clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

This Robot Will Woo You With Crab Bisque and 1,999 Other Recipes

It's just $15,000.

Screengrab

For the cooking-averse, couch-inclined food lover, the future looks very promising. According to Time, Moley Robotics unveiled a robot on Tuesday at a trade fair in Germany that can cook nearly 2,000 recipes. Outfitted with two robotic arms, the device can "reproduce the movements of a human chef in order to create a meal from scratch." To teach the robot new moves, a 3D camera captures a human chef performing the movements and then the video is uploaded into the robot's computer. As of now, the robot can stir, adjust the flames on a stove, pick up bottles, pour jugs, and more.

The Independent writes that the recipes the device makes are selected via an app. While the robot will be able to make 2,000 dishes by 2017 when it's released to the market, it currently can only make crab bisque. Why that soup in particular? Chef Tim Anderson, who is working with Moley Robotics to develop recipes, tells Time: "Crab bisque is a challenging dish for a human chef to make, never mind a robot... if it can make bisque, it can make a whole lot of other things."

When the robot goes on sale in two years — complete with a specialized kitchen, including a stove, dishwasher and sink — it will cost around $15,000. Not a bad deal considering that could be someone's yearly Seamless tab.

Robots are the future of the food industry: In 2011, a Japanese company invented a robot that can operate a commercial wok while Chinese restaurants are starting to turn to robots that can hand slice noodles into pots of boiling water. Even American cruise ships are getting in on the action by employing robot bartenders.  Check out a video of the Moley Robotics device below: