Rooster and pork cutlets are the preferred supply orders in South Korea
Seoul:
In fried-chicken-obsessed South Korea, eating places serving the nation’s favorite fast-food dish dot each road nook. However Kang Ji-young’s institution brings one thing a bit of completely different to the desk: a robotic is cooking the hen.
Eaten at every little thing from tiny household gatherings to a 10-million-viewer live-streamed “mukbang” — consuming broadcast — by Ok-pop star Jungkook of BTS fame, fried hen is deeply embedded in South Korean tradition.
Paired with chilly lager and often known as “chimaek” — a portmanteau of the Korean phrases for hen and beer — it’s a staple of Seoul’s famed baseball-watching expertise.
The home market — the world’s third largest, after the USA and China — is value about seven trillion received ($5.three billion), however labour shortages are beginning to chew as South Korea faces a looming demographic catastrophe on account of having the world’s lowest beginning price.
Round 54 % of enterprise homeowners within the meals service sector report issues discovering workers, a authorities survey final yr discovered, with lengthy hours and aggravating circumstances the seemingly wrongdoer, in accordance with trade analysis.
Korean fried hen is brined and double-fried, which supplies it its signature crispy exterior, however the course of — extra elaborate than what is usually utilized by US quick meals chains — creates further labour and requires prolonged employee proximity to scorching oil.
Enter Kang, a 38-year-old entrepreneur who noticed a possibility to enhance the South Korean fried hen enterprise mannequin — and the dish itself.
“The market is large,” Kang informed AFP at her Robert Rooster franchise.
Rooster and pork cutlets are the preferred supply orders in South Korea, and the trade may clearly profit from extra automation to “successfully tackle labour prices and workforce shortages”, she mentioned.
Kang’s robotic, composed of a easy, versatile mechanical arm, is able to frying 100 chickens in two hours — a process that will require round 5 individuals and a number of other deep fryers.
However not solely does the robotic make hen extra effectively — it makes it extra scrumptious, says Kang.
“We will now say with confidence that our robotic fries higher than human beings do,” she mentioned.
Investing in ‘foodtech’
Already a world cultural powerhouse and main semiconductor exporter, South Korea final yr introduced plans to plough tens of millions of {dollars} right into a “foodtech” fund to assist startups engaged on high-tech meals trade options.
Seoul says such improvements may develop into a “new development engine”, arguing there’s large potential if the nation’s prowess in superior robotics and AI expertise may very well be mixed with the competitiveness of Korean meals classics like kimchi.
South Korea’s present foodtech trade — together with every little thing from next-day grocery supply app Market Kurly to AI good kitchens to a “vegan egg” startup — is already value tens of millions, mentioned meals science professor Lee Ki-won at Seoul Nationwide College.
Even South Korea’s Samsung Electronics — one of many world’s greatest tech corporations — is attempting to get in on the motion, lately launching Samsung Meals, an AI-personalised recipe and meal-planning platform, accessible in eight languages.
Lee predicted South Korea’s different main conglomerates are more likely to observe Samsung into foodtech.
“Delivering meals utilizing electrical automobiles or having robots instantly present deliveries inside condominium complexes, often known as ‘metamobility’, may develop into part of our every day lives,” he mentioned.
“I’m assured that throughout the subsequent 10 years, the meals tech trade will rework into the main sector in South Korea.”
‘Initially struggled’
Entrepreneur Kang now has 15 robot-made hen eating places in South Korea, and one department in Singapore.
Throughout AFP’s go to to a Seoul department, a robotic meticulously dealt with the frying course of — from immersing hen in oil, flipping it for even cooking, to retrieving it on the good stage of crispiness, because the irresistible scent of crunchy hen wafted by means of the store.
Many purchasers remained oblivious to the hard-working robotic cook dinner behind their meal.
Kim Moon-jung, a 54-year-old insurance coverage employee, mentioned she was unsure how a robotic would make the hen in a different way from a human “however one factor is for certain — it tastes scrumptious”.
The robotic can monitor oil temperature and oxidation ranges in actual time whereas it fries hen, guaranteeing constant style and superior hygiene.
When Kang first began her enterprise she “initially struggled” to see why anybody would use robots quite than human cooks.
However “after creating these applied sciences, I’ve come to understand that from a buyer’s perspective, they’re capable of get pleasure from meals that isn’t solely cleaner but in addition tastier”, she informed AFP.
Her subsequent enterprise is a tip-free bar in Koreatown in New York Metropolis, the place the cocktails will characteristic Korea’s soju rice wine — and will probably be made by robots.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
