Cooking robots that cook the repeat dishes on their own. One cook runs several machines, every portion comes out the same, and your chefs get their hands back for the dishes that need them.
Automated cooking means a machine does the hands-on part of a recipe by itself. It runs the heat and the stirring from a stored program and stops when the dish is done. The cook weighs and loads the ingredients and takes the finished dish out. In a restaurant this is called kitchen automation, and the machines are sold as cooking robots or a robot chef.
A robot chef is not a humanoid standing at the stove. It is a wok that turns on its own, a kettle with a stirrer built in, an oven that switches from steam to dry heat on schedule. Most of them are easier to run than a dishwasher. That is what food automation looks like in a working kitchen. The ten machines on this page are all in our catalog, and each one takes over one job a cook does by hand today.
36.5%
Of sales go to wages and benefits
That is the median for a US full-service restaurant in 2024, up from about 33% a decade earlier. Restaurant labor cost is the biggest line a kitchen can change.
National Restaurant Association, Restaurant Operations Data Abstract 2025
77%
Of operators struggle to hire and keep staff
Recruiting and keeping people is a significant challenge for more than three in four restaurant operators. A machine does not quit after its first month.
National Restaurant Association, State of the Restaurant Industry 2025
$7
Back for every $1 spent on cutting kitchen waste
A study of 114 restaurants in 12 countries found that money put into measuring and reducing food waste paid back about seven times.
Champions 12.3, The Business Case for Reducing Food Loss and Waste: Restaurants, 2019
An automated restaurant is not a robotic restaurant with no people in it. It is a kitchen where the repeat work is done by machines and the people do the rest.
A machine keeps cooking while the cook prepares the next batch. Output per hour grows without new burners or new hires, because the line is limited by how many machines fit on it, not by how many cooks stand at it.
Fried rice, soups and sauces are the dishes a machine repeats best. Taking them off the line frees your chef for hand-made dishes and specials, which are the plates guests come back for.
A cook loads a wok robot, starts the program and moves to the next machine. One person can look after several stations that would each need their own cook by hand, so a shift needs fewer people and a sick day hurts less.
A burned or overcooked batch goes in the bin. A machine cooks to a program with fixed heat and timing, so fewer batches are lost. Ingredients are weighed into the recipe once, which is food cost control you do not have to watch.
The machine does not know who pressed the button. A dish started by the head chef and a dish started by a cook on their second day come out the same. That is portion control and food consistency without a supervisor at the pass.
The recipe lives in the machine. A new cook learns to load it and press start, not years of wok technique, so a staff change does not change the taste of the menu.
Four steps, and the cook is needed for two of them.
Choose the dish on the control panel. The program already holds the heat, the time and the stirring for it.
Add the ingredients that were weighed out during prep, in the order the recipe asks for them.
It heats, stirs and times the dish on its own and signals when it is done. The cook is at the next machine by then.
Tip the dish out, rinse or let the machine clean itself, and load the next batch.
One machine per card. Each says where it fits, which job it takes off a cook, what it cooks and what it saves, and how fast it pays for itself on cook time alone. We count a cook at $20 an hour, which is the US median cook wage of $17.19 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2024) plus payroll taxes. A month is 26 working days. The three rows are the hours of cook time the machine frees in a day; your own kitchen decides which row is yours. Savings on oil, food and energy come on top and are not counted.
A wok robot cooks a stir-fry from start to finish on its own. It is the machine most people mean by a cooking robot, and the core of most automated kitchens.
| Day | Cook time freed | Saved a month | Paid back in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiet day | 2 h a day | 1,040.00 ฿ | 58.0 months |
| Normal day | 4 h a day | 2,080.00 ฿ | 29.0 months |
| Busy day | 6 h a day | 3,120.00 ฿ | 19.3 months |
Cook time at 20.00 ฿ an hour, 26 working days a month, machine price from the catalog. Hours freed is the time a cook no longer stands at the wok; loading and plating stay with the cook.
A gas drum that turns a 2.5 kg batch on its own. It is the automatic stir fry machine for kitchens that cook the same dish for a crowd.
| Day | Cook time freed | Saved a month | Paid back in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiet day | 2 h a day | 1,040.00 ฿ | 82.8 months |
| Normal day | 4 h a day | 2,080.00 ฿ | 41.4 months |
| Busy day | 6 h a day | 3,120.00 ฿ | 27.6 months |
Cook time at 20.00 ฿ an hour, 26 working days a month, machine price from the catalog. Hours freed is time a cook spends stirring bulk batches by hand.
