A Delphi-based conceptual framework for an AI-orchestrated cyber-physical food system: focusing on a Meta-Kitchen

This study proposes the Meta-Kitchen as a novel cyber-physical food system that integrates metaverse-based virtual cooking environments with real-world automated food production and delivery infrastructures. Moving beyond existing digital food platforms, the Meta-Kitchen enables users to perform cooking activities in immersive virtual environments, which are subsequently translated into executable processes by AI-driven orchestration systems and realized through robotic cloud kitchens and autonomous delivery networks. To evaluate the conceptual feasibility and strategic priorities of this system, a three-round Delphi study was conducted with 20 culinary experts. The findings indicate strong expert consensus regarding the platform’s potential to enhance ingredient efficiency, reduce food loss and waste, and enable new forms of virtualized food markets and collaborative culinary ecosystems. However, experts also identified critical challenges, including food safety risks, variability in AI-driven workflow interpretation and robotic execution precision, technological reliability, and digital inequality. Based on these findings, this study develops a conceptual framework for the Meta-Kitchen as a cyber-physical food system that connects virtual user interactions with physical food production through digital twin modeling and AI-driven workflow translation. The proposed framework provides theoretical insights into the design of a cyber-physical food system and offers practical implications for developing sustainable and intelligent culinary infrastructures.