As restaurant margins shrink and labor shortages deepen, a new generation of cooking robots is reshaping China's back-of-house operations — turning chefs into operators and pushing a centuries-old profession toward a technological turning point.
A chef operates a UT Cook cooking robot in the company cafeteria. (Photo by LU Yibei)
by MA Yue, LU Yibei
China's restaurant industry closed out 2025 amid a heated public debate over pre-made dishes versus freshly cooked meals. The argument, fueled in part by a prolonged online dispute between restaurant entrepreneur JIA Guolong and tech commentator LUO Yonghao, spilled into the new year with little sign of fading.
In February, a draft national standard attempted to define what qualifies as a "pre-made dish." Yet disagreements remain between consumers and the industry over the role of pre-prepared food and central kitchens, sharpening the question of how restaurants can continue cooking meals on-site while maintaining efficiency.
For many restaurant owners, the dilemma resembles an impossible triangle: fully handmade cooking without central kitchens, rapid chain expansion and operational efficiency rarely coexist. Fierce competition in food delivery and falling average spending per customer have already eroded profit margins for many listed restaurant chains over the past five years.
Now, a new variable is entering the kitchen — the cooking robot.
A growing group of Chinese robotics firms, including OakDeer Robotics, UT Cook and T-chef Tech, are introducing so-called cooking robots — essentially intelligent wok systems that automate the stir-fry process — into thousands of restaurants. The machines combine sensors, automated ingredient dispensers and temperature control systems to replicate many of the repetitive tasks traditionally handled by chefs.
Their devices promise standardized dishes, lower labor costs and faster service, and they are already appearing in the kitchens of large casual dining chains such as Home Original Chicken (Laoxiangji) and Xiaocaiyuan, as well as corporate cafeterias run by companies like Foxconn.
The changes are beginning to reshape the structure of restaurant kitchens. In many cases, machines now handle the physical work of stir-frying, seasoning and controlling heat, while staff oversee the process and plate finished dishes.
For veteran Cantonese chef LIU Zijian, the technological leap was striking.
Liu, who heads the culinary and nutrition department at Guangzhou Gaoxin Pharmaceutical and Food Technician School, said his understanding of what machines could do in a kitchen changed after closely observing and participating in a cooking robot competition.
"Today's cooking robots have solved problems I once thought machines could never overcome," Liu told Jiemian News.
He cited the machines' ability to control salt within one gram of precision, maintain stable starch emulsions when thickening sauces and replicate dishes such as braised pork belly or Typhoon Shelter–style stir-fried seafood.
"Many of the fine details can now be handled by the technology," he said.
Cooking is one of humanity's oldest professions, and its basic techniques have changed little over centuries. In Chinese cuisine especially, knowledge has traditionally passed from master to apprentice through observation and repetition.
The rhythm of tossing a wok, sensing temperature through the fingertips and judging heat by instinct are skills embedded in experience — often described in Chinese culinary culture as things that can be understood but not easily explained.
That tradition has preserved the craft of Chinese cooking but also made standardization difficult, particularly for restaurant chains attempting to expand rapidly.
Technology is now pushing against that barrier. Many people in the industry have begun referring to 2025 as the "first year of cooking robots."
In a demonstration at OakDeer Robotics' Beijing headquarters observed by Jiemian News, a cook simply tapped a touchscreen to start the process. A wok began rotating while ingredient cartridges released vegetables and meat into the pan. A mechanical stirring arm moved rhythmically as seasonings were dispensed automatically. Oil crackled and steam rose.
Within about three minutes, a serving of kung pao chicken was ready.
The human chef's role consisted mainly of pressing the screen and plating the finished dish.
YANG Jiancheng, founder and chairman of OakDeer Robotics, said skepticism dominated the early years of the technology.
"Before 2021, when we talked about cooking robots, most people either didn't understand or didn't believe in them," he told Jiemian News.
Many doubted that machines could cook food properly, let alone make it taste good. Cooking robots had been discussed for more than a decade but struggled to gain traction in large restaurant chains. Their high cost and uncertain labor savings made restaurant owners cautious.
But the structural problems facing restaurant kitchens never disappeared. Hiring remains unstable, and experienced chefs are difficult to scale across expanding chains.
At the same time, advances in robotics hardware and artificial intelligence have gradually matured.
"Calling 2025 the first year of cooking robots has become something of an industry consensus," said GENG Kaiping, founder of Shenzhen-based T-chef Tech, which began developing commercial cooking robots in 2018.
One reason, he said, is cost.
As China's robotics industry has expanded, key components have become significantly cheaper, pushing cooking robots closer to a commercial tipping point.
Turning culinary knowledge into machine instructions has required extensive experimentation. Recipes must be translated into programmable steps that machines can repeat reliably.
What chefs once judged intuitively must be converted into quantifiable variables. Heat control becomes coordinated adjustments of pan temperature, power levels and timing. Tossing motions are translated into mechanical trajectories defined by speed, angle and frequency. Ingredient timing is reduced to milliseconds and fractions of a gram.
Industry data from market research firm AVC show that by 2023, China's online market already had 25 brands selling cooking robots, with the number continuing to grow. Most systems combine visual recognition, temperature control and multi-axis motion technology to enable automated stirring, seasoning and heat regulation.
The machines themselves come in different designs.
Some companies, including UT Cook and T-chef Tech, use rotating drum systems suited to larger batches. Others, including OakDeer Robotics, rely on fixed woks with planetary stirring mechanisms designed for small-batch stir-fry.
Regardless of design, reliability remains the key test.
Yang said OakDeer Robotics measures success with two benchmarks: one machine should produce the same flavor after cooking the same dish ten thousand times, and ten thousand machines should produce the same flavor for the same dish.
