“We have pre-programmed nearly 600 dishes into it,” says Saravanan Sundaramoorthy, CEO and founder, Robochef. The “it” he is referring to is not a humanoid, walking and talking — “I have seen it in the film Enthiran” — type robot. Robochef is a massive stainless steel structure, which looks like unwieldy kitchen equipment with very little visually pleasing detail.

Inside Robochef, moving belts that carry utensils, and containers that deliver spices and vegetables into the main cooking vessel, are operated by sensors tuned using computer codes.

However, nuances associated to idiosyncratic cooking styles attributed to human intelligence can be found wanting in automated cooking. Robochef is currently a ghost kitchen (a kitchen set up for preparing delivery-only meals). “We have tied up with caterers who supply in bulk to events and hotels. Our product has helped them improve their gains, and takes out the dependency on a cook,” says Saravanan.

There are two variants of the machine that Saravanan has built — the commercial variant that he sells for ₹45 lakh, meant for commercial ghost kitchens, and the domestic variant that he has priced at ₹6 lakh, which, he adds, has already found a few customers. He says the warranty for the first year is included in the price.