In Vernon, B.C., Royal Garden, the community’s oldest Chinese restaurant, has introduced AI-powered robot chefs to prepare dishes quickly. The restaurant owner, Susie Low, invested in two Botinkit devices costing $50,000 each. The robots are programmed with recipes and can adjust their cooking to achieve the desired taste, ensuring consistency for every customer visit.
Despite the automation, existing kitchen staff, including Low’s 70-year-old mother, remain employed. The goal is to enhance efficiency and maintain quality service without replacing human cooks. Ian Tostenson, CEO of the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association, noted the industry’s interest in automation due to labor shortages and rising costs.
While automation is gaining traction in quick-service restaurants for repetitive tasks, Tostenson believes high-end dining establishments will continue to value human creativity in recipe development. Although AI technology may create new job opportunities in food engineering, the widespread adoption of automated kitchen technology may take time to reshape the industry.
Economics professor Ken Kikkawa suggested that AI implementation in professional kitchens could lead to job transitions rather than immediate job losses. The impact on entry-level positions and customer preferences for human-cooked meals remain uncertain. However, experiences like Royal Garden’s positive response to serving robots show that AI integration can complement human labor and potentially lead to increased staffing levels.