Achieving that consistency involves solving numerous technical challenges. When cooking mapo tofu, for example, the stirring arm must move gently enough to avoid breaking the tofu. Sensors and control algorithms must also account for subtle variables such as spice density or the changing viscosity of pork fat at different temperatures.
Even the elusive concept of "wok hei," the smoky flavor created by high-heat stir-frying, can be analyzed scientifically.
MENG Junxian, general manager of Zhuhai-based UT Cook, said wok hei results largely from the Maillard reaction combined with caramelization and rapid aroma release under high heat.
"Technically speaking, wok hei is about heat exchange," Meng told Jiemian News. "It depends on power, heating area, frequency and the material in contact with the food."
To better replicate the effect, his company spent three years developing a nitrided iron wok designed specifically for robotic cooking systems.
Large restaurant chains have become key early adopters.
Xiaocaiyuan has deployed cooking robots in its 660 restaurants nationwide and said in its IPO prospectus that it plans to spend 100 million yuan to purchase roughly 2,000 additional units.
Laoxiangji began installing automated equipment in some restaurants in 2023. By August 2025, 451 outlets were using devices such as cooking robots, steam cabinets and automated soup stations.
Other chains are experimenting with similar systems. The fast-casual chain Xiangcunji, also known as CSC (short for Country Style Cooking), has shifted to a hybrid model combining human chefs and cooking robots, while Big Pizza, which is seeking a Hong Kong listing, uses automated ovens and stir-fry machines in many outlets.
Corporate cafeterias have also become an important testing ground. T-chef Tech's machines are operating in staff canteens at companies including Foxconn and pork producer Muyuan Foods.
For budget restaurant chains, the motivation is straightforward: reduce labor costs while maintaining stable output.
In an environment where customers increasingly prefer freshly cooked dishes over pre-made meals, robots offer a compromise — allowing restaurants to advertise "fresh stir-fry" while maintaining standardized production.
At a Laoxiangji outlet visited by Jiemian News, an employee operated two cooking robots simultaneously in a transparent kitchen visible to diners.
The machines prepare many common Chinese fast-food dishes, including tomato-and-egg stir-fry, chili pork and mapo tofu. These recipes follow relatively stable cooking procedures and do not require complex manual techniques.
Through a cloud-based recipe management system, headquarters can also adjust flavor profiles for different regions by modifying seasoning levels or heat settings before sending updates to stores nationwide.
Yang described the benefits as the "985 effect": more than 90% flavor consistency, 80% higher labor productivity and 50% lower energy consumption.
Under ideal conditions, one operator managing two cooking robots can replace the work of three professional chefs, he said. The machines currently sell for about 30,000 to 100,000 yuan each.
The shift is also changing kitchen job structures. Chefs increasingly become equipment operators rather than manual cooks.
Geng said one client — a large electronics manufacturer whose cafeteria serves about 2,000 employees — reduced kitchen staff from more than 60 workers to around 20 after installing ten cooking robots.
Laoxiangji has similarly reorganized its kitchens. Traditional chefs once handled ingredient preparation, cooking and seasoning simultaneously. In the automated model, tasks are split between ingredient preparation and equipment operation.
The rise of cooking robots is also reshaping culinary education.
Yang recalled giving a talk in Shanghai last year when teachers and students from Nanjing Tourism College attended specifically to ask about the future career paths of chefs and how smart kitchens might change culinary training.
Robotics companies are now partnering with vocational schools. UT Cook helped compile a textbook titled "Foundations of Intelligent Cooking" for technical schools, and another teaching guide focused on cooking robots is expected later this year.
Students are already grappling with the implications.
After attending a robot cooking competition, Liu asked his class whether they feared being replaced by machines.
The response surprised him.
Students said the profession exposes chefs to heavy oil fumes and physically demanding work. If machines could take over the most intense tasks, they said, humans could instead focus on supervising and controlling the equipment.
The answer reflects a broader reality: many young people are reluctant to pursue traditional culinary careers. Kitchen work is physically demanding, repetitive and slow to reward. Becoming a master chef can take more than a decade, while gig jobs such as ride-hailing or delivery offer quicker income.
Automation may lower the barrier to entry, much as automated coffee machines simplified work in cafés and milk tea shops.
Still, human chefs may retain a role machines cannot easily replace: creativity.
Cooking robots currently perform best in standardized dishes typical of chain restaurants. High-end cuisine, irregular ingredients and delicate techniques remain difficult for machines to handle.
Luxury seafood that varies in size often requires manual heat adjustments, while fresh meat sliced at slightly different thicknesses can lead to inconsistent results in automated systems.
For now, Liu said, most robots excel at common home-style dishes or Sichuan and Hunan stir-fries, while more complex Cantonese techniques remain harder to replicate.
"Robots solve the problem from one to many," Liu said. "Chefs solve the problem from zero to one."
Machines can reproduce recipes at scale, but humans still create them.
Future chefs may increasingly design dishes specifically for robotic kitchens, using artificial intelligence tools to experiment with ingredient combinations and cooking parameters.
Even so, chain restaurants are only one part of the industry.
Just as handcrafted pour-over coffee still survives in specialty cafés despite the rise of large coffee chains, small restaurants and fine dining establishments may continue to offer experiences defined by human touch.
For large restaurant chains, however, the potential market remains vast.
According to the Global Cooking Robot Industry Development Report, China's cooking robot market could exceed 3.7 billion yuan in 2025 and reach more than 11.7 billion yuan by 2030.
Investors say the opportunity may extend beyond hardware sales. XIAO Pu, investment director at QF Capital, an investor in T-chef Tech, said companies could expand into AI software updates, ingredient supply chains and integrated food delivery services.
"The idea of a back-of-house revolution is correct," Xiao said. "The scenarios still need to be explored, but this is a gold mine."
