The Robots Are Coming...

"You gotta be pretty desperate to make it with a robot". -- Homer Simpson

I can remember the fascination of watching a robot make hamburgers at a New York restaurant show. It was amazing to watch a machine make perfect hamburgers every single time and even clean the stove after each batch. The robot worked for hours on end and never missed a beat. There were zero visits to the bathroom, no complaining and no coffee or cigarette breaks. It was fascinating and also a bit frightening at the same time.

Now I read that the Japanese have developed an electromechanical sommelier capable of identifying dozens of wines, cheeses and hors d'oeuvres. This robot can even talk (the head swivels and the mouth lights up when it speaks). It's not clear whether or not it can actually open bottle of wine, and it is yet to be determined if this sommelier can accept cash tips for services rendered. The inventors point out that all foods have a "unique fingerprint" and the robot uses that data to immediately identify precisely what it tastes.

All of this is to suggest that eventually someone will develop an electromechanical executive chef. You can visit your favorite restaurant and be certain of a perfect meal on every occasion. It's even possible that there will be celebrity-chef robots that will appear on television and do all the things that real chefs are currently doing. It will even be possible to clone these celebrity chefs as a restaurant opens additional locations.

My guess is that the chef robots will be programmed based on a particular cuisine (Italian, French, seafood, etc.). The competition will be intense and it will be interesting to see if Las Vegas beats Atlantic City in acquiring the first celebrity robot chef.

The truth is that I can definitely see robots in the fast food sector, and while jobs will be lost, the basic concept will only go to improve what they are currently doing. In terms of upscale dining, forget about it. I will allow a robot to build my automobile, and possibly wash my dishes, but I will continue to search out restaurants with real chefs. They might miss once in a while, but somehow it's more interesting. Maybe it's just me, but I would feel uncomfortable discussing the wine list with a robot. The swiveling head would bother me.

I'm not impressed with the Japanese sommelier thing. However, if you can teach that machine how to do sushi, we might have something to talk about.

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