Founder Of Robot Chef Wants To Move Manufacturing From China To Cheyenne

The maker of an AI-powered robot chef that cooks for you wants to move its manufacturing from China to Cheyenne. Sleek and white, the devices sit in a Cheyenne warehouse hiding inside nondescript cardboard boxes. They do not look like robots; they more resemble an Instant Pot or slow cooker. But this gadget is not a glorified crockpot. It is an AI-assisted robot that can make your choice of dishes from start to finish at the push of a button.

The concept is simple. You chop up the recipe’s ingredients and place them in one of six dispensers plus a liquid reservoir. Then, push a button and let the robot chef do the rest. It dispenses ingredients at the proper time and does all the stirring so nothing burns. All you do is return with a plate once the app notifies you that dinner is served.

Foodease CEO Kishore Kodru, normally a real estate developer and business owner in Cheyenne, has become one of the primary beta testers. He has used it to make everything from Kung Pao chicken and Thai red curry to chicken Alfredo and Mexican rice. His favorite is chicken pepper fry, but fettuccini Alfredo has been the most popular by far. “That one had 70 million views on our Instagram page,” he said. “It’s one single dish, so you don’t need a side dish.” Butter chicken has 50 million views. Seeing that engagement, Kodru decided, “We’re going to put our lives into this.”

All Foodease devices now are labeled “made in China.” But Kodru wants that to change to “Made in Cheyenne, Wyoming.” He is betting that new federal tax breaks in the “Big Beautiful Bill” will give him enough financial room to uproot manufacturing from China. The bill includes a provision that allows him to write off certain costs of standing up a manufacturing facility in Cheyenne. “That’s a great thing, because it fuels more investments and also creates more jobs here,” he said. “And then the shipping cost is also saved.”

The threshold for uprooting manufacturing is at least 3,000 orders. The company has 330 without any advertising yet. Kodru is focused on beta testing the first 1,000 manufactured units, shipping a few dozen at a time. “Eventually, our plan is to order 3,000 more units from China,” he said. “And when those hit sold and we know we actually have good traction … that’s the point we will want to manufacture here.” He estimates that if they are doing 5,000 units per month, they will employ close to 50 to 60 people.

Wyoming Works Director Rocky Case noted headwinds: some parts cannot be competitively made in the U.S. yet, so an international supply chain remains necessary. Brian Gross, a Cheyenne resident who has built factories globally, pointed to legal risks: in America, everyone connected to anything that goes wrong can be sued. “Whenever there’s a house fire, they sue the coffee maker guy, the microwave guy,” he said. “It’s $20,000, $30,000, and not one time has it been our fault, but I have to eat that cost.”

To mitigate labor costs, Kodru is working with Laramie County Community College on robotics and automation. “LCCC is helping educate us to understand how to be productive with robotics,” he said. “That is also going to help upskill the labor that we’re going to hire.” Early testers Wendy Volk and her husband called the device fun. “We look forward to getting our own and testing more recipes!” Volk said.