Italians grapple with the convenience and cultural terror of a pizza vending machine

[peppertree]

The Mr. Go Pizza machine is a marvel of modern engineering. After a customer selects one of its varieties, which range in price from €4.50 to €6, the good Signore Pizza kneads, seasons, tops, and cooks a fresh pizza in three minutes.

The whole process is visible through a little window. It’s great.

And yet, despite the miracle this technology represents, Reuters’ interviews with locals show that the development of an automatic pizza maker has prompted the kind of reactions that might be expected from someone suggesting a robot raise their baby.

One man says Mr. Go’s pizza “looks good but it is much smaller than in a restaurant and there [are] less topping[s].” Another customer says “it’s OK but it’s not pizza” while a woman named Gina “rejected the concept outright.”

“Terrible,” Gina said. “Pizza really needs to be eaten hot, immediately. This doesn’t work for me.”

At: https://news.avclub.com/italians-grapple-with-the-convenience-and-cultural-terr-1846844796

Ma che cazzo è questo?: Claudio Zampiga inspects the outcome at Rome's first automatic pizza vending machine - capable of kneading, seasoning and cooking a pizza in three minutes.

It remains to be seen how Italians will react to the device, in a country where customers are accustomed to watching a pizzaiolo prepare pizza in a wood-burning brick oven within sight of your table.