{"id":227369,"date":"2025-10-20T17:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/227369\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T17:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:30:09","slug":"shin-starrs-robotic-food-truck-kitchen-will-serve-up-korean-bbq-at-techcrunch-disrupt-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/227369\/","title":{"rendered":"Shin Starr\u2019s robotic food truck kitchen will serve up Korean BBQ at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Shin Starr<\/a> set out to build an autonomous kitchen, the company knew that the gimmick of robotic cooking wouldn\u2019t carry the business. What would make Shin Starr\u2019s OLHSO Korean BBQ food truck<\/a> successful is if it could cook and deliver a hot, fresh, tasty meal at a reasonable price.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, customers don\u2019t care about the type of rocket science that is in your truck or in your kitchen,\u201d Kish Shin, co-founder and CEO of Shin Starr, told TechCrunch. \u201cThey care about the value they\u2019re getting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Han Sungil, a chef with over 18 restaurants in Korea, came to the U.S. to lead Shin Starr\u2019s culinary operations, which includes a brick-and-mortar restaurant<\/a> in San Mateo \u2014 so there\u2019s high expectations for the food. We can\u2019t say from experience whether the food is a hit, but we\u2019ll certainly be taste-testing some wagyu galbi and tteokbokki when the food truck rolls up to TechCrunch Disrupt 2025<\/a>, where Shin Starr is part of the Startup Battlefield 200<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Companies like DoorDash are experimenting<\/a> with autonomous delivery robots, but Shin Starr is doing the reverse: A human drives the truck, but the body of the vehicle is outfitted with the company\u2019s \u201cAutowok,\u201d a modular, AI-powered robotics system that automates cooking, serving, and cleaning. Once Han preps the ingredients, the Autowok handles the rest.<\/p>\n

While the truck heads down the highway, Shin Starr\u2019s robotic system retrieves the prepared, fresh ingredients from a refrigerator, then places them on a conveyor belt. They\u2019re then dropped into a tilted cylindrical canister, which climbs to high heats like a wok and rotates to cook the food. After the food is cooked and tipped into its packaging, the system can clean and sanitize the canister and put it back into the flow for cooking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was designed to be able to serve food and cook en route,\u201d Shin said. \u201cSo, if you have ordered a wagyu beef dish from your location, let\u2019s say the truck was 15 minutes away. It takes us eight minutes to cook wagyu beef [so it] won\u2019t start cooking your food until it has moved seven minutes closer to your location, so that when you get your food, your food is literally freshly cooked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Image Credits:Shin Starr<\/p>\n

Other robotic kitchen startups have struggled to find product-market fit, but Shin Starr thinks it can find its niche in airports. Soon the company will open an OLHSO micro restaurant in a leading California airport, and if that goes smoothly, the company has other airports interested in implementing the technology.<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Since their airport micro restaurant does not need to be staffed by humans, it can operate at any hour of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 11 p.m., all the restaurants close down. There\u2019s no food for the next eight hours, and still, 10% of all people fly in the U.S. during those hours, 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.,\u201d said Tord Olav D\u00f8nnum, Shin Starr\u2019s CMO. \u201cThis thing will finally give you a fresh, high-quality restaurant type of meal, without having to buy a Snickers bar from a vending machine or a dry sandwich.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shin Starr snagged Gower Smith as CPO, which is a wise hiring decision, since there are few people in the world who know as much as Smith does about high-tech automated retail. He\u2019s a serial entrepreneur in the space and most recently lead Swyft<\/a>, which partners with companies like Best Buy and CVS to create luxury vending machines in places like train stations and airports. This allows brands to set up shop without devoting human labor or a significant physical footprint.<\/p>\n

Smith said that the automated nature of the micro restaurant makes it easier to give customers a prediction of how long it will take for their order to cook; it\u2019s useful in a setting like an airport, where people may be rushing to catch a flight. The micro restaurant needs periodic intervention from a human worker to restock the fridge and prepare the ingredients, but otherwise, it should be able to run smoothly on its own.<\/p>\n

\u201cAirports is where we\u2019ll start, but we\u2019ll go into hotels; people are hungry at 2 a.m. when they get in from travels, and they want a high-quality meal,\u201d Smith told TechCrunch. \u201cIf it\u2019s in a hospital, or on a college campus at 2 a.m.\u00a0\u2026 There are lots of these environments where we can bring this sort of experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to learn more about Shin Starr from the company itself \u2014 while also checking out dozens of others, hearing their pitches, and listening to guest speakers on four different stages \u2014 join us at Disrupt, October 27 to 29, in San Francisco. Learn more here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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