Hungry for pizza while at CES? Robotics will help

Considering they’ll be surrounded by the high-tech products of the 4,400 companies exhibiting at CES next week, it seems fitting that some of the 175,000 attendees will be eating pizza prepared by a machine.

Centerplate, the food and beverage provider at the Las Vegas Convention Center — the largest of the 11 CES venues — partnered with food-production-technology company Picnic to use its robotic technology to produce customized pizzas on the show floor. Attendees will be able to see the operation, which will be next to booth 21667 in South Hall 1 of the convention center (CES is not open to the public).

In a telephone interview, Picnic CEO Clayton Wood conceded that the system in use at CES won’t be all that fun to watch, but said the company has tested a tabletop version.

“The customers got excited,” he said, while the one at CES is “not quite the same thing. It’s back-of-the-house, not designed as a showpiece. I fully expect we’ll be making one that has some entertainment value in the future.”

The robotic system, which uses AI, cloud and automation technology, can make 300 12-inch pizzas in a hour. While the pies can be customized and any dough or toppings can be used, the convention center operation will use frozen dough to make cheese, pepperoni or sausage pizzas.

“It’s the same pizza they would normally make; we’re just making it automatically,” Wood said.

The system also can be used to produce sandwiches, salads, bowls and tacos.

“We’re starting with pizza because pizza is very popular,” Wood said. He added that the current shortage of skilled labor affects the consistency of pizza-making, which the system eliminates.

Picnic’s system is in use at T-Mobile Park, the home of the Seattle Mariners. Wood said there’s a potential for a system that would enable a customer to order a customized pizza on their phone on their way to the park and pick it up on the concourse, eliminating “long lines for bad food at the stadium.”

Al Mancini contributed to this report. Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at Hrinella@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474. Follow @HKRinella on Twitter.