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Julia Hollingsworth

China’s latest celebrity chef is a noodle-making robot.
Decked out in a chef’s hat, white uniform and hygiene mask, the robot chef has been drawing big crowds and long queues at a university canteen in southern Guangdong province, according to Chinese media reports.
The robot at the South China Agricultural University uses a swift slicing technique – reminiscent of the eponymous hero in the ’90s US film Edward Scissorhands – to create knife-shaved noodles, news portal ThePaper.cn reported on Wednesday.
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Knife-shaved noodles, known as “dao xiao mian” in Chinese, are a Shanxi speciality. Traditionally, the noodles are made by slicing a large block of noodle dough at an angle with a meat cleaver and letting the sliced pieces fall directly into a boiling pot of soup.
The robot is armed with two sharp knives and can make up to 340 cuts a minute, according to the People’s Daily, which carried a video of the machine in action.


It also guarantees the consistency of the thickness of the noodle pieces, the report said.
The machine cost about 5,000 yuan (HK$5,600, US$725), the canteen manager, surnamed Dong, told news website Stnn.cc.
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On its first day at work, the robot chef had already made 400 bowls of noodles, greatly improving efficiency, he said.
He added that it had been introduced in part to encourage the university’s students to return to patronise the canteen’s stalls instead of eating elsewhere.
On Tuesday, the canteen saw a snaking queue at its noodle stall as students came to try the robot chef’s creation, the news website’s report said.
“I’ve already been waiting for 20 minutes,” a student, surnamed Chen, said, adding that he had never tried the dish at the canteen before, but was curious about how the robot’s dish would taste.
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Another student, Zhang, from Shanxi province, said he had been queueing since 11am as the noodles appeared very popular.
“I feel this is not simply a bowl of noodles. It feels very interesting and very heartwarming,” he said after trying the dish.

The robot chef also caused a stir online, with internet users questioning if its noodles tasted authentic.
“Some things cannot be replaced by a machine,” one Weibo user wrote.
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“It’s not only the dao xiao mian, many foods have this same principle,” another said. “Only food with feeling has a beautiful taste.”
Others joked about the robot’s appearance.
“I couldn’t tell if this was a robot or an inflatable,” one user wrote.


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Chinese college’s robot chef draws long queues to try its traditional knife-cut noodles

Canteen combines modern technology with a traditional dish

The South China Agricultural University’s canteen saw snaking queues to try out its robot chef’s creation. Photo: Handout