On the Complexities of Building a Robot Chef

Interviewer: Kirill, thanks for taking the time to talk. Tell us how the idea of creating a robot chef specifically for Crimea came about?

Kirill: The starting point was a simple observation: in Crimea, in the high season — June, July, August — restaurants turn away customers because they physically cannot serve more. And it’s not about the hall — the bottleneck is the kitchen. Skilled chefs are in short supply, and those who are, don’t want to work 14 hours a day in the heat. So we set ourselves the task: can we automate at least part of the kitchen processes without losing the quality of the dish?

Interviewer: What exactly are we talking about — a robot that completely replaces a chef, or an assistant?

Kirill: Assistant. A full replacement of a chef is unrealistic in the near future. Taste, improvisation, the ability to read a client — this is the territory of a person. But routine operations — cutting ingredients, mixing sauces, controlling temperature, dispensing doses — this is what a robot does better than a person, because it does not get tired, does not make mistakes, and does not deviate from the recipe.

We made the first prototype for the technology of cooking Caucasian and Crimean Tatar cuisine: these are dishes with a lot of manual labor — preparing the dough for cheburek, cutting meat for kebab, mixing fillings. These are operations where standardization is critical for taste, but for a person it is physically hard to do at the same level for 12 hours.

Interviewer: What was the main technical challenge?

Kirill: Tactile sensitivity. We have cameras, scales, temperature sensors — but until recently, robots could not “feel” the dough. Whether it is ready, whether the consistency is right — this is what a chef determines by touch. We solved it through a combination of force sensors and AI-based texture analysis — the robot presses on the dough with calibrated force and gets a digital response. The error in the consistency determination is about 5%, which is comparable to the spread between different chefs.

Interviewer: What about taste — how does the robot know whether the dish turned out well?

Kirill: We don’t try to teach the robot to “taste” — that’s too far yet. Instead, we strictly control the input parameters: weight, temperature, time, sequence of operations. If the recipe is followed, the dish is reproducible. The robot checks against 12 key parameters for each dish and signals if any of them deviate. A person at the end of the cycle checks the result visually and by smell — as in a regular kitchen.

Interviewer: Where is the robot chef already working?

Kirill: Two pilot installations in Yalta and Sevastopol. Both work in the format of an “automated kitchen island” — the robot prepares semi-finished products (cutting, mixing, dosing), and a human chef takes over the final cooking. In two months of operation, we have processed more than 14,000 servings, the deviation from the recipe is less than 1%, and the speed has increased by 30% compared to manual labor.

The main result — the load on chefs has decreased by an average of 4 hours per shift. This is exactly the time that was previously spent on routine operations. Chefs can now focus on creativity — developing new dishes, working with taste, communicating with guests.

Interviewer: How much does such a robot cost and when will it pay off?

Kirill: The basic configuration is about 2.5 million rubles. Operating costs — 35,000 per month. The average restaurant in Crimea serves 150–200 servings per day. With the robot, capacity increases by 20–25% due to acceleration of routine processes. The additional revenue at peak load is about 250,000 per month. The payback is 10–12 months.

Interviewer: What are the prospects?

Kirill: In 2027, we plan to launch a “Crimean cuisine” line — a robot specialized in Crimean Tatar, Caucasian, and Mediterranean dishes. The first customers will be hotel complexes and resort restaurants, where the load is predictable and the menu is limited. By 2028, we expect to bring the cost down to 1.8 million and expand the geography to other regions of Russia.

If you want to see the robot chef in action, write to us via our contact form or leave a request through the contacts page. We’ll arrange a demo at your location.