Photo: Matt Shearer / WBZ News Radio
BOSTON (WBZNewsRadio) - BONAPITA in West Roxbury has a new staff member, a robotic sous-chef named Alfred.
Alfred will be preparing salads and bowls at the West Roxbury location on Spring Street.
"We've been working on it for three years now." Dave Johnson, CEO of Dexai Robotics said. "This is the first time we've had the robot out in front of people so they can see it."
Dexai is a leading provider of intelligent robotics solutions for commercial kitchens and recently joined a partnership with the Department of Defense to put 10 Alfred robots into U.S. military bases around the country.
Johnson says the robot wasn't hired without experience, but has been practicing his skills in the kitchen. What's more, the more the robot works, the more Alfred will learn, adapt and improve as a sous-chef. Alfred's new skills will also be shared among other Alfred unit, in both existing and future deployments. Dexai said this feature is advantageous specifically in the restaurant industry, where high turnover rates force employees to learn various tasks, especially now during a severe labor shortage impacting the nation.
BONAPITA owner Ilan Barniv said he hopes to add more robots to his kitchen.
Customers can visit BONAPITA's West Roxbury location at 75 Spring Street, and catch Alfred in action from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday - Saturday.
WBZ's Matt Shearer (@MattWBZ) reports
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