Kinhtedothi - The program "Pho So Ha Thanh" - the highlight of the Hanoi Food Festival 2024, has really left many impressions. During the 3 days (from November 28 to December 1) of the festival, the Pho So stalls attracted a lot of tourists thanks to the appearance of serving robots.
The program “Pho So Ha Thanh” is organized within the framework of the Hanoi Culinary Culture Festival in 2024, to honor Hanoi’s traditional pho and introduce to the people “Pho So” with a completely different perspective on the application of technology and digital transformation in the Vietnamese culinary industry. Guests have the opportunity to experience Hanoi’s typical traditional pho dishes, and “Pho So” with smart robots performing production and service tasks…
During the festival, “digital pho” became the most popular stall. Many visitors were looking forward to enjoying pho made by robots, which would have a different taste than that of human-made pho.
At the Pho So counter, to reserve a table and choose a dish, diners must use their phones to scan the QR code. The Pho cooking robot is a mechanical arm programmed to perform a number of operations such as arranging ingredients and pouring pho broth into bowls. The ingredients to make a bowl of pho are placed in small bowls and placed at certain fixed table locations. The robot will reach out to pick up and clamp the trays of ingredients and pour them into the bowl.
For simple tasks such as pouring ingredients into a bowl, the robot can take 3 to 4 minutes each time. The robot's clamp has a force sensor, so if there is a problem that causes the clamping force to be insufficient, it will send a signal to the machine for the staff to adjust. Because the robot is not yet complete and is for a short-term demonstration, the stall only serves rare and well-done pho. After finishing a bowl of pho, the robot will pass the bowl to another robot to deliver to a table where the customer has previously "ordered".
Along with the robot, employees still appear at the counter to perform some portioning steps such as weighing and dividing ingredients... Employees also have to monitor the robot's operation to ensure robot control when an error occurs...
Curious about the robot model at the “pho so” counter, Mr. Dang Minh Chien and his wife (Ba Dinh district) lined up to experience it. “The pho making robot is really interesting. It performs many steps to help people. In the future, if this model is developed, it will support people a lot,” said Mr. Dang Minh Chien.
Ms. Bach Thi Dung (Ha Dong district) is willing to travel a long distance to the festival and shares: "In previous years, I also went to the Hanoi Food Culture Festival, but there was no robot selling pho. This is the first time I have seen a robot selling pho and I feel quite excited, surprised and really want to experience it. Because there are many customers and the robot performs the movements quite slowly, I have to wait a long time. But to enjoy a delicious bowl of pho and see modern technology like this, I think it is completely worth it" Ms. Bach Thi Dung shared.
In addition to honoring traditional pho, through the program "Pho So Ha Thanh" also aims to promote the heritage of "Pho Ha Noi" as a national intangible cultural heritage. Thereby, contributing to the development of the culinary cultural industry, to propose the policy of allowing the construction of a national dossier of "Pho", and to request UNESCO to include it in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
According to Dr. Pham Thi Lan Anh - Head of Heritage Management Department (Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports), the highlight of the Hanoi Food Culture Festival 2024 is "digital pho" with robots participating in some stages. In 2016, the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports conducted an inventory of the national intangible cultural heritage, including pho. The initial criteria were not to consider the popularity of pho but folk knowledge. This means that the role of artisans and practitioners is an important factor. Thereby, it is further affirmed that technology cannot replace artisans, but it can support and effectively perform the role of serving customers.
The representative of the organizing committee also affirmed that robots cannot completely replace humans in cooking and serving pho. The current device is just a test version to bring new and interesting experiences to diners at the Hanoi Food Festival 2024. Developing and replicating this special model is still a story in the future...
Traditional Pho is not only preserved but also strongly developed in the digital age and is a creative product of Hanoi in the cultural industry. Also through technology, contributing to bringing Pho - a symbol of the rich cuisine of Hanoians in particular, Vietnamese people in general, beyond the territory, reaching the world culinary level. Thanks to that, Hanoi Pho has created its own mark and makes tourists unable to not try Pho when coming to the Capital.
Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/dau-an-pho-so-gop-phan-ton-vinh-pho-truyen-thong.html
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