Rise of the robots … in dining and retail: Hong Kong’s restaurants, shops turn to technology to beat manpower crunch
- Automated woks rule in the kitchens of Tai Hing Group, with more than 200 outlets across the city
- Technology is raising efficiency, cutting costs and making up for lack of workers in retail industry too
In the kitchen of Hong Kong restaurant chain Tai Hing in Yuen Long, a chef stands ready to heed the commands from a large automated wok.
On cue, she adds salmon, cooked rice, eggs and chopped vegetables. The wok starts rocking, tossing everything together.
Within minutes, it stops and the chef starts dishing out plates of aromatic, colourful salmon fried rice.
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Hong Kong restaurant group overcomes pandemic labour shortage with automated wok
“We’ve introduced a smart system in every outlet to make life more comfortable for the staff, especially the chefs, because their job is physically demanding,” said Jojo Chan Shuk-fong, the group’s executive director.
“It is getting very difficult to hire chefs. Young people back off as it is a tiring job that is not only extremely hard work, but also mentally and physically draining.”