A jacketed kettle that stirs the pot for you and tips it out when it is done, from 50 to 1,000 liters. Nothing sticks to the bottom and nobody stands over it.
| Day | Cook time freed | Saved a month | Paid back in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiet day | 1 h a day | 520.00 ฿ | 79.5 months |
| Normal day | 2 h a day | 1,040.00 ฿ | 39.8 months |
| Busy day | 3 h a day | 1,560.00 ฿ | 26.5 months |
Cook time at 20.00 ฿ an hour, 26 working days a month, machine price from the catalog. Priced from the 50-liter model; bigger kettles free more hours a day.
A combi oven cooks with steam, dry heat or both, and switches between them on a stored program. Eight trays work through the program while the cook does something else.
| Day | Cook time freed | Saved a month | Paid back in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiet day | 1 h a day | 520.00 ฿ | 234.9 months |
| Normal day | 2 h a day | 1,040.00 ฿ | 117.4 months |
| Busy day | 3 h a day | 1,560.00 ฿ | 78.3 months |
Cook time at 20.00 ฿ an hour, 26 working days a month, machine price from the catalog. Hours freed is time a cook would spend checking and moving trays.
Six baskets that drop into boiling water and lift out on their own timers. Each portion cooks exactly as long as it should, even at the busiest moment of service.
| Day | Cook time freed | Saved a month | Paid back in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiet day | 1 h a day | 520.00 ฿ | 157.0 months |
| Normal day | 2 h a day | 1,040.00 ฿ | 78.5 months |
| Busy day | 3 h a day | 1,560.00 ฿ | 52.3 months |
Cook time at 20.00 ฿ an hour, 26 working days a month, machine price from the catalog. Hours freed is time at the pasta station during service.
Mixes the dough, rolls it into sheets and cuts it into noodles, 80 to 100 kg an hour. Fresh noodles every morning without anyone kneading.
| Day | Cook time freed | Saved a month | Paid back in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiet day | 1 h a day | 520.00 ฿ | 298.1 months |
| Normal day | 2 h a day | 1,040.00 ฿ | 149.1 months |
| Busy day | 4 h a day | 2,080.00 ฿ | 74.5 months |
Cook time at 20.00 ฿ an hour, 26 working days a month, machine price from the catalog. Hours freed is the hand-rolling time the machine replaces.
Six molds that cook eggs and omelets the same way every time. It is the automatic egg cooker for breakfasts where a hundred guests arrive in one hour.
| Day | Cook time freed | Saved a month | Paid back in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiet day | 1 h a day | 520.00 ฿ | 69.6 months |
| Normal day | 2 h a day | 1,040.00 ฿ | 34.8 months |
| Busy day | 3 h a day | 1,560.00 ฿ | 23.2 months |
Cook time at 20.00 ฿ an hour, 26 working days a month, machine price from the catalog. Hours freed is time at the egg station during breakfast service.
Holds a water bath at an exact temperature for hours, so vacuum-packed food cooks evenly to the center. Meat comes out the same doneness every time.
| Day | Cook time freed | Saved a month | Paid back in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiet day | 0.5 h a day | 260.00 ฿ | 228.6 months |
| Normal day | 1 h a day | 520.00 ฿ | 114.3 months |
| Busy day | 2 h a day | 1,040.00 ฿ | 57.1 months |
Cook time at 20.00 ฿ an hour, 26 working days a month, machine price from the catalog. Hours freed is the time a cook would spend watching proteins on the grill or in the pan.
A conveyor toaster pulls bread through the heat on a belt, up to 450 slices an hour. Put the bread in, take it out toasted, nothing to watch.
| Day | Cook time freed | Saved a month | Paid back in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiet day | 0.5 h a day | 260.00 ฿ | 59.0 months |
| Normal day | 1 h a day | 520.00 ฿ | 29.5 months |
| Busy day | 2 h a day | 1,040.00 ฿ | 14.7 months |
Cook time at 20.00 ฿ an hour, 26 working days a month, machine price from the catalog. Hours freed is time spent toasting by hand on a grill or salamander.
Combines microwave and convection heat in one box, with programs for each dish. It lets a bar or cafe serve hot food without a full kitchen or a cook.
| Day | Cook time freed | Saved a month | Paid back in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiet day | 0.5 h a day | 260.00 ฿ | 477.0 months |
| Normal day | 1 h a day | 520.00 ฿ | 238.5 months |
| Busy day | 2 h a day | 1,040.00 ฿ | 119.3 months |
Cook time at 20.00 ฿ an hour, 26 working days a month, machine price from the catalog. Hours freed is cook time the bar or cafe would otherwise need to serve hot food.
