The innovation is now trying to make robots that are more flexible, smaller and low volume food production while not being super expensive.
Fast food could also be run by robots fairly easily. I am imagining in 15 years most places will have robots doing the majority of cooking in restaurants. They won't spread disease, make food consistently, won't call out sick nor require an hourly wage.
"All their food" at Applebee's is not "microwaved frozen food"; I know plenty of people who got their start as cooks and chefs there. Something like three-quarters is made in-house and you'd have to be blind and unable to feel your tongue to not be able to tell a microwaved steak.
Appetizers are all frozen and pre-packaged they just deep fried at almost all chains.
Heck I worked at Ethan Allen Inn in Danbury CT a LONG time ago and all the meals were frozen and prepared in France and shipped over. Easily $75 to $125 per person in the 90s.
Smell outside a restraunt is certainly a true statement. No HVAC (A/C or Heater) is going to filter the kitchen's vent. Tell me you can't smell the difference between Burger King's fake grilling and McDonald when your outside of them? Same thing with restaurants. The one's that microwave a ton will
If a restaurant has a ton of items on the menu I guarantee you that most of that is just prepared food that is microwaved.
Seems like people are mad that I believe that most food in restaurants are not cooked.
(And if there's any wind at all, modern roof-mount kitchen venting will ensure you don't smell much of anything if there's even moderate wind.)
I either state my person experience from many years ago. (Don't need to present a research link) OR I present my research. Sorry you don't find me as a positive addition on HN.
I was stating my personal experience of working at a restaurant that had their meals prepared in France was frozen and shipped to America. The preparation was boiled in bags or microwaved and got high dollar for the meals. That is my personal experience.
Long time ago most chains like Applebee's and Tuesday's meals were prepared hours, days or weeks before a person would eat them and either they were boiled in a bag, microwaved or deep fried. This still happens more than people know. That is my statement.
Here is an article on expensive French Restaurants use of pre-pared food.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/728...
So I guess me saying that if I can't smell a kitchen cooking food it probably is making pre-pared meals. I could also state that if the menu has hundreds of items they are also pre-pared meals, but to you that is poor posting?
I much rather have a few option that are fresh and that is what the OP Restaurant is doing with robots and one human at a garnish station. Most of America's restaurants do not use fresh food or prepare your food that day. Applebee's has gone out of their way to change the way they make food.
"Today, the country's largest casual dining chain lights up 2,000 new wood-fired grills for a revamped menu with steaks that Applebee's hand-cuts on the premises. Amid the barrage of price-driven industry promotions, Applebee's thinks its upgrade to USDA Choice beef, along with the stacks of logs outside restaurants and the aroma of wood smoke inside, will pique consumer interest. That's something the chain needs right now: In the last fiscal financial year, same-restaurant sales were flat, and this year, Applebee's expects sales to range from a negative 2 percent drop to a 2 percent gain." http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/applebees-bets-big-rel...
Or, you know, you're just talking out your ass and it's not even remotely true. A lot of menu items just means there's either a lot of prep being done, a lot of the menu items have a reasonably similar set of bases, or both. There's always going to be a certain degree of Sysco stuff that's just bought and dunked into a fryer, but claiming most of a given menu is reheated from a microwave without any further backup other than "lol you can't smell it" is ridiculous.
People should be mad at falsehoods. What better use is the feeling for?
I stated I didn't know Applebee's changed the way they prepared food and that's good.
My point is robots can cook most of what we eat out.
That is so false that you must be trolling. I've been to plenty of restaurants where you couldn't smell the food outside the restaurant, even though you could see them cooking the food inside and the air ducts carrying the smoky air from the kitchen to the outside. This ranges from small mom-and-pop taco stops to Michelin-starred restaurants.
On a side note: I've been to both Burger King and McDonalds, and you can smell them cooking the burgers at both. You can't "fake grill" a burger, as microwaving ground beef patties produces a different texture than grilling or pan-grilling.
You may want to consider asking dang to delete your comment.
As a side note, if you walk into an Applebee's you can actually be seated at a table with a view of the kitchen, where you can watch the cooks at work. Applebee's may not be the best cooked food, but it is actually cooked by real live people, and has been for decades.
Applebee's
Also, whenever someone wanted to order a 'medium rare' steak, and I had to say we only make them 'pink' or 'no pink.' That's because most of the kitchen is a row of microwaves. The steaks were cooked on a stove top, but then microwaved to death. Pink or no pink only referred to how microwaved to death you want your meat."
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/food-cocktails/news/a52288/chai...