ARTICLE

Freshly stir-fried food. Quality you can trust. An affordable price.

It’s not much to ask of an everyday meal. But getting all three right, day after day, is harder than it sounds.

Better technology should make life better for more people.

That belief led us to build AIKO: a robotic stir-fry kitchen of about 9 square meters, powered by an embodied cooking system and put to work in a real commercial setting. Our ambition is to make freshly cooked Chinese food part of everyday life around the world.

01 / THE CRAFTTeaching a system what a chef knows

Great Chinese cooking comes down to the details.

When to add an ingredient. How to adjust the heat. How much seasoning to use, and when a dish is done. An experienced chef makes these decisions almost without thinking.

For a robot to cook well, those instincts need to become quantifiable, repeatable cooking processes that the system can execute and check through closed-loop control.

To do this, AIKO brings industrial-grade control technology and systems integration into food service. Each dish is jointly developed by the Aichi Culinary Research Institute (艾吃) and professional chefs.

Each dish goes through dozens of rounds of testing and refinement: when ingredients are added, how it is seasoned, how heat is controlled and how the wok moves. Blind tastings with a team of more than one hundred people help us check that the result matches the flavor the chefs intended.

AIKO’s recipe library now contains more than 800 dishes. Familiar favorites such as homestyle stir-fried pork, green Sichuan peppercorn chicken, and tomato and egg are being cooked by robots and served to customers.

Capturing Chinese cooking in digital recipes we can share and keep improving.

02 / THE SYSTEMFrom cooking equipment to an embodied cooking system

Cooking a dish is one thing. Keeping a whole kitchen working together is another.

In a working kitchen, several orders arrive at once and demand changes throughout the day. Precise scheduling and reliable closed-loop coordination keep different machines working together, so the kitchen can continue serving food with consistent results.

Each order brings robots and other equipment into a connected workflow: ingredient handling, cooking, serving and cleaning. The system coordinates timing, uses equipment interlocks and responds to faults across that workflow.

The team also works on practical engineering challenges, including automatic cookware cleaning and filtering cooking fumes inside the kitchen.

The first-generation system has four woks and can prepare different dishes in parallel. A single dish takes around three to four minutes to stir-fry. With parallel woks and continuous operation, combined output can reach around 60 portions per hour.

The team is developing AIKO 2.0, with completion planned for the end of 2026.

More than a robot that cooks: a system that keeps the kitchen running.

03 / REAL WORLDThe real test is the meal

Technology has to prove its value on the plate.

Our first kitchen opened at Future Technology Plaza in Xiuzhou District, Jiaxing, on September 11, 2026. From that day on, the embodied cooking system had to prove itself in daily service—and as a business.

More than 500 questionnaires collected during trial operations came back to two themes: good food and peace of mind. These are the commitments behind that feedback:

• Fresh ingredients We cut and prep them, but don’t heat or cook them ahead.
• A kitchen you can see into Watch the ingredients go in, the food cook and the finished dishes come out.
• Small-wok cooking Your food is cooked from raw ingredients after you order, one portion at a time, and served hot from the wok.
• Everyday value A set with one meat dish, one vegetable dish and rice is regularly priced at RMB 15–18.

Robots spark curiosity. The food brings people back.

04 / NEW POSSIBILITIESA smaller footprint. More places to serve.

People want freshly cooked food that fits into a busy day. That need isn’t going away.

But growing a restaurant business also means making the space, staffing and day-to-day operations work.

An embodied cooking system that fits into about 9 square meters gives us more options for where and how to serve freshly cooked meals.

• A relocatable kitchen offers greater flexibility in choosing where to operate.
• Factory-produced complete kitchens support rapid deployment.
• Standardized cooking processes reduce staffing costs and dependence on individual chefs.
• Data-informed operation creates opportunities to improve efficiency and manage costs.

That’s the business model we’re working toward: the quality of a freshly cooked meal, with the efficiency a growing chain needs.

Office buildings, industrial parks, neighborhoods, shopping centers, schools, transport hubs—and other places with sustained demand for meals—could all become settings for embodied cooking systems.

05 / SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITYMaking a difference beyond the kitchen

As we develop the business, we also want AIKO to make a wider contribution—from the farms that supply our ingredients to the people who share our meals.

Ingredients: As our network and purchasing needs grow, we hope to work with growers and suppliers in agricultural regions. Closer links between what people eat and what farms supply could help the business grow while supporting farmers.

Community dining: We’re particularly interested in meals for older adults. We’re testing milder flavors, different textures, portion sizes and nutritional combinations, with their tastes, dietary needs and budgets in mind. We also need a model that can sustain the service over time.

Personal service: Over time, meal choices and feedback could help us understand how each person likes to eat. Our long-term goal is more personalized service, including a personal AI chef agent that learns your preferences.

06 / A SHARED TABLEFrom Chinese cuisine to everyday life worldwide

Chinese technology is reaching more people around the world.

At the same time, more people are discovering and enjoying Chinese culture.

But bringing great Chinese stir-fries to new places has always depended on having skilled chefs there to cook them.

We believe an integrated embodied cooking system could open another route for sharing that food.

As Chinese technology reaches further, we want more people to experience the food and culture through a freshly cooked meal, made from raw ingredients.

Let’s bring the future to the table

We have more work to do—and we’re looking for partners to do it with.

We’d like to hear from investors and partners who know their industries, want to put technology to practical use and take a long-term view. Together, we can bring the expertise, resources and capital needed to take embodied cooking systems into more locations and markets.

We’re also open to conversations about new locations, supply-chain partnerships and joint development.

Want to talk? Scan the QR code below in WeChat to open our inquiry form. Tell us how you’d like to work together and leave your contact details. We’ll be in touch. The form is currently in Chinese.

AIKO · Official content