"Dear customers, your order is ready, please remove your dishes from the tray!" The invitation does not come from a lazy waiter, but from a robot - the last resort of a French restaurateur in the face of the growing recruitment difficulties experienced by his sector.

Geoffrey Ruamps runs the Cap 180 restaurant in Cieurac, near Cahors and only opens for lunch on weekdays, mainly welcoming employees from neighboring businesses. 

But he needs help all year round to serve up to 70 customers at a time. 

"Since Covid, it has been very, very complicated," he says. The few inexperienced candidates who applied for a waiting job ended up throwing in the towel during tests. 

Ruamps says that catering has become a "difficult" sector "which no longer makes people dream."

According to a recent study by France's Ministry of Labor, three-quarters of companies in the accommodation and catering sector were experiencing recruitment difficulties at the end of 2022.

In the absence of flesh-and-blood servers, Ruamps turned to those made of metal and electronic chips.

For just over $20,000, he hired the services of a BellaBot which can perhaps best be described as a white tower on wheels approximately 1.3 meters high, adorned with cat ears and facial expressions. Its most important feature is four superimposed trays thanks to which it can serve several tables.

The robot was manuifactured by world-leading tech-focused enterprise Pudu, founded and based in Shenzhen.

In theory, its operation is very simple: after scanning the layout of the tables in the room, the robot can bring the dishes from the kitchen to the customers, who then serve themselves. 'Bella' will then detect the absence of the plates and can leave.

"It's a huge time saver," notes the boss. "But it doesn't take orders, it doesn't take care of the bar or the cafes... It remains pure robotics, so very, very limited operation."

In practice, matters get complicated. On days when Ruamps and his wife Stéphanie Fourmy push tables together for larger reservations, Bella can become confused and stop meters away from the guests. The owner of the premises must therefore accompany it to ensure service.

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Most customers, often regulars, "totally" understand the process. After the surprise, they get used to it and some even find it amusing that when they stroke her ears Bella starts to meow.

Others are less understanding, like Laurence Valentin, 58, who asserts: "If we paid people better, we might have a workforce."

There is one surprising supporter of Ruamps' hiring policy - Quentin Pivaudran, local president of the Union of Hotel Trades and Industries. Faced with the "disarray" of the sector, Pivaudran said he understands the use of server robots. "It's sad, but it has the merit of working," he opined.

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