Assaf Pashut hopes to cook up a deal for Chefee, his robotic kitchen, in Shark Tank episode 1515. Pashut first envisioned a robotic kitchen that would prepare his grandmother’s recipes for hiin the fall of 2020. It was the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic and he’s just closed his 5 Flying Falafel restaurants. Pashut was famous for flinging falafel into his customer’s mouths. He kept his mobile food truck open but it was in a wreck, so he embarked on the journey of creating Chefee.
Now, he has a fully functional, patented machine that fits into virtually any modern kitchen. It’ll even order the groceries for you. They aren’t for sale yet as the company is in a pre-seed funding stage, but its release is eminent. They’ve raised at least $500,000 to date.
The robot kitchen promises to cut costs for restaurants and reduce food waste. It’ll also save home cooks a lot of time. Given that the company is pre-seed, Pashut likely wants a Shark’s cash to get the product into production.
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Chefee Shark Tank Recap
Assaf enters the Shark Tank seeking $500,000 for 4% equity in his company. We all know how hard it can be cooking healthy, fresh meals while juggling our busy lives. Many miilions of parents around the world care about nutrition, but they hate cooking. They either don’t know how to do it, don’t have time to do it or they just plain suck at it. What if all that could change? What if cooking was so easy you could literally walk into your home and talk to your kitchen? Sounds like science fiction? Not any more. Forget self driving cars and start thinking self cooking kitchens.
Introducing Chefee, the world’s first embedded robotic chef. It does meal planning, cooking and even orders groceries. Once a week, you restock ingredients. Then open the Chefee app, place an order and Chefee does the rest. It weighs, combines, dispenses and cooks the meal. He asks the Sharks “who’s ready to bring personal, private chefs to everyone with Chefee?”
Q&A
In front of the Sharks are 3 dishes Chefee prepared: Spanish paella, spicy ratatouille, and tofu tikka masala. The Sharks like the food. Assaf explains that you can customize recipes in the app. The Sharks want to see it work so Assaf orders a meal with the app. Chefee springs to life, rising from out of the counter. First it takes the lid off the cooker. Chefee is in 2 parts: upper and lower. The upper part, which fits into a standard kitchen cabinet, stores and dispenses ingredients. As he’s explaing this, Chefee is dispensing and weighing the ingredients.
The left side of the upper portion is refrigerated. To supply Chefee, you need to integrate with Amazon Fresh. Once Chefee finishes dispensing ingredients, it pours it into the cooker. They aren’t reinventing the wheel, they’re applying robotics to cookers. Chefee can be installed in any modern kitchen in the world.
The Numbers
Chefee can cost as low as $9500. The premium version is going to be between $40,000 to $50,000. The premium version allows for more ingredients so you can make a lot more recipes. Assaf tells the Sharks the company is pre-revenue. They are using social media and organic marketing and they’ve shown it to builders, designers and high end kitchen appliance companies. They are considering licensing the technology to appliance companies like Sub Zero, whose CEO loved Chefee.
They’ve installed 3 Chefees in total. 1 in their HQ, 1 in an investor’s home and the mobile one here in the Tank. He wants to raise $500,000 to get to manufacturing. He doesn’t want to over promise and under deliver. To date, he raised $450,000 and he put $90,000 of his own money in. A Chefee costs $1500 for materials and $1000 in labor.
Is Anybody In?
Mark says it’s not a robotics company, it’s an integration company. Assaf sayys they are a robotics company. They have patents pending for the entire system, the custom parts and the embedded form factor. He spent 8000 hours on this. He’s learned mechanical engineering and 3D printing. He slept under the 3D printers in the office for weeks to get this done. They may not be producing the motors, but they’re integrating the robotics systems. Mark shouts “That’s an integrater!” He says there’s nothing wrong with that, but he has to say who he is.
Mark says investors should be throwing money at him. Kevin wants to know who will maintain it if it stops working. Anyone can maintain it with their videos, they just need plumbing experience. Barbara doesn’t trust the execution; she’s out. Robert thinks the design is elegant but he doesn’t see the market; he’s out. Lori doesn’t know how this will adopt in the future; she’s out. Kevin isn’t worried about the price. He knows there’s a high-end market for tricking out kitchens. Kevin is choking on the valuation because he knows he’ll get diluted.
Kevin offers $500,000 for 15%. Mark thinks it looks great, but he doesn’t think he hasn’t described the technology or not; he’s out. Assaf counters with 8%. Kevin thinks licensing is the way to go. Assaf counters with 12% and Mr. Wonderful holds firm. Assaf accepts the deal.
Chefee Shark Tank Update
The Shark Tank Blog constantly provides updates and follow-ups about entrepreneurs who have appeared on the Shark Tank TV show.
As of June, 2024, when the first re-run of this episode aired, there is no hard evidence the deal with Kevin has closed. This is only 3 months after the original air date. Kevin is prominently referenced on the Chefee website however. In June, 2024, the company is taking “reservations” for December, 2024 delivery. “Early bird” orders get $1000 in free groceries and $1000 off the price. There is a refundable $250 reservation fee. The fully refrigerated, premium version will cost more than $50,000.
The Shark Tank Blog will follow-up on Chefee & Assaf Pashut as more details become available.
