'Come for the show, Stay for the Pizza': Now, robots start baking pizza in Paris

Tackling the human labour shortage in European countries, Paris has discovered a robot which is a pizza-making expert

A pizzeria in Paris has new cooks that bake and box up pizzas with the help of specially developed equipment, at a rate of up to 80 an hour. These new chefs are actually steel-hand robots who have been designed to bake pizzas.

Customers order at the self-service counter from behind a glass screen. They can then watch the robots start flattening the dough, add sauces, vegetables, cheese, toppings and more, and then put out the pizza in the oven.

This new pizza-making robots have come as a blessing for the increasing shortage of labour in European countries, especially in the hospitality sector. Many employers are struggling to bring back and rehire the employeees who were furloughed during the extended Covid lockdowns.

While the robots are a good alternate to the labour shortage, the establishment has assured that they are not aiming to replace human labour completely. "You have Neapolitan pizza, Sicilian pizza, Roman pizza, and now there's Pazzi pizza -- it's made by a robot but after all, it's healthy competition," said Thierry Graffagnino, a chef and three-time winner of World Pizza Contest in Rome, who was brought in to help elaborate Pazzi's recipes and process.

As of now, the Pazzi pizza is only available in Pari, but the creators are looking to expand in other European countries too.

"We're finalising contracts for new spots" in Paris, "and in March or April we'll open in Switzerland," said Philippe Goldman, a former L'Oreal executive who came on as managing director for the start-up.