Marc Lore, the veteran e-commerce entrepreneur known for building and selling startups to Amazon and Walmart, has set his sights on revolutionizing the restaurant industry with artificial intelligence. At the heart of his latest venture, Wonder, lies an ambitious initiative called Wonder Create that promises to democratize restaurant ownership. According to Lore, anyone—from food entrepreneurs to social media influencers—will soon be able to design and launch their own restaurant brand in under a minute using AI. The virtual restaurant would then go live across Wonder’s growing network of tech-enabled kitchen locations, which currently number 120 and are expected to reach 400 next year.
Lore’s background in e-commerce is extensive. He co-founded Quidsi, the parent company of Diapers.com, which was acquired by Amazon in 2010 for $545 million. He later founded Jet.com, an e-commerce platform that Walmart bought in 2016 for $3.3 billion. After serving as Walmart’s head of e-commerce in the U.S., Lore left in 2021 to focus on Wonder, a vertically integrated dining and delivery platform that has evolved from food trucks to fast casual restaurants with 10 to 20 seats. These are not ordinary restaurants, however. They are what Lore calls “programmable cooking platforms” capable of operating as 25 different types of restaurants based on cuisine, all within all-electric kitchens that are increasingly becoming robotic.
The Wonder Create Initiative
Wonder Create was announced earlier this year as a way for anyone to use Wonder’s software to launch their own restaurant brand and recipes. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything conference, Lore elaborated on how AI would drive this process. He described the concept as something akin to a “Shopify front end with an AI prompt.” Users would type in what kind of restaurant they want to build, and AI would generate the entire brand in under a minute. This includes the name, branding, description, pictures, pricing, health information, and all the recipes for the restaurant. Users could then refine the prompt if changes were needed. When ready, the restaurant would go live across all of Wonder’s locations.
The kitchens themselves are a marvel of engineering and automation. Each location features a 700-ingredient library, allowing the platform to prepare a wide variety of cuisines. The “restaurants” within these spaces are actually multiple different brands that operate from the same kitchen. Up to 12 staff members work alongside cooking technology such as conveyors and robotic arms. Wonder recently acquired Spice Robotics, a maker of an automatic bowl-making machine previously used by Sweetgreen. Next year, the company plans to introduce an “infinite sauce machine” capable of producing about 80% of all the sauces found in recipes on the internet today.
Scaling and Automation
Wonder currently has 120 of these programmable cooking platforms in operation, with plans to expand to 400 next year. Lore emphasized that adding robotics does not necessarily mean reducing headcount. Instead, it increases the number of meals a kitchen can produce in a given period. He noted that with 12 people, a kitchen currently has a throughput capacity of about 7 million meals per year. The company sees a path to reaching 20 million meals per year from the same 2,500 square feet with the same 12 people. The ultimate goal, by 2035, is to have 1,000 unique restaurant brands operating out of a single 2,500-square-foot kitchen.
Targeting Influencers and Entrepreneurs
The AI-created restaurants are designed to allow people to experiment with food in new ways. For example, a restaurateur could test recipes to gauge customer reaction before adding dishes to their own brick-and-mortar locations. Lore sees other use cases as well, particularly for influencers looking to connect with their audience through their own restaurant brands without having to launch physical chains. “It could be a mega-influencer, a micro-influencer—anyone that wants to monetize their following,” Lore said. “Or it could be a private trainer that wants to make specific bowls. It could be a not-for-profit. It could be Disney for marketing their new movie. Anybody can make a restaurant.”
While the vision is compelling, the ghost kitchen concept has faced significant challenges in the past. In the early 2020s, several high-profile ghost kitchen operators scaled back or shut down after struggling to build customer loyalty. MrBeast Burger, a famous ghost kitchen experiment, illustrated the difficulties. The brand faced widespread complaints over inconsistent food quality, a consequence of relying on dozens of different contracted kitchens and staff. Wonder’s programmable, increasingly automated kitchens are designed to solve that exact problem by ensuring consistent preparation and quality across all locations.
Limitations and Acquisitions
Despite the advanced technology, there are still limitations. Wonder’s team, including its robots, cannot toss and stretch pizza dough or slice and roll sushi. Instead, the focus remains on simpler basics such as burgers, chicken wings, fried chicken, and bowls. Lore’s broader strategy involves integrating several recent acquisitions. Wonder acquired Grubhub, which handles 250 million deliveries per year, and Blue Apron, a meal kit business. These acquisitions provide the logistics and supply chain backbone for Wonder’s operations. Additionally, Wonder has been buying restaurant brands, such as New York City-based Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken, which it purchased for $6.5 million in February. “When you buy a brand—and you can buy a brand that has 10 locations, or even 50 locations—and then overnight put it in 1,000, there’s just an incredible arbitrage there,” Lore explained.
Wonder’s approach represents a fundamental shift in how food can be prepared, branded, and delivered. By combining AI-driven menu creation, robotic cooking, and a distributed network of programmable kitchens, Lore hopes to unlock new opportunities for entrepreneurs and large brands alike. The company is currently focused on scaling its physical infrastructure and refining its AI tools. With 400 kitchens planned for next year and a growing library of ingredients and recipes, Wonder is positioning itself at the intersection of technology and food service.
Source: TechCrunch News