Where to start. Two or three machines cover the repeat work in most kitchens.
| Asian and wok restaurant | Automatic wok, fresh noodle machine, pasta cooker for noodles |
|---|---|
| Fast casual and bowls | Automatic wok, drum stir-fry machine, combi oven |
| Cloud kitchen or ghost kitchen | A row of wok robots, pasta cooker, speed oven |
| Hotel breakfast and brunch | Egg and omelet machine, conveyor toaster, combi oven |
| Burger restaurant | Conveyor toaster, egg machine, combi oven |
| Italian restaurant | Pasta cooker, kettle with stirrer for sauces, combi oven |
| Steakhouse and fine dining | Sous vide, combi oven |
| Canteen, school or staff restaurant | Drum stir-fry machine, kettle with stirrer, combi oven |
| Central kitchen and catering | Kettle with stirrer, combi oven, sous vide |
| Cafe or bar without a full kitchen | Speed oven, conveyor toaster |
This is a starting set, not a rule. Tell us the menu and we will match the machines to it.
| Manual station | Automated station | |
|---|---|---|
| Who stands at it | One cook per wok, pot or basket | One cook loads several machines |
| Stirring and timing | By hand and by eye | By the program, to the second |
| Ingredients | Added by eye, a little different each time | Weighed into the recipe once, the same every batch |
| Same dish, two cooks | Two slightly different dishes | One dish |
| Training a new cook | Weeks at the station | One shift to learn loading and the presets |
| Peak hour | Limited by how many cooks fit at the line | Limited by how many machines fit |
| What the chef does | Cooks the volume | Cooks the dishes that need a chef |
Typical of the machines on this page. How much a kitchen gains depends on the menu. The more repeat dishes, the more a machine takes over.
Automation takes the volume, not the menu. Dishes cooked over open fire, hand-made pasta for the tasting menu, plating and anything the chef changes every night stay with people. A robotic kitchen works best when about half of the orders are repeat dishes: that half goes to the machines, and the cooks spend their time on the other half.
A robot chef is a cooking machine that cooks a dish on its own from a stored recipe. It replaces the repeat work at one station, not the cook. Someone still preps, loads the machine and plates the dish. In practice a kitchen with cooking robots needs fewer cooks per shift, and those cooks spend more time on dishes that need skill.
Usually several. A wok robot cooks a batch in a few minutes without help, so a cook can load one machine, start it and move to the next. How many depends on the menu and on how much prep is done ahead: with ingredients weighed and ready, one cook can keep a row of machines busy through service.
An automatic wok cooks anything that is stirred or tossed in a pan. That covers fried rice, fried noodles, pad thai, kung pao chicken, beef and broccoli, curries, stews and sauces. A robot wok also handles scrambled eggs, risotto-style rice and sauteed vegetables. Dishes that need a grill, a deep fryer or an open flame for smoke are better left to other equipment.
It tastes like the recipe it was given. The machine repeats the steps the chef set, so the dish comes out the way the chef cooked it on the day the recipe was saved. What changes is the spread. Hand-cooked dishes vary from cook to cook, and machine-cooked dishes do not.
Most machines on this page take your own recipes. You cook the dish once and save the steps as a program, or set them on the panel. Some models arrive with a set of preset programs. Ask us about the model you are looking at and we will tell you how its recipes are stored.
Often yes, because a small kitchen feels the loss of one cook the most. The payback tables on this page count cook time only. An automatic wok that frees two hours of cook time a day pays for itself within a few months at a US cook wage. Start with the one machine that takes over your busiest repeat dish.
A cloud kitchen or ghost kitchen has a short, repeat-heavy menu and no dining room to staff, which suits automation well. The usual set is a row of wok robots, an automatic pasta cooker and a speed oven, with a combi oven for anything roasted. One or two cooks can run that line for delivery orders.
Through fewer lost batches and fixed portions. A machine does not burn a dish because the cook was busy, and it cooks the same weight every time, so food cost per plate stops drifting. Sous vide and combi ovens also lose less weight from meat while it cooks, so a kilo gives more portions.
No. A restaurant robot usually means a serving robot that carries plates from the kitchen to the tables and brings the empties back. A cooking robot stays in the kitchen and cooks. They solve different staff gaps and work well together. See our serving and delivery robots.
It depends on the machine. Electric models run on 220 V single-phase or 380 V three-phase, gas models on natural gas or LPG, and each card in our catalog lists the supply. Machines that fry or roast need the same hood as the manual station they replace. We build each machine for your country's power supply and say what it needs before you order.
Say what is on the menu, how many plates you serve on a busy day and which station takes the most people. We come back with the machines that fit, the price and the lead time, built for your country's power supply.
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