KDS Talkback adds voice‑driven controls and alerts to kitchen display systems, targeting high‑volume kitchens using KDS but still relying on shouting and tickets to coordinate. Line cooks and expo staff complain that hands‑busy workflows make KDS under‑utilized, and vendors like Toast/KDS don’t invest deeply into voice UX. KDS Talkback runs on inexpensive mics/speakers above the line and ties into existing KDS APIs to let staff update, query, and be alerted by voice. - Hands‑free actions: “Mark table 42 fries done”, “86 mussels”, “Fire mains for 23” mapped directly to KDS events. - Priority alerts: when a dish is about to miss promised time, the system speaks a short, localized alert to the right station. - Expo queries: expo can ask “What’s still missing on 14?” and get a concise spoken rundown. - Shift learning: tracks bottlenecks and suggests station‑level prep or menu tweaks based on recurring slow items. - Vendor‑agnostic: lightweight adapters for major KDS vendors; sold as an add‑on, not a replacement. Moat is built through granular operational data and station‑specific voice models trained on noisy, hot kitchens.