In order to optimize the cost structure, like all walks of life, catering has begun to be gradually automated. Replacing labor with machines is not only more economical, but also ensures standardized production and allows stores to expand rapidly. But the biggest challenge is that the machine needs to perfectly copy the chef's workflow and achieve the same dining effect.
Therefore, judging from the current industrial application, the automation equipment first landed in the fields of western food and drinks with relatively simple operation steps. For example, Zume, a robot pizza delivery company invested by Softbank, was valued at $65.438+0.5 billion, and the little monsters in Tea and Ratio reported by 36Kr all adopted the scheme of mechanical arm and kitchen equipment.
The "super kitchen" we recently contacted wants to give priority to the direction of "stir-frying", which is the most difficult to standardize and cook in Chinese food. After three years of research and development, Super Kitchen has launched a set of intelligent cooking equipment with independent intellectual property rights, which consists of a cooking machine and a clean vegetable box. When using, put the clean dish box containing the main course and ingredients on the cooking machine, select the corresponding dish in the App, and the cooking machine will automatically complete the production.
Founder Yang Gang has 20 years of experience in the catering industry. He told 36Kr that as a catering boss, he could personally feel the importance and difficulty of Chinese food standardization. In the process of store replication, the recruitment and training of chefs, the quality of meals and the efficiency of products will all become constraints.
Among the many categories of Chinese food, "cooking" is the most difficult to standardize. There have been many automatic cooking machines on the market before, and the product logic is that the user puts in the raw materials, the machine rotates, or the stirring handle turns over the raw materials. From the experience, the disadvantages are: when cooking, the seasoning, main ingredients and ingredients need to be placed neatly, but these automatic cooking machines either put all the raw materials at once, which affects the finished product; Either the user opens the lid several times during the process and puts in the raw materials. In addition, users need to control their own ingredients, and the effect of finished products cannot be guaranteed.
Super kitchen hopes to solve these problems with a clean dish box, which has built-in main ingredients, ingredients, seasonings and so on. During frying, according to the chef's cooking method, the machine automatically puts the materials in order. Yang Gang told 36Kr that the super chef would disassemble the food production process. For example, in kung pao chicken, add ingredients such as wok-fried chicken-fried sauce-peanuts and continue to stir fry, and then fix the main parameters of each step to ensure the effect of the finished product. At present, Super Kitchen has reserved more than 100 cooking plans, and plans to open the backstage to brands and chefs in the future.
But the question is, where does the clean vegetable box come from? The Super Kitchen plans to go to B first and then to C, and the first thing is to cooperate with catering brands. Large chain stores often have their own central kitchens, which can make clean dishes, and only need to add a packaging link to become a clean food box. The box is made of food-grade high-temperature resistant materials. At present, the cost of a box is less than 1 yuan, and mass production will be cheaper in the future, and the box can be reused many times.
At present, the price of the enterprise version of the cooking machine is 1680 yuan, which is equivalent to the chef's salary for two months, and its cooking efficiency is consistent with that of the chef. In addition to saving personnel costs, the use of cooking machines can also simplify the kitchen area and ensure the standardization of finished products.
To C, the super kitchen is currently developing the home version of the product, and the estimated unit price is much lower than the enterprise version. It plans to reach out to consumers through leasing and giving away. The difficulty of the C end lies in the channel of cleaning the food box. The Super Kitchen plans to cooperate with restaurants and community stores, which will be supplied by restaurants and central kitchens, and consumers will pick up goods in the community. The first model store will open in Dalian this month, positioning itself as a community convenience store focusing on fresh food.
In the long run, Yang Gang told 36Kr that from the perspective of the whole industrial chain, Super Kitchen hopes to commercialize fresh food at the source, shorten the intermediate circulation link, make clean food boxes directly upstream, and then deliver them to stores, families, enterprises and schools.
The super kitchen was mainly focused on research and development before, and the first generation of products has just been listed recently, and it is also in the first round of financing.