The Main Course Buck Jordan

The adoption of robotics and automation has grown across many
industries, and food service is starting to embrace it. The
interest and evolution began with challenges regarding labor
costs and high turnover. Every investment starts with a strong
problem—that’s the thought of Buck Jordan, CEO of Miso Robotics,
a long-time technology innovator and investor.


In developing robotics to work in a quick-serve restaurant
environment, Jordan and his team worked with CaliBurgers, getting
advice from actual users. They started with the grill,
introducing Flippy. The first try at the spatula didn’t impress
the restaurant owner. “We got constant input from the food
operator, so innovation was faster,” Jordan added.


The first Flippy mechanism could work the grill and fryers but
was on a cart in the aisleway. That wasn’t going to work for
mobility, so they move it to a rail system.


Miso partnered with White Castle, which began deploying Flippy in
July 2020, months after the pandemic. Restaurants were facing new
challenges, disrupting the entire foodservice ecosystem.


Flippy became an important tool. It could handle most of the back
of house cooking while employees moved to the front line. Jordan
also explained its integration with food delivery apps.


“It knows when delivery drivers are going to arrive and can
calculate when to finish the meal so that it’s ready when the
driver arrives,” he said.


What’s next for Flippy and the future of kitchens? The company is
working on more automation software for its platform as well as
getting costs down. Jordan said, “Automation is a necessity now
for restaurants to keep the doors open. In the next 10 years,
technology will evolve. Kitchens could become completely
autonomous,” he said.


And anyone can be part of the Flippy revolution because the
company uses crowdfunding for financing, just one more way the
company is an innovator in the space.