Israeli Fast Food Restaurant Cooks Up Veggie Steak Prepared by ‘Robot Chef’ – News18
An Israeli fast food restaurant is serving up a veggie steak made and cooked by a robot that tailors ingredients and cooking time to customer tastes. “It’s the first time that a machine is making a personalised hamburger by itself,” said Racheli Vizman, CEO of SavorEat, an Israeli start-up that specialises in meat alternatives. Customers can use an app to choose the amount of vegetable protein or fat in their “steak”, as well as its size and how they want it cooked, she said. The “robot chef”, which is the size of a large oven, can make three different steaks simultaneously — though a human staff member makes up the burgers.
It mixes ingredients including beans, potatoes and chickpeas to create a texture that “resembles that of real meat”, said Vizman, who started the business in 2018 along with two professors from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The steaks at the BBB restaurant in the coastal city of Herzliya are cooked within minutes, she said, adding that they contain no animal proteins and are kosher.
“We hope to respond to the cravings of vegetarians, vegans and flexitarians,” who occasionally eat meat, BBB’s Ahuva Turgeman said.
Around five percent of Israelis say they are vegan and the market for meat alternatives is on the rise, according to SavorEat.
In an unrelated incident, Robot food delivery is no longer the stuff of science fiction. But you may not see it in your neighborhood anytime soon. Hundreds of little robots __ knee-high and able to hold around four large pizzas __ are now navigating college campuses and even some city sidewalks in the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere. While robots were being tested in limited numbers before the coronavirus hit, the companies building them say pandemic-related labor shortages and a growing preference for contactless delivery have accelerated their deployment. “We saw demand for robot usage just go through the ceiling,” said Alastair Westgarth, the CEO of Starship Technologies, which recently completed its 2 millionth delivery. “I think demand was always there, but it was brought forward by the pandemic effect.”
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