Zume Pizza Unveils New Bake-and-Take Robot to Make Pizza Prep Safer Than Ever Before

Zume Pizza, one of the fastest growing companies combining people and tech to transform the way food is sourced, made and delivered, today announces the addition of Vincenzo, the smartest and most precise food robot, to its co-botic kitchen. In addition, Zume Pizza welcomes Rhonda Lesinski-Woolf as President of the company as it fulfills its mission of making healthier food more accessible by modernizing the workforce, reskilling employees, and investing in higher-quality ingredients.

Key to employee satisfaction and safety, Vincenzo is responsible for recognizing when a pizza crust hits peak par bake perfection before strategically taking out each crust from the kitchen’s 800-degree oven and moving it into a 1.25”, 27 shelved pie rack. Vincenzo leverages its six-axis mobility, speed, and accuracy to index one of these shelves, filling four separate racks at a time. Without tearing the dough or dropping toppings, it can fill an entire pie rack within four and a half minutes. Vincenzo bases its decisions on Zume Pizza’s proprietary predictive analytics to recognize which pie corresponds with each rack slot. So when delivery drivers load the racks onto the Food Delivery Vehicles, based on the predicted demand of each neighborhood Zume Pizza serves.

With one-third of occupational burns occurring in restaurants, Zume Pizza sees a better way forward, using human-centric automation to make its kitchen one of the safest in the world.

Now, one of Zume Pizza’s head pizzaiolos no longer has to stick his arms in and out of the 800-degree oven hundreds of times a day and instead can focus on the sacred task of nurturing the Poolish Dough -- the traditional Italian way of making dough, in the style of Mother Dough, that makes the company’s pizza so tasty -- which requires daily attention to maintain. Known by staff as ‘Uncle Bob’, Robert Medina, who has been in the pizza business for over six years, joined Zume Pizza in 2016 specifically for his expertise in artisanal dough. Now with Vincenzo, he spends more of his day preparing dough and cooking from scratch, and will not have to endure what pizzaiolos refer to ‘kitchen kisses,’ or oven burns anymore.

“As we continue to grow and scale across new food types and markets, it’s imperative that we create an environment that’s safe and fulfilling for our employees and that we continue to build a dream team of executive leadership,” says Alex Garden, CEO and Chairman of Zume, Inc. “With the addition of Rhonda and Vincenzo, we’re designing a workplace that’s creating meaningful careers all while upending the food delivery industry.”

The company is also welcoming Rhonda Lesinski-Woolf as President of Zume Pizza. Most recently, Lesinski-Woolf served as the Senior Vice President of Schools for Revolution Foods. Prior to that, Lesinski-Woolf spent a decade at Del Monte, culminating as Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Product Management. Joining Zume Pizza as the company continues its rapid expansion plans for 2018, Lesinski will focus on scaling the company across new markets.

”After years spent cultivating a deep understanding of the food industry, I’m proud to be joining a team that’s taking on the biggest issues in food delivery,” stated Rhonda Lesinski-Woolf, President of Zume Pizza. “I am thrilled to be joining such a high caliber team, well-equipped to meet the challenge.”

Lesinski-Woolf joins the company’s growing team of world-class executives, including Chris Satchell, former Chief Product Officer at Comcast who recently joined as CTO of Zume, Inc., Kira Druyan, who joined Zume, Inc. as General Counsel after spending more than a decade in Starbucks’ law department, most recently as VP for Channel Development l, and Ron Storn as Chief People Officer, who formerly served as Vice President of People for Lyft.

This news follows Zume’s recently announced partnership with Welbilt Inc. (NYSE: WBT), the leading global supplier of commercial foodservice equipment, to introduce new Food Delivery Vehicles that are equipped with hyper-efficient, custom-built appliances that can be customized for any food partner.

To​ see open positions at Zume Pizza, visit: boards.greenhouse.io/zume

To order a Zume Pizza today, go to ZumePizza.com or download the app in the App Store or Google Play.

About Zume Pizza:

At Zume, we love pizza. It’s just one of those simple, favorite foods that can be made to please any taste. And when it’s made with wholesome ingredients of the highest quality and freshness, it’s irresistible. Pizza delivery is a $40B a year industry in America that impacts the health and well-being of people and the planet. Zume has established a formula for partnering people with technology that creates a more thoughtful and efficient way to source, make, bake and deliver pizza. In the process, we’re delivering an artisan pizza that takes care of the people who eat it and make it and even takes better care of the planet we all love. Learn more at ZumePizza.com

Contact Information

Maggie Philbin

Associate Director

VSC for Zume

media@zumepizza.com