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By Claire LEE
In fried-chicken-obsessed South Korea, eating places serving the nation’s favorite fast-food dish dot each road nook. However Kang Ji-young’s institution brings one thing somewhat totally different to the desk: a robotic is cooking the hen.
Eaten at every thing from tiny household gatherings to a 10-million-viewer live-streamed “mukbang” — consuming broadcast — by Ok-pop star Jungkook of BTS fame, fried hen is deeply embedded in South Korean tradition.
Paired with chilly lager and often known as “chimaek” — a portmanteau of the Korean phrases for hen and beer — it’s a staple of Seoul’s famed baseball-watching expertise.
The home market — the world’s third largest, after america and China — is value about seven trillion gained ($5.3 billion), however labour shortages are beginning to chew as South Korea faces a looming demographic catastrophe as a consequence of having the world’s lowest delivery charge.
Round 54 p.c of enterprise house owners within the meals service sector report issues discovering workers, a authorities survey final 12 months discovered, with lengthy hours and tense circumstances the probably wrongdoer, in accordance with trade analysis.
Korean fried hen is brined and double-fried, which supplies it its signature crispy exterior, however the course of — extra elaborate than what is usually utilized by US quick meals chains — creates further labour and requires prolonged employee proximity to sizzling oil.
Enter Kang, a 38-year-old entrepreneur who noticed a chance to enhance the South Korean fried hen enterprise mannequin — and the dish itself.
“The market is big,” Kang advised AFP at her Robert Hen franchise.
Hen and pork cutlets are the preferred supply orders in South Korea, and the trade may clearly profit from extra automation to “successfully tackle labour prices and workforce shortages”, she mentioned.
Kang’s robotic, composed of a easy, versatile mechanical arm, is able to frying 100 chickens in two hours — a job that may require round 5 individuals and several other deep fryers.
However not solely does the robotic make hen extra effectively — it makes it extra scrumptious, says Kang.
“We will now say with confidence that our robotic fries higher than human beings do,” she mentioned.
– Investing in ‘foodtech’ –
Already a world cultural powerhouse and main semiconductor exporter, South Korea final 12 months introduced plans to plough tens of millions of {dollars} right into a “foodtech” fund to assist startups engaged on high-tech meals trade options.
Seoul says such improvements may turn out to be a “new progress engine”, arguing there’s big potential if the nation’s prowess in superior robotics and AI know-how might be mixed with the competitiveness of Korean meals classics like kimchi.
South Korea’s present foodtech trade — together with every thing from next-day grocery supply app Market Kurly to AI good kitchens to a “vegan egg” startup — is already value tens of millions, mentioned meals science professor Lee Ki-won at Seoul Nationwide College.
Even South Korea’s Samsung Electronics — one of many world’s greatest tech corporations — is attempting to get in on the motion, not too long ago launching Samsung Meals, an AI-personalised recipe and meal-planning platform, accessible in eight languages.
Lee predicted South Korea’s different main conglomerates are more likely to comply with Samsung into foodtech.
“Delivering meals utilizing electrical autos or having robots immediately present deliveries inside condo complexes, often known as ‘metamobility’, may turn out to be part of our day by day lives,” he mentioned.
“I’m assured that throughout the subsequent 10 years, the meals tech trade will remodel into the main sector in South Korea.”
– ‘Initially struggled’ –
Entrepreneur Kang now has 15 robot-made hen eating places in South Korea, and one department in Singapore.
Throughout AFP’s go to to a Seoul department, a robotic meticulously dealt with the frying course of — from immersing hen in oil, flipping it for even cooking, to retrieving it on the excellent stage of crispiness, because the irresistible scent of crunchy hen wafted by way of the store.
Many purchasers remained oblivious to the hard-working robotic prepare dinner behind their meal.
Kim Moon-jung, a 54-year-old insurance coverage employee, mentioned she was undecided how a robotic would make the hen in another way from a human “however one factor is definite — it tastes scrumptious”.
The robotic can monitor oil temperature and oxidation ranges in actual time whereas it fries hen, guaranteeing constant style and superior hygiene.
When Kang first began her enterprise she “initially struggled” to see why anybody would use robots moderately than human cooks.
However “after growing these applied sciences, I’ve come to understand that from a buyer’s perspective, they’re capable of get pleasure from meals that’s not solely cleaner but additionally tastier”, she advised AFP.
Her subsequent enterprise is a tip-free bar in Koreatown in New York Metropolis, the place the cocktails will characteristic Korea’s soju rice wine — and shall be made by robots.
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