[hwers]

This is kinda silly because I bet they could've made burgers with a robot long ago (mass produced and shipped in) and just heated it up from a frozen stage when you order. Part of me suspects the whole 'combining the meat with the bun' at-location component is kind of superfluous and is just there to make the food feel freshly made (despite being heavily produced). So this robot with that in mind is kind of silly.

[paranoidrobot]

>just there to make the food feel freshly made

There's a significant quality difference, even with mass-produced burger patties, cheese and sauce.

Bread and meat don't respond well to the same treatments, and as anyone who's had a service-station pre-prepared sandwich knows - bread absorbs moisture and goes soggy/damp if prepared more than an hour or two before use. With fillings that need to be re-heated it gets worse. There are various ways that they try to fix this, generally by putting more fats/oils on.

IMO I would rather have them prepared separately and combined at purchase time, even if it is the same ingredients that would be on a pre-prepared burger.

[GauntletWizard]

There's a real quality difference between a burger that's been reheated with bun next to meat and one without. The bun sucks a ton of moisture from the meat and makes it chewy, while becoming soggy itself. The burger is a lot colder in the center, while the outer edge of the bun becomes dry. You really do get a better experience heating them individually, even if just reheating the burger.

[jazzyjackson]

Right, I bet you could make a Jimmy-Dean vending machine that has an air-fryer conveyor belt on the way out, but you'd have a hard time finding investors because your robot isn't replacing fry-cooks. Actually I'd be surprised if this didn't already exist at truck stops next to the hot dog rollers.

[giantg2]

Or Japan (maybe not Jimmy Dean, but air fryer).

[krisoft]

> Part of me suspects the whole 'combining the meat with the bun' at-location component is kind of superfluous

Sounds like a simple experiment to make :) fry up a burger, assemble it, freeze it, and try to thaw it a few days later and see how you like it.

[djbusby]

White Castle already does that. Microwave sliders, big box at Walmart.