Regular readers of this blog know I’ve been questioning exactly why fast-food chains continue to use low-paid teenage labor to make their food, especially in light of PR fiascos like the Domino’s workers who put boogers in sandwiches or the Burger King employee who took a bath in a restaurant sink.

As if on cue, a pair of entrepreneurs are coming to the rescue with pizza-making vending machines. Over in Europe, “Let’s Pizza” has a machine that can create a pie in about three minutes at a cost of five euros. The machine lets the customer pick their toppings, then watch as the pizza is assembled and cooked. Here’s a Reuters report on the machine:

An American company, La Pizza Presto, has the same idea with its vending machine but promises an even faster cooking time at 90 seconds.

All of this reminds of a speech that Colin Angle, CEO of robot vacuum cleaner maker iRobot, gave at a conference last year. Angle told the audience that he considered the vending machine the perfect robot: not only was it totally autonomous, but an idiot could work it. Needless to say, if a robot vending machine can make a pizza, couldn’t it also make Big Macs, Subway sandwiches or Starbucks coffee?