtedly going to be a part of the future of domestic cooking. With time, cooking robots like Moley will become much more affordable and furthermore – it's going to become more and more customary to have this kind of robot in your kitchen.
The kitchen robots of the future will also take place as an integral part of the IOT (internet of things). They will be connected to a huge data-base of recipes that is constantly updated, so that when, for instance, we see some new and exciting dish on a TV cooking show, our own robot-cook will be able to prepare it for us while we finish watching.
Kitchen robots will also communicate with the digital refrigerator in order to receive updates on what ingredients are available, and if one is missing it could automatically order it, without us even knowing about it.
Who is the chef?
The word "chef" is derived from the French term "chef de cuisine" (ɛf.də.kɥi.zin) – "the director or head of a kitchen". Technically, the chef him or herself doesn't have to take a practical part of the cooking process – they simply need to manage it and be responsible for its products. If you think about it, these cooking robots are eventually only machines. They can't take credit for anything they make because they are simply programmed to follow a set of pre-determined steps.
Who will get the credit? The ones who operate these robots. The set of decisions, including which recipes to use, what modifications to make and what combination of dishes to prepare will be counted as domestic chef responsibilities.
So, even in a future in which cooking robot do become a standard part of the common kitchen, there will still be such a thing as "mom's cooking". Technically, the food might be prepared by a robot like Moley, but it will still be different then the food that another Molly prepares. We will still prefer our mom's food, or to be more specific – the food that mom's robot will make.
In conclusion
Food has always been an important part of our life. For most of us, food is much more than a survival necessity – it about culture pleasure and even passion. Over the years there were many changes in the way we prepare our food and the cooking robots are an inevitable step in this evolution.
Cutting vegetables and standing in front of the kitchen stove will soon become a thing of the past, the same way that standing in front the campfire is no longer a part of our cooking routine. But still - nothing beats your mom's cooking.