Are cooks loosing their jobs in the wake of digitalisation? The consequences of automation in hospitality and gastronomy are incalculable but offer ne
Hamburg, Germany – 28 October 2016
1British scientists have assessed the probability that tasks are taken over by intelligent machines: according to them, cooks or financial consultants definitely have to think about it (96 to 98 percent).
Cooks and financial consultants are the favourites for job scientists in terms of risking to loose their jobs in a more digital labour market. Scientists of Oxford University examined this phenomenon. How long will my job consist in a digital world, an industry 4.0? Which tasks will be taken over by digital solutions?
Indeed, digitalisation is strongly progressing in professional kitchens. Highly developed cooking appliances of Rational can almost independently prepare convenience and raw goods. In communal catering, the operation of the various units has become a task for trained assistants; the number of trained chefs in commercial kitchens has been decreasing for years. Loading and unloading GN trays into the oven can be done by robots in the future. Only complex tasks like arranging and distributing plates will remain a manual task and therefore a human domain for the time being.
The worldwide success of the Thermomix is a good example for the progressing digitalisation and automation in commercial kitchens. The successful “Vorwerk” model has long prevailed in professional kitchens; the German star chef Herbert Seckler (with his restaurant “Sansibar” on the German island Sylt) has already launched two Thermomix cookbooks. The robot-dominated kitchen by 1 definitely is a model for the future but has been realized already: two robot arms that are camera-controlled have been working precisely and fully automatic for already two years. The system is supposed to launch in 2017. All typical motion sequences like cutting, pouring, stirring, scraping etc. have been thoroughly imitated and programmed. This is how a basic framework for all relevant kitchen tasks developed. These programs can then be retrieved as more or less smooth workflows – depending on the cooking program. It remains to be seen if the robotic kitchen is able to put up with a well-coordinated kitchen team.