Nosh is an autonomous cooking robot developed by kitchen robotic startup Euphotic Labs. The machine can cook up to 200 dishes like kadhai paneer, matar paneer, chicken curry, fish curry, carrot halwa and potato fry as per individual tastes. Nosh, which is run by app, is ready to invade kitchens.
This innovative product also has its origins in a classic urban problem: No time – for cooking.
Yatin from Gujarat came down to Bengaluru in 2008 to pursue Master ‘s degree in technology at Indian Institute of Science. It was first time that he stayed away from home and found many things hard to ‘digest’ , especially food. Later, Yatin quit job when he got fed up with corporate life, and turned to entrepreneurship out of sheer passion.
He set up Euphotic Labs with three engineer friends in 2018. Pranav Raval, Amit Gupta, and Sudeep Gupta were the co-founders.
Users have to put the ingredients in the box-shaped robot to cook food. Water, oil and spices should be kept in specified boxes. Then, just punch the name of the dish you want to cook.
The startup has made Artificial Intelligence a key feature of Nosh. The robot has an AI-enabled camera embedded in it. It is programmed to add ingredients in such a fashion that humans would. For example, other vegetables will be added only after the onion gets a golden-brown colour. Users can change flavor at will and customise the taste by making it less spicy or adding more salt or spices, and so on.
It took the team three years to develop the final product. Before that, six prototypes were made, several recipes were tried repeatedly, and countless customer feedbacks were taken into account.
The first dish Nosh prepared was potato fry, towards the end of 2018. Yatin says the team loved its taste.
Makers say there are challenges, too, in the new business. “Nosh is a new category of product. We have no role models to refer to or learn from. It’s a challenge,” Yatin said.
Euphotic Labs currently focuses on India and millions of Indians living abroad. The company is currently manufacturing 1,000 units of the Nosh in Bengaluru. Going into large-scale construction will be based on the order book.
