What Vijay Kodali envisioned for years has finally become a reality.
“We figure that, if we open our own restaurant and launch it, and make it operational, it’ll be a great story for us to tell the world,” Kotali, the CTO of Nala Robotics, told The Food Institute last January.
A concept that was nearly three years in the making has come to fruition. Nala opened its first restaurant in Naperville, Illinois, One Mean Chicken, featuring a fully automatic robotic kitchen capable of cooking millions of recipes without any human intervention.
Nala said the concept is the world’s first fully automatic robotic kitchen.
Aided by robots powered with artificial intelligence and machine learning, Nala feels it’s kitchen technology can master virtually any recipe. The technology firm’s recipe catalog will offer dishes from chefs and celebrities around the world.
Nala’s technology can also personalize and customize ingredients to each customer’s liking. And, since the technology can work around the clock, Nala also plans to roll out on-the-go prepackaged foods and offer meal-plan subscriptions that offer freshly prepared dishes on demand and in a variety of categories.
Nala’s current location will soon offer multiple “restaurants” in addition to One Mean Chicken, with the next being Nala’s Thai 76 and Surya Tiffins, which features a South Indian breakfast menu. Company founder Ajay Sunkara’s expansion plans are to open 10 restaurant locations in 2022 and 100 by 2024.
“Being AI-powered, the robotic chef gets better and better every single day,” Sunkara explained in a company press release. “The more it cooks, the more it’s going to learn and master these recipes.
“It is built to work 24/7; it doesn’t need a break. It’s easily scalable and trainable. It’s a workhorse.”
