Guest Dining Experience: Meet Sally, The Robotic Salad Maker

There’s nothing that’ll kill an appetite quicker than standing in line at the salad bar, watching someone cough and then proceed to touch every single item at the bar. Mix that in with ranch ladles being dipped into the Caesar dressing, spinach that looks like it spent a little too much time out, and over served bowls with more calories than a Big Mac, and what you get is a salad that started out promising but now is probably better off in a compost.

With the rise of tech-based self serve options in the hospitality field, it was only a matter of time before salad got the self serve treatment as well. Enter Chowbotics.

Chowbotics, also referred to as Casabots, and its founder Dr. Deepak Sekar have a pretty simple goal. They use robots to solve problems in the food service and hospitality sector including sorting out inefficiencies and keeping thing clean.

Their first robot, Sally, offers a fully customizable salad making service. Sally’s tech dispenses precisely measured amounts of 20 plus ingredients (replaced daily) to create a salad bowl for you on the spot. Think Coca Cola’s Freestyle soda machines. You place your bowl in to the designated slot and then begin using their touch-based user interface to select what you want on your salad, all while give you a calorie break down of what you’re creating.

Sally and future Chowbotics robots are meant to be used in cafeteria, hotel, and restaurant settings. What’s interesting about Sally though is its just as appropriate in the front of the house as it is in the back of the house. Not sure how a chef might feel about that, but it certainly is an efficient and more cleanly way to handle the ingredients in the back of the house.

Chowbotics has teased plans to automate serving other sorts of cuisines, such as Mexican and Indian food. With the team recently raising 5 million dollars in venture funding, it seems like that goal will be coming to fruition sooner rather than later.

Sally & the Chowbotics team were at NRA 2016 and we’re guessing you’ll find them there this year as well. But if you’re in a rush to check out the salad making robot you can head on over to the H-E-B Corporate cafeteria (Texas based grocery chain) or fly on over to Campbell, California and check one out at Italian chain Mama Mia’s.

The hospitality business is on the cusp of a technology renaissance. We’re seeing more self serve options creep their way onto and around tabletops everyday. We certainly are fascinated and excited by all of it, yet we can’t help but wonder if self serve equals a sign of the times for waiters and waitresses.

Talk about differentiating the dining experience!

One thing’s for sure, the guest dining experience is headed for some major changes over the next few years.

For More Information on Chowbotics click here.

-HA