The French Pizzeria Staffed Entirely By Robots
Movies like "Her" and "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" may have us believe that robots are taking over. Although we haven't quite gotten to the point where we're falling in love with computers or befriending robot children, there is one arena where robots are infiltrating more and more. And in 2022, they don't want to make their way into your heart — they're all about making your stomach happy.
According to Restaurant Dive, half of American restaurants are planning to use some form of robot machinery in the next few years, and the artificial intelligence market is expected to grow to about $190 billion by 2025. Like it or not, automated technology is here.
Restaurants are mostly deploying robots as replacements for employees. And Jack in the Box isn't the only latest chain to hire them — Chipotle and White Castle have already begun experimenting with these machines making their food. As Dina Zemke, assistant professor at Ball State University, told CNBC, "The recipes are highly standardized. No one's creating just the right secret sauce in the back of the house; all of that is provided through a commissary system."
Pizza spots have hopped on this trend as well and are receiving massive amounts of support. According to FoodBeast, Jay-Z invested a whopping $16.5 million into Stellar Pizza, an entirely mobile pizza restaurant run out of a truck. And one robot-only pizzeria in France raised over 12 million euros in funding, according to The Spoon.
Pazzi was the first robotic pizzeria in Paris
Pazzi, also called the "Pazziria," became Paris' first robotic pizza restaurant in 2019, according to The Spoon. The robots at this establishment were efficient — they could assemble a pizza in 45 seconds and make 80 pizzas every hour. And according to FoodBeast, it took the machines as little as five minutes to make a single pie.
And while it may seem eerie, there wasn't a single person working at Pazzi. The robots handled every part of the pizza-making process, from flattening the dough to applying the pizza sauce and toppings to baking it in the oven. The assembly line was set up behind glass walls so customers could witness the process. This was done intentionally, Pazzi Robotics states, to give customers the emotional element of the restaurant experience. Although according to an Insider review, it was "surreal" to watch the robot arms grabbing the pizza out of the oven and slicing it up.
FoodBeast shares that it took eight years to make the Pazzi robot using cloud-connected software. And although the pizzeria boasted game-changing technology, they, unfortunately, closed their doors only three years after opening. According to The Spoon, Pazzi's CEO, Philippe Goldman, cited a lack of public acceptance and funding for hardware as the main reasons.