Tech Check is a regular column on restaurant technology by Senior Editor Joe Guszkowski. It's also a newsletter.
CES, the annual expo for cutting-edge consumer tech products, is happening this week in Las Vegas. Peruse the list of food tech companies exhibiting at the event and something jumps out: Tech companies really want to replace chefs.
Consider Chef AI, which sells a piece of cookware that makes cooking “as simple as the press of a button.” If the company’s website copy is to be believed, owning a Chef AI is like having a personal chef in your home.
That’s not to be confused with Chef IQ, which makes a number of products, including a wireless thermometer (goodbye, pesky thermometer wires), that help customers “discover their inner chef.”
And then there’s Eat Figo, a refrigerated sous vide device that “cooks your food with the precision of a personal chef.”
The list goes on to include even more specialized products that allow you to brew beer in as little as three days, make barista-level drinks at home, and smoke meat without any prior knowledge of the ancient secrets of barbecue.
There’s no way of knowing how truthful these claims are. But let’s pretend, for the sake of this column, that the products work as advertised.
What are the implications for actual chefs?
To find out, I emailed a few chefs I know. I wondered if they were offended by the idea of a machine performing a craft they’ve spent years perfecting. Or if they were worried that automated countertop chefs could one day divert traffic from restaurants.
The answer to both questions was essentially no. On the contrary, the chefs seemed to welcome their new robot overlords.
Nor did they seem surprised. Americans have been trying to “solve” dinner since at least the late 1940s, said Jonathan Deutsch, professor of culinary arts and science at Drexel University in Philadelphia (and a former advice columnist for this publication). This led to the rise of things like TV dinners, instant mashed potatoes, minute rice, pre-packaged rotisserie chicken and, more recently, meal kits. The demand for easy dinners increased as more households became dual income.
“Robots and high-tech cooking supports are the next logical extension in this progression to make dinner time easier,” Deutsch wrote. In other words, it was inevitable that robo-chefs would eventually emerge at a place like CES.
But the chef doesn’t turn up his nose at this technology. In fact, he uses it himself. Deutsch owns a Typhur sous vide machine that can be controlled via tablet or phone, allowing users to “cook like a pro,” according to its website.
“It’s convenient and it works great,” Deutsch said. “But I don't think technologies like this will take a huge bite out of restaurant revenue.”
People have never dined out because they can’t cook or don’t have food at home, he said. “They dine for entertainment, escape, pleasure, indulgence, romance, socialization, business and many other reasons that have nothing to do with it being an easy way to get a meal on their plate."
Even if someone could afford to have a robotic chef to cook for them at home, it wouldn’t be able to do the other things that make dining out appealing, agreed Maeve Webster, president of foodservice consultancy Menu Matters and a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu.
“For that, they'd also need a robot waiter, robot dishwasher, etc.,” she wrote. “Otherwise, they may get fine dining food, but none of the hospitality, care or ease that comes with visiting a fine dining establishment.”
Not only should chefs not worry about the rise of robotic counterparts, but, according to the experts I contacted, they should probably be thinking about how they can use more automation in their own kitchens.
As Webster pointed out, restaurants lost a lot of workers during the pandemic. The industry may never return to its pre-COVID staffing levels. “There's not a viable path forward for the industry without robotics and technology being used to make up for the labor lost,” she said.
That doesn’t mean robots should or will replace chefs altogether. But they could help eliminate some rote, time-consuming tasks.
“A huge portion of what chefs do in the kitchen is repetitive and precise,” said Liz Moskow, a food tech consultant and graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. “Tasks like slicing, dicing, roasting, baking, and even sous vide cooking rely on mastering consistent techniques. Robots are already capable of handling many of these jobs.”
Robots could also help quite a bit with the actual cooking process, much of which comes down to programmable data like temperature and timing.
With those duties off their plate, chefs would have more time to focus on the softer skills that robots can’t currently replace, Moskow said. Things like intuition, creativity and human connection. She compared chef robots to the invention of the washing machine, which freed up women to pursue other interests and even new lifestyles.
“To me, the challenge is not ‘What is AI or robotics taking away?’ but rather, ‘What can it provide, give back, or gift to humanity?’” she said. “For chefs, that means moving beyond the rote and repetitive to focus on what makes us uniquely human: creativity, storytelling, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in food.”
Surprisingly, the three chefs I spoke to seemed less concerned about this emerging technology than I was. It was a reminder that restaurants, often viewed as technological laggards, are ready and willing to entertain even the wildest innovation if there’s a chance it can move the business forward. In this case, it’s the robots that will have to keep up with chefs, not the other way around.