A heat wave such as the one Calgarians are currently experiencing can make it difficult to spend your day in a kitchen.
Pizza Culture is an example of such a place. Pizzas are made in the traditional way, keeping it old-fashioned.
“The oven’s straight from Napoli, Italy,” Pizza Culture owner Jeremy Hube said. “It’s a handmade brick oven, with the same design for about 200 years.”
Once the oven’s loaded up with burning wood, the temperature inside soars.
“We bake at around 900 degrees Fahrenheit — 400 degrees Celsius,” Hube said.
This makes it exhausting to be there for hours at a stretch.
“You sweat in places you didn’t know you could sweat,” Hube said.
But there’s one new spot in Calgary where co-workers take all the heat and don’t mind it a bit.
Space Robo Chicken, which was recently opened, uses robotic arms for the frying of food such as chicken and fries.
“We have robots, so it’s really easy to work,” cook Jin Lee said. “It’s not hot.”
Having the help of the robots means kitchen staff don’t have to spend as much time near the deep fryers.
“It doesn’t matter — hot weather or cold weather, we always have the distance,” Space Robo Chicken owner Tyler Choi said.
The restaurant is part in a chain with Seoul, South Korea. Calgary marks its first Canadian location.
“I want to be like McDonalds or KFC,” Choi said. “I want to open all over Canada.”
It remains to see if other Canadian restaurants will add robots in their kitchens.
“I might be able to make a pizza one day with a robot, but we’re going to keep doing this by hand,” Hube said.
Hube stated that dealing with heat waves is part of the business.
“It’s not comfortable, but it’s not the end of the world,” Hube said. “We love making pizzas, so we do what we do.”
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