Would you let a robot make your salad? Cult favourite US chain goes all-in on automation

Would you eat a salad prepared by a robotic bench? The founder of American fast-casual salad chain Sweetgreen thinks you might, after the success of a venue where meals are assembled not by people, but by an automated production line.

The Wall Street Journal reports a Sweetgreen location in Naperville, Illinois, has been outfitted with what the brand calls an “Infinite Kitchen”: an elaborate system which reads a customer’s order and assembles ingredients like shredded carrot, kale, and dressing.

Staff members cap off the order and process the sale, but Sweetgreen claims the system can slash the time it takes to produce a chopped salad in half.

Speaking to the publication, Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman said investing in the “Infinite Kitchen” philosophy would be worthwhile in the long run, despite the unit’s high upfront cost.

“I’m willing to blow the whole thing up… We are 100% in on automation,” Neman said of the restaurant chain’s automation sector.

Sweetgreen’s efforts are not the first time robots have entered the kitchen, but it does represent one of the more serious attempts to scale automated cooking systems without resorting to gimmicks.

As pointed out by the WSJ, Sweetgreen’s seemingly genuine push into automation can be attributed to economic factors buffeting the hospitality sector, and the publicly listed company’s own share price fluctuations.

Although labour market tightness has eased, Sweetgreen and other US restaurant chains remain sensitive to recruitment and retention levels, and would want to shield themselves from further volatility in the future.

Domestically, kitchen automation is a somewhat rare sight.

However, robotic ‘waiters’ are slowly gaining popularity in restaurants across Melbourne, where diners are delivered their meals by automated devices — imagine a giant robotic vacuum with shelves containing steaming-hot dumplings or plates of noodles, and you won’t be too far off the mark.

The now-shuttered NISKA robotic ice cream bar also treated visitors to Fed Square with desserts crafted by automated machinery.

Yet automation in Australian quick-service restaurants has largely focused on the unglamorous tasks of rostering efficiency, inventory management, and payroll, instead of robotic food preparation.

That is despite costs and complexity associated with hiring hospitality staff.

As Sweetgreen operates no Australian locations, diners keen to munch on automatically processed baby spinach may have to wait a little while longer.