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Does L.A. Need a Pizza Vending Machine?
Are blistered wood-fired crusts, fresh sauces, and hand picked basil a thing of the past? (Photo credit: Krista Simmons)
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For pizza purists like Sotto and Pizzeria Mozza, a vending machine that pumps out pies might sound like a sick, sad joke. Well, it is sick and somewhat sad, but this is no prank. Italian company Let's Pizza has targeted a Florida theme park for the first location for their automated dough-slinging machine, with plans to expand throughout the U.S. The strangest part is how the company's demo video seems so proud that the product is "made without being touched by human hands" in a "human free environment." So much for that romantic vision of a pizzaiolo tossing dough in the air, huh? Between this and the Japanese robots that make okonomiyaki, we wonder if the future of food even has a place for a real live chefs.
We hope we won't see that extreme level of mechanization in our lifetime, but these vending machines do tend to get quite the following. Just look at how popular the Beverly Hills Sprinkles vending machine became. But is it really practical? There are plenty of pizza joints where you can order up a slice and have it warmed and ready within the two and a half minutes that Let's Pizza takes.
Here's a video of how the contraption works.
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