Flippy, a robot chef, can now prepare 300 burgers per night. He can also prepare baskets of fries to fill the deep-fat fryer.
Built by Miso Robotics, a food services startup from Pasadena, California, it is now capable of working an entire fry station and can do twice as many food preparation jobs as the first Flippy, including basket filling, emptying, and returning.
White Castle has partnered up with Miso to help with the Flippy project. This feedback has allowed the startup and startup to improve its product’s functionality.
They deployed the Flippy to a Chicagoland area location in September 2020.

Flippy, a robot chef, can now prepare 300 burgers per-day and can also fill up baskets with fries and place them in the deep-fat fryer.

Miso Robotics, an innovative food service startup from Pasadena California, built it. It can now work an entire fry station, and can do twice the food preparation jobs of the first Flippy. This includes basket filling, emptying and returning.
The back-of-house position in quick-service restaurants has been traditionally labor-intensive and physically demanding. It can also pose a danger due to the proximity to hot oils and grills in small kitchens. Miso was inspired to find a safer alternative.
Flippy 2 is their second iteration. It is designed to maximize efficiency in the kitchen while working alongside human coworkers.
White Castle claims it was ‘impressed’ and ‘pleased’ by the productivity gains of Flippy in its kitchen. Flippy helped team members stay in their designated areas, reducing the need for them to jump into another area.
However, employees noted during the pilot that there was a need for human assistance on both sides of the robot – from the initial point of contact with the uncooked product to when the cooked food gets placed in the holding area.
This meant that one or two employees were required at several steps.
Flippy 2 was created to automate basket management. This made the cooking process less seamless.
“We learned so much through Flippy’s partnership with Miso Robotics. Jamie Richardson Vice President at White Castle said that it’s amazing how we can provide better service and more delicious food to our customers.
The flippy 2 does not eliminate the need for people, it just makes the fry station, even during peak times, less of a full-time job, so staff can focus on other tasks.

White Castle has partnered Miso on Flippy, providing feedback that has allowed Miso to improve the product’s functionality

Among the new features on Flippy 2 are a brand new AutoBin™ system for lower volume and speciality foods like onion rings or chicken tenders.
Each bin can hold up to a full fry pan. It can also be customized for specific kitchen needs and delineated for individual products such as vegetables or fish to prevent cross-contamination.
Once the product is in the bin, artificial Intelligence kicks in to automatically identify the food, cook it in the correct pan, and place it in a storage area.
This reduces the overall human to food contact according to Miso. It also reduces oil drip and burns by lifting moving baskets.
Flippy 2 is able to operate on its own without human intervention.

Among the new features on Flippy 2 are a brand new AutoBin™ system for lower volume and speciality foods like onion rings or chicken tenders

Each bin can hold up to a full fry pan. It can be customized for your kitchen’s needs and delineated for specific products such as vegetables or fish to prevent cross-contamination
‘This makes the system faster, increasing throughput by 30% – or around 60 baskets per hour – which is more than what is needed in high-volume restaurants.’
Mike Bell, CEO, Miso Robotics, stated that Flippy 2 is a great technology. He said that Flippy 2 has improved significantly over its predecessor.
The new Flippy 2 basket filling, emptying and return capabilities make it less bulky in the kitchen.
Since Flippy’s conception, our goal was to create a customisable solution that works with any kitchen without causing disruption.
‘Flippy 2 is the only robotic fry-station currently being manufactured at scale and has more than 120 configurations.
Miso Robotics has a number of pilot agreements with leading national brands, including its partnership with Inspire Brands.