Elon Musk’s Culina: The robot chef that’s out-cooking humans

Updated March 31, 2025, 5:41 a.m. | By East Coast Breakfast / Skyye Ndlovu

Elon Musk’s new AI chef cooks better than professional chefs. Should we be worried?

Tesla Culina Robot — SpaceXtechnology / Facebook

Elon Musk has done it again.

Just when we thought self-driving cars and interplanetary travel were his biggest priorities, he’s now redefined the future of food.

Meet Culina – the $5,000 (about R92,000) robotic chef that doesn’t just cook meals; it masters them.

That’s right. While the rest of us are still burning toast and overcooking pasta, Musk’s AI-powered chef is whipping up Michelin-star-worthy dishes with mechanical precision.

According to some early users, Culina actually cooks better than professional chefs.

Cue the existential crisis for anyone in the food industry.

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What exactly is Culina?

Imagine Gordon Ramsay, but without the insults. Or a culinary student who never forgets a recipe, burns a dish or complains about long hours in the kitchen.

That’s Culina.

Developed by Tesla’s food technology division (because apparently, that’s a thing now), Culina is a fully autonomous cooking robot that does everything – from chopping ingredients to plating your food like an Instagram-worthy masterpiece.

Here’s what this kitchen wizard can do:

Prepare thousands of recipes with flawless execution

Learn new cooking techniques using AI updates

Adjust flavours based on your taste preferences

Operate completely on its own (no human intervention required)

It even comes with voice commands, so you can casually say, “Hey Culina, make me a five-course meal”, and it’ll just do it.

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Now, the big question is: Is Culina better than a human chef? Well, that’s exactly what the internet is saying.

Early users claim Culina’s cooking is so precise, consistent, and ridiculously good that it might just put human chefs out of business.

Need a steak cooked to the exact level of doneness you like? Culina’s on it.

Craving an intricate French pastry? It’ll roll, knead, and bake with robotic perfection.

And unlike us mere mortals, Culina doesn’t make mistakes. No under-seasoning. No overcooked pasta. No “Oops, I forgot the salt.”

Every dish comes out perfect every single time.

Of course, not everyone is thrilled. The restaurant industry is already side-eyeing this technological takeover.

After all, if Culina can cook better, faster, and cheaper than a professional chef, what happens to the thousands of people working in kitchens around the world?

Some argue that Culina won’t replace chefs, but rather assist them, taking over tedious tasks like chopping onions and stirring sauces so humans can focus on creativity.

Others worry that once restaurants realise they can cut labour costs, they’ll swap out people for robots faster than you can say “automated gastronomy”.

Either way, the culinary world is officially shook.

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