SINGAPORE: If you’re interested in what a noodle dish cooked by a $14,000 robot “wok master” tastes like, you have a chance to do so.
However, whether this pricey piece of machinery and others like it will eventually replace the uncles and aunties who have spent decades perfecting their craft remains to be seen.
Wok A.I.’s “futuristic” style of cooking was shared in a video on the Singapore Foodie page on Facebook on Monday (Jan 6) that has been seen almost 600,000 times. In it, the proprietor confirms that the stall’s Hokkien mee is indeed “cooked by a robot.”
@singaporefoodie A.I. cooked Hokkien Mee !? 🤖🍜 📍 Wok A.I. #hokkienmee #robot #chef #local #foodie
Wok A.I. at Margaret Drive Hawker Centre has been getting a lot of attention lately, with articles and videos about the innovation popping up since late last year.
The stall was started in October by Ang Chip Hong, a former engineer with some experience in the food and beverage industry. His stall offers Hokkien mee cooked by a robot from a family recipe. $5.50 will get you a regular portion; if you shell out $7, you’ll get a large one.
Of course, the “robot” can’t do everything just yet, as it needs a human being to prepare the right amount of noodles, depending on how many portions are needed. A person must also add the other ingredients—taugey, garlic, egg, prawns, etc.
The machine stirs the noodles until they’re dry, automatically adds the broth that makes up the dish’s sauce and tells the operator when to add which ingredient. The machine can make up to four portions of Hokkien mee simultaneously.
The proprietor confessed in the video that he doesn’t “really know how to cook,” but he added that with the machine, he “can cook a very nice Hokkien mee.”
However, he added that the broth, cooked overnight, presumably by humans and not the “robot wok master”, is a vital part of making the dish truly special.
Singapore Foodie pronounced Wok A.I.’s Hokkien mee tasted “really good.”
Many commenters on TikTok, intrigued by the concept, appear eager to try it. Others, however, wrote that for now, they might still prefer a noodle dish prepared by an uncle standing over a wok.
One netizen, however, pointed out that the innovation may prove to be valuable to hawkers in the sense that it would save their hands from getting tired and even injured, as the repeated motions required by cooking take a toll, particularly on one’s wrists. /TISG