A snack bar owner relied on a robot as the chef of his business, but unfortunately has to close now because the AI cannot manage the store alone.
What kind of snack bar is this? A snack bar in Singapore named “Wok A.I.” was forced to close just 10 months after its opening. The reason: there was a lack of employees. Despite having a permanent staff member – a robot controlled by AI – operations could not continue as the machine alone could not handle all tasks.
In an interview with Mothership, the owner of Wok A.I. explains that he searched for new employees for nearly 2 months, but without success. The machine, which prepares the fried noodle dish Hokkien Mee, cannot do this without human help. It requires the human touch to prepare broth, peel shrimp, load the robot with ingredients, and finally plate the finished dish.
“I don’t really know how to cook”
How did the machine work? In a video on TikTok by @singaporefoodie, you can see the robot working in the back of the snack bar. However, those hoping for a pan-swinging humanoid robot with the friendly face of the mascot will be disappointed.
The robot is more of a machine that handles frying and continuously stirring the ingredients. In the video, you can see the staff adding ingredients such as Hokkien noodles, garlic, sprouts, chives, eggs, and shrimp, while the sauce and broth are added automatically. This way, a batch can prepare up to 4 portions.
Afterwards, the staff takes the finished dish out of the catching tray and plates it. He admits in the video that he cannot actually cook himself.
Here you can see the AI chef in action:
Why did the owner choose for an AI snack bar? In another TikTok video from @8dayseat, which was released in the same month as Wok A.I.’s opening, the owner Ang Chip Hong explains why he chose an AI chef: “A robot chef helps maintain consistent standards. Even if you prepare 100 plates, the taste is always the same.”
Also in this video, you can see the current floor manager, who according to the owner has just as little cooking experience as the staff member from the first clip: “His cooking experience includes preparing instant noodles, but with this robot he can now also prepare a good plate of Hokkien Mee. Super easy.”
The closing of the snack bar, however, does not mean the end for Ang Chip Hong’s restaurant project. He still owns a second and now only branch of Wok A.I., where his AI chef may continue preparing noodle dishes.
A cooking robot provided a good solution for consistent quality and employees who are not so skilled in the culinary arts, but still need to produce solid meals. It only gets difficult when there is no one to support the robot. However, with another robot named Rocky, there is really no joking around, especially when it comes to a fast game where he is nearly unbeatable: Engineer builds robot that wins every round at a famous game – whoever defeats the machine wins 9,500 Euros
