Stellar Pizza

"In a brick-lined industrial building in Hawthorne, a bright-red canopy and an equally red truck sit outside the entrance to Stellar Pizza, a startup that hopes to introduce the first fully functional pizza robot to Southern California. The idea is simple: make pizzas to order in a fast, functionable, controllable way, spitting out gently charred and bubbling pies after four quick minutes." - Matthew Kang

"Stellar Pizza, a startup, is situated in a brick-lined industrial building in Hawthorne. Founded by former SpaceX engineers Benson Tsai, Brian Langone, and James Wahawisan, the company aims to introduce a pizza robot to Southern California. The machine is designed to make pizzas to order quickly and efficiently, producing gently charred and bubbling pies in four minutes. The robot is fully mobile and will operate from a truck, serving long-fermented dough pizzas. It employs technology developed by 23 SpaceX engineers and includes culinary expertise from former SpaceX culinary director Ted Cizma and dough consultant Noel Brohner. The pizza-making process is automated, with a crane picking up dough, a press forming the crust, a conveyor belt adding sauce and cheese, and a guillotine slicing pepperoni. The pizzas are cooked in a tower of steel ovens, each with three heating elements mimicking a wood-fired oven. The final product is intended to be affordable, with prices starting at $7 for a cheese pizza. The company plans to control quality and marketing locally, with hopes to compete with major pizza chains like Domino's and Pizza Hut." - Matthew Kang