Restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill has deployed autonomous kitchen platform, Chippy, to assist in making tortilla chips.
The technology from Miso Robotics harnesses AI to replicate Chipotle’s chip recipe, cook the chips and season them with salt and lime. The collaboration said it is imperative that the technique remained the same so customers receives quality tortilla chips every time.
“Everyone loves finding a chip with a little more salt or an extra hint of lime,” said Nevielle Panthaky, vice president of culinary, Chipotle. “To ensure we didn’t lose the humanity behind our culinary experience, we trained Chippy extensively to ensure the output mirrored our current product, delivering some subtle variations in flavour that our guests expect.”
Chippy is currently being tested at the Chipotle Cultivate Centre, Chipotle’s innovation hub in Irvine, California and will be integrated into a Chipotle restaurant in Southern California later this year. The company said it is leveraging its stage-gate process to listen, test and learn from crew and guest feedback before deciding on a national implementation strategy.
“When Chipotle challenged us to see if our technology could meet the brand’s high standards for culinary quality, we couldn’t wait to flex our engineering and design muscles,” said Mike Bell, CEO, Miso Robotics. “This partnership will allow us to move into new territory to help improve back-of-house functions and assist team members with their day-to-day responsibilities.”
