Hey robot, what’s cooking?

Frequent travel and hectic work schedules would often make it difficult for Sonica Gupta a structural network engineer from Bengaluru to dedicate time in the kitchen But the Coronavirusinduced lockdowns resulting in restricted access to househelps left Gupta with little choice ldquoI had to cook during the lockdowns but I really donrsquot enjoy it cooking on a daily basis Itrsquos fine as a hobby but not as a dutyrdquo Incidentally itrsquos around this time that she came across Nosh an advanced automated robot that is equipped to cook more than 120 dishesSonica Gupta and her husband Abhishek Ambastha tried Nosh for a month They said it doesnrsquot take much space in the kitchen and has eliminated their dependency on maids and their time scheduleDeveloped by the Euphotic Labs a Bengaluru startup the artificial intelligence AI and mobile appdriven device enables you to cook a range of dishes track calories customise meals to your taste and build new recipes ldquoWe read about it online and visited their website After seeing a few videos on YouTube I felt inclined to try it outrdquo As part of the trials organised by the lab Gupta used the robot for a month ldquoIt was actually easier to operate than a microwaverdquo she laughs ldquoWe found it very user friendly After a demo even a first timer can use it just finerdquoGupta is currently waiting for her robot to be deliveredDesiree Anwar a PR professional tries out the TinyChef a couple of months ago What she likes about the app is that you can narrow down the search by inputting factors like ingredients cooking time and cuisineIn an almost Back to the Futuresque fashion Indian kitchens are undergoing a transformation And itrsquos not for the super rich alone From automatic dosamaking machines and robotic roti makers to fully automated robots capable of largescale cooking the food space is exploding with innovations And like most inventions these too are being driven by necessity Yatin Varachhi cofounder of startup Euphotic Labs remembers how cooking was a luxury that he and his wife Margi couldnrsquot afford when their professional lives got busier somewhere around 2017 ldquoWe tried multiple cooks but none could cut it Getting authentic Gujarati food in Bengaluru wasnrsquot easyrdquo he recalls Armed with an MTech degree from IISc and RampD experience at Analog Devices Varachhi began exploring technology to create happiness through food Nosh was born after three years of research multiple prototypes and iterations ldquoTaste was the focus Access to food isnrsquot the problem it is getting the way you want itrdquo he explains Automation in food is complex as every ingredient behaves differently ldquoWhatever judgement your vision makes is what we have automated using machine learning and AI For instance roasting rava is a continuous process and happens consistently The machine needs to follow the due method to ensure it is roasted just right or else it rava will burn It is the same with caramelising onions The ingredients and spices should only be introduced after the onions turn golden brownrdquo adds cofounder Amit Gupta They tested the product the whole of last year by allowing customers to use it for a month or two Itrsquos customer feedback that helped them finetune the product ldquoIt threw up a lot of surprises Our initial aim was to target customers in the USA training our eyes on the million Indians craving freshly cooked home meals at their convenience But when we tested it here we realised Indians in India are open to adopting this technologyrdquo Thanks to the feedback they realised that making the device touchenabled was more convenient than installing knobs given our familiarity with smartphonesTinyChef is a personalised kitchen management app that helps you plan shop and cook your daily mealsThe machine is about the size of a microwave and requires ingredients and spices to be filled in designated containers There are slots for the spices oil and water The main ingredients such as vegetables paneer or meat go in the tray ldquoYou have to do the chopping But the next step is to choose the desired item for cooking and let the machine do the hard workrdquo he says The NOSH costs Rs 50000 and preorder rates are at Rs 40000Bahubali SheteIn 2016 Bahubali Shete founded TinyChef in 2016 originally known as Klovechef as an IoTplusvoice interactive cooking experience Itrsquos in 2019 that he added smartphones to the experience In retrospect he thinks it couldnrsquot have happened at a better time because consequently the pandemic thrust us indoors and timesaving saving devices and mealplanning assistance gained new foundappreciation ldquoThe idea was to become truly a lsquodevice agnosticrsquo smart kitchen assistantrdquo says Shete The easytouse interface of the app makes cooking and eating at home simple and fun Apart from answering the question of what one can eat today using the ingredients available it also simplifies grocery order to minimise wastageInterestingly an 80yearold womanrsquos wish triggered the creation of the app ldquoShe said I wish I had something like Google Maps but in the kitchenrdquo remembers Shete who teamed up with celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor for the venture Last year the brand acquired food tech startup Zelish which makes food recipes and meal suggestions for people along with generating grocery lists directly from recipes Shete says their research had shown that voice search queries in India were growing at 270 per cent and over 82 per cent of smartphone users were already using voice search on a regular basis That move reporterdly led to the companyrsquos Sanjeev Kapoor Recipes becoming the number one Alexa skill in India for cooking and the default firstparty solution for Amazon in the countryPR professional Desiree Anwar used TinyChef eight months ago ldquoI like the fact that all the recipes are wellorganised considering there are over 20000 listed on it You can narrow down the search by inputting factors like ingredients cooking time and cuisine Even if you donrsquot have a certain ingredient it offers suggestions It works well for someone like me who lives alone and has a demanding job to managerdquoWhile Varachhirsquos target audience is working couples Shete had trained his lens on working mothers and bachelors in metros ldquoOf course itrsquos not restricted to them alone We even have people who are 60plus who are open to the idea of having a robot in the house However we have also faced a certain resistance because food is so subjective The idea of machinecooked food will take time to familiarise But wersquove made a decent headwayrdquo says Varachhi