Are you ready for Robo Chef, the robotic chef that might soon replace cooks?

(Image: Moley Robotics Facebook)

Fast forward to the year 2018 and people might be going home to a MasterChef quality meal cooked by robot arms while they were in work.

Moley Robotic has created an automated robot chef that has the MasterChef ability to cook a meal. The chef comes with a complete kitchen set – oven, fridge, dishwasher and small appliances and by using its robotic arms it is able to make a meal from scratch.

How on earth?
According to The Telegraph, the Robo Chef follows a recipe that has been made by a human chef wearing special cyber gloves while being filmed by a 3D camera. After the recipe has been recorded, it’s uploaded to a computer and the robot is then able to cook the meal exactly like it’s been recorded. The tricky part is the ingredients – everything must be meticulously laid out in order for the robot hands to accurately locate, pick up and use it. 

While it may sound amazing to have your own chef, we wonder what the actual food cooked by a robot tastes like? After all, food plays a major role in all our lives with cooking being a very emotional and instinctive act… we’ve all heard the saying that something was ‘cooked with love’. So will having a meal cooked by a machine strip that comforting, soul-soothing responsiveness away?

TIME reported that the Robo Chef can make a crab bisque in less than half an hour, based on the MasterChef skills of the 2011 MasterChef winner, Tim Anderson. According to TIME, he said that crab bisque is a challenging dish to make for humans and he does not feel threatened by the fact that a robot can expertly execute his recipe and technique.

The goal is for professional chefs and even home cooks to be recorded cooking their recipes which can then be uploaded to the data base for the world to see and use. 

The robotic kitchen can be operated from its touch screen or a smart phone and if you’re interested in one it will set you back by about $75,000. That’s over a million rand! Investors are already going crazy over this invention of which only a prototype has been produced and is only set to launch in 2018. Moley Robotics has already been approached by airlines, kitchen developers, restaurants and chef training schools.

Moley Robotics founder said, “Imagine you’re buying a flat and the option is to have a normal kitchen or a robot kitchen, it is clear which option you would choose”.

See the Robo Chef in action: