New Jersey Restaurant Utilizes Robots To Make Pizza, Other Restaurants Follow Suit

At Pizza HQ in Woodland Park, New Jersey, they’re not making their slices the way grandma used to. Their pizza is made by machines.

"We use a dough press to help us create uniform 16 inch pies, and then we feed the dough through a piece of robotics equipment that helps us sauce and cheese the pies in a very consistent manner,” said owner Matt Bassil.

The small pizza shop has automated almost every part of the pizza-making process. The dough is pressed by machine, laid by hand on a conveyer belt, which adds the requested amount of sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. Then, it’s baked on a conveyer belt as well. It’s essentially an assembly line, allowing them to make lots of pizza- fast.

"We do around 4,000 pies a week,” Bassil said.

While they do serve local customers, they’re not aiming to replace the neighborhood pizza spot. Pizza HQ’s main business comes from providing school lunches and large numbers of pizzas for events.

WHY ROBOTS?

“It allows for consistency, which whether you’re in the retail market or the wholesale market, that’s what the end customer wants,” Bassil added.

More restaurants are experimenting with having robots make or serve the food. White Castle is testing a robot that can operate the fryer. McDonald’s built a test restaurant in Texas where drive-thru customers pick up orders from a conveyer belt. During the pandemic worker shortages, many restaurants purchased robots to help deliver food.

CNET’s Bridget Carey expects the food industry will continue to adopt this type of technology. "I think as restaurants kind of find ways where robots can help assist, make that experience better, that's where consumer are going to weigh in on how they feel about it,” Carey said.

Pizza HQ plans to expand later this year. They still have 20 human employees, with more of them focused on deliveries instead of cooking.