With Tokyo-based AUTEC rolling out its newest sushi-making robots, sushi chefs can say sayonara to mushy hand-mixed rice and clumpy maki rolls.
The Nigiri Maker and Maki Master are machines that make it easier for caterers, university cafeterias and grocery stores to produce large quantities of sushi faster.
The Nigiri Maker produces uniform rice balls on which the seafood sits. The Maki Master puts a uniform amount of rice on seaweed and then rolls it into a maki roll.
AUTEC sells seven different robots for sushi, maki and nigiri. Some of the automatic robots are boxy contraptions. Workers feed the ingredients from the top and the machines crank out the roll from an opening at the bottom.
Tanaka runs the four-employee Torrance office of the $400 million-a-year company. The staff sells to high-volume sushi producers like supermarkets and college dining halls. Tanaka said he eventually wants to include hotels and casinos in his clientele.
Craig Tsuchiyama, the sushi merchandiser for Bristol Farms markets said AUTEC's Shari Mixer, which cooks sticky rice, "looks kind of like R2-D2," the stout droid in the "Star Wars" movies.
Though Bristol Farms doesn't use the sushi robots in its South Bay stores, Tsuchiyama said the
huge difference at the upscale grocer's San Francisco location, where they get five times more traffic than a typical store.
The United States has about 10,000 Japanese restaurants, according to a 2006 report by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The number of these eateries increased by 250 percent in a decade, the report says.
Japanese migrants have settled in the South Bay since the turn of the last century and have steadily increased in numbers since. Japanese businesses and corporations like Honda and Toyota both set up major operations in Torrance, too. That is why Tanaka calls the city a "secret Japanese town."
In 2008, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. reported that Torrance is home to 199 Japanese-owned businesses, second only to Los Angeles in California.
AUTEC's automated sushi robots are meant for large-scale production because of their $10,000 to $20,000 price tag, which Tanaka said is still cheaper than hiring a sushi chef.
For example, AUTEC's Maki Master robot lays out a set amount of rice on a sheet of seaweed, making it possible to produce up to 1,200 maki rolls an hour.
The robots mostly appeal to the pre-made sushi market and are used to save time constructing individual rolls.
Tanaka, 28, grew up in Japan and came to the United States in 2001. He has worked for AUTEC for five years and amassed more than 300 clients, he said.
AUTEC, short for Audio-Technica, originally manufactured record needles and headphones. In 1981, the company had a product idea contest that gave rise to a Hello Kitty toy sushi maker, Tanaka said. The toy is the predecessor of the Nigiri Maker, which relaunched in 2009 in its most compact form.
[ Dailybreeze ]
The Nigiri Maker and Maki Master are machines that make it easier for caterers, university cafeterias and grocery stores to produce large quantities of sushi faster.
The Nigiri Maker produces uniform rice balls on which the seafood sits. The Maki Master puts a uniform amount of rice on seaweed and then rolls it into a maki roll.
AUTEC sells seven different robots for sushi, maki and nigiri. Some of the automatic robots are boxy contraptions. Workers feed the ingredients from the top and the machines crank out the roll from an opening at the bottom.
Tanaka runs the four-employee Torrance office of the $400 million-a-year company. The staff sells to high-volume sushi producers like supermarkets and college dining halls. Tanaka said he eventually wants to include hotels and casinos in his clientele.
Craig Tsuchiyama, the sushi merchandiser for Bristol Farms markets said AUTEC's Shari Mixer, which cooks sticky rice, "looks kind of like R2-D2," the stout droid in the "Star Wars" movies.
Though Bristol Farms doesn't use the sushi robots in its South Bay stores, Tsuchiyama said the
huge difference at the upscale grocer's San Francisco location, where they get five times more traffic than a typical store.
The United States has about 10,000 Japanese restaurants, according to a 2006 report by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The number of these eateries increased by 250 percent in a decade, the report says.
Japanese migrants have settled in the South Bay since the turn of the last century and have steadily increased in numbers since. Japanese businesses and corporations like Honda and Toyota both set up major operations in Torrance, too. That is why Tanaka calls the city a "secret Japanese town."
In 2008, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. reported that Torrance is home to 199 Japanese-owned businesses, second only to Los Angeles in California.
AUTEC's automated sushi robots are meant for large-scale production because of their $10,000 to $20,000 price tag, which Tanaka said is still cheaper than hiring a sushi chef.
For example, AUTEC's Maki Master robot lays out a set amount of rice on a sheet of seaweed, making it possible to produce up to 1,200 maki rolls an hour.
The robots mostly appeal to the pre-made sushi market and are used to save time constructing individual rolls.
Tanaka, 28, grew up in Japan and came to the United States in 2001. He has worked for AUTEC for five years and amassed more than 300 clients, he said.
AUTEC, short for Audio-Technica, originally manufactured record needles and headphones. In 1981, the company had a product idea contest that gave rise to a Hello Kitty toy sushi maker, Tanaka said. The toy is the predecessor of the Nigiri Maker, which relaunched in 2009 in its most compact form.
[ Dailybreeze ]
0 comments:
Post a Comment