Park Ji-won is a writer for The Korea Times who has been covering a wide range of topics from Korea’s culture to its politics. An avid journalism enthusiast to the core, Ji-won brings a thoughtful and unique perspective to every topic she covers. On weekends, you'll often find her contemplating life’s purpose on a yoga mat — with a cup of quality tea in hand. A native Korean speaker by birth and fluent in English through her work, she went to college in Japan and is learning Chinese and French — hoping to add Polish, Russian and Thai to the mix.
In restaurant kitchens, robots replacing chefs
A robot server delivers food to a customer at No Brand Burger in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul, Feb. 2. Korea Times photo by Park Ji-won
By Park Ji-won
A robot conveyer cooks buns for hamburgers at No Brand Burger in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul, Feb. 2. Korea Times photo by Park Ji-won
By Park Ji-won
At the entrance of No Brand Burger, a fast food chain affiliate of Shinsegae Foods, people wait in line to order meals and pay at kiosks. Once the orders and payment are done, automated food machines start to cook buns and patties, and workers assemble and prepare them for the customers. When the food orders are ready, staff put them on a robot server while the order numbers pop up on a screen to notify customers their meals are ready. Workers are still needed to do some chores such as cleaning and maintaining the machines, but customers can get their food without having any contact with a person.
Even a few years ago, such a scene was unthinkable at least in the real world, although robot cooks and servers were depicted in science fiction movies. Automated cooks are still uncommon in restaurants in Korea, but, as the COVID-19 pandemic lingers, more restaurants are looking to automated kitchens as an option to avoid infections and cut costs.
Robot chef gettyimagesbank
Woowa Brothers, one of Korea's leading delivery companies, has introduced 241 serving robots or “Deliplate” in 186 restaurants nationwide as of October last year. The rental product introduced in November 2019 costs some 1 million won ($892) per month but more restaurants went for them over the last year.
“It's very interesting to see robots carrying food plates. Still, I need to call servers to order something, but it's good for both servers and customers in doing some simple tasks such as delivering additional side dishes. In this pandemic, it's also good to reduce contacts between people,” said a customer surnamed Ryu in a restaurant using the robot in Seoul.
KT, Hyundai Robotics and Monthly Kitchen, a startup company running a shared kitchen business, have signed an agreement in November to automate the shared kitchen business.
An automated wok cooks food at Gongdori Kitchen in Shinsa-dong, Seoul, in August. Courtesy of Shin Starr presents
Shin Kish, CEO of startup Shin Starr, who invented an auto wok and runs a Korean food chain restaurant brand, sees rising demand for automated chefs amid the spread of COVID-19.
“The Korean market has been relatively unenthusiastic in introducing automated kitchens, compared to the Western market, partly because Koreans value cooking skills and knowhow. They think that developing recipes for Korean food is particularly difficult because chefs just know it and it is hard to quantify each ingredient's amount. The pandemic has changed all that. Eatery owners are now open-minded toward introducing technology in the kitchen,” Shin said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.
His company launched its first Korean restaurant, Gongdori Kitchen, which uses robots to cook food, in Seoul last August, and is planning to open a second and third restaurant in April and May this year. More than half of the food is prepared by the company's original machine, which helps to reduce staffing costs and increases profits. Shin Starr is waiting to get a certificate to export its cooking machines.
“Korea is not a leader in the food tech industry globally ... In order to expand our market size, it is very important to develop excellent machines and make delicious food with the technologies.”
Experts say, however, it is necessary for the government to ease relevant regulations so that more companies and engineers can make cost-efficient machines and increase the market size.
“In the past, robots were made for factories and it was impossible for artificial intelligence to solve errors back then. But now the technology has advanced and service robots have become more common … The size of the robot market was scaled down due to the virus, however, I expect that more service robots will be seen in the market … In order to do so, I hope the government will deregulate the robot-making industry at the right time,” Suh Il-hong, a professor at the Department of Electronic Engineering of Hanyang University recently told KBS in a recent interview.