The house machine was irate. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. As Steve Ells outlined the future of the restaurant industry ( hint: robots ), Steve Ells dissapointed the noise. and how his meal network, Kernel, may play a major role. Mr. Ells is best known for starting Chili, the taco giant, in the mid-1990s. Then, with Kernel, which has two areas in New York City and a second on the way,” we are reinventing the house job”, he said. He snuck into a chicken-salad burger that had been partially prepared by a machine that appeared to have Toyota employees who might have been able to weld vehicles from relatives. Poultry thighs and carrots were immediately swiveling, exchanging their lengths as the machine departed from a 515 degree oven and deposited them on a steel counter where individual employees had put together sandwiches and salads before bagging them for customers, who were probably even people. But as the machine continued to sound its anger, Mr. Ells stopped speaking, cocked his head and listened cautiously as he chewed. ” Well, that’s a new sound”, he said, sighing. At least when it comes to cooking, there are still some kinks to work out with the machine trend. As part of the automatic kitchen program at Kernel, a fresh restaurant chain in New York, a laser detector detected food that had to be picked up and baked. A mechanical arm lifted a dish of ready Kernel food of a rack, as seen from above. We are having difficulty locating the article’s source. In your browser’s settings, kindly allow JavaScript. Thank you for your patience as we verify entry. If you are in Audience mode please leave and log into your Times accounts, or listen for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience as we verify entry. Now a subscription? Register in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.