Robotic Cook, Food Preparer, and Bartender

choi

Alana Semuels, Iron Chefs; How automation is transforming the restaurant industry. The Atlantic, January/February, 2018.
https://www.theatlantic.com/maga ... /iron-chefs/546581/

Quote:

(a) "Visitors to henn-na, a restaurant outside Nagasaki, Japan, are greeted by a peculiar sight: their food being prepared by a row of humanoid robots that bear a passing resemblance to the Terminator. The “head chef,” incongruously named Andrew, specializes in okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake. Using his two long arms, he stirs batter in a metal bowl, then pours it onto a hot grill. While he waits for the batter to cook, he talks cheerily in Japanese about how much he enjoys his job. His robot colleagues, meanwhile, fry donuts, layer soft-serve ice cream into cones, and mix drinks. One made me a gin and tonic.

"H.I.S., the company that runs the restaurant, as well as a nearby hotel where robots check guests into their rooms and help with their luggage, turned to automation partly out of necessity. Japan's population is shrinking * * *

(b) "one of the few bright spots [in American economy] in recent years has been employment in restaurants and hotels, which have added more jobs than almost any other sector. That growth, in fact, has helped dull the blow that automation has delivered to other industries. The food-service and accommodation sector now employs 13.7 million Americans, up 38 percent since 2000. Since 2013, it has accounted for more jobs than manufacturing.

Note:
(a) There is  no need to read the rest.
(b)
(i) There is no video clips (or photos) for the restaurant, so I do not know whether to believe this report or not.
(ii) The restaurant is attached to "Henn-Na Hotel 変なホテル" in Nagasaki 長崎(市). The "hen" is Chinese pronunciation for kanji 変. In addition to its traditional meaning in Chinese language (as in kanji phrase: 永久不変), there is an indigenous meaning (strange, odd). The "na" functions similarly to suffixes: "ful" (as in beautiful) and "ous" (as in bountiful) converts a noun to an adjective  -- "able" converts a verb to an adjective --. but "na" is not part of the new word  (but two separate words) in Japanese.
(iii) H.I.S. Co, Ltd is a travel agency based in Tokyo "founded as International Tours Co, Ltd in 1980 by Hideo SAWADA 澤田 秀雄, born in 1951, and renamed 'H.I.S.' in 1990."  en.wikipedia.org.
The acronym (HIS) is not explained in the company website. I find nothing in the Web. My suspicion is that H and S came from the founder's name and I, from International ib the former name of the company.

(c)
(i) Iron Chef  料理の鉄人
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Chef
(料理の鉄人 1993-1999 + Iron Chef  アイアンシェフ  2012- )
(ii) Iron Chef America
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Chef_America
(2004- )
, followed Iron Chef USA (two episodes in 2001.

(d)
(i) Okonomiyaki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki
(ii) Japanese-English dictionary:
* okonomiyaki お好み焼き (n): "savoury pancake containing meat or seafood and vegetables"  (Represented by the kanji 御, the "o" is an honorific, showing respect.)
   ^ konomi 好み 【このみ】 (n): "liking; taste; choice  <干物は私の好みに合わない。 Dried fish is not to my taste>"