I used AI for a week to help with dinner recipes and it was a success (and a disaster)
Experimenting with AI has become both a hobby and a professional role for me. I’d used AI before for quick recipe inspiration, but this time I wanted to see if it could handle a week of dinners tailored to the time I’m cooking, for my wife and me or just for myself. I know my way around the kitchen, even if my talents lag far behind those of my wife (whose family once showed off their skills on a TV show). Nevertheless, I was impressed by the way AI, in this case ChatGPT, opened some delicious new culinary doors, albeit with more than one tripwire to watch out for as you stepped through them. Here’s how my AI sous chef performed and how you can do the same without the disasters I faced.
AI meal preparation
I wanted to plan the entire week before I started so I could get groceries done in one go. I discussed with the AI some of my tastes and what my wife and I both liked. We keep kosher, so I emphasized that. That meant I had to make it clear that the recipes couldn’t contain ingredients like pork and shellfish, that they couldn’t combine meat with dairy, and so on.
I started by giving relatively specific recipe prompts to see how ChatGPT would do with limited parameters, before just asking for ideas without specific requests. The AI did well in coming up with a kosher dinner recipe for two with chicken and a vegetarian recipe with rice and seasonal vegetables. As a further experiment, I even uploaded images from recipe books for visual reference. The AI impressed me with its adaptability, suggesting dishes like roasted herb chicken with glazed carrots and potatoes and rice-stuffed peppers with a spicy tomato sauce.
Without being asked, the chatbot even showed what it thought the meals could look like on the plate. They were mostly tasty, although sometimes the details were a little off, as the chicken and carrots were difficult to tell apart.
Virtual Michelin stars
AI turns out to be quite good at putting together a varied week full of meals. The recipe for salmon with herb crust, couscous and asparagus was delicious. I had never tried making a citrus peel crust before, but the instructions were clear and we ended up eating the whole thing. One evening alone, the AI guided me in making chicken shawarma wraps with tahini sauce and Israeli salad. The chatbot enhanced my experience with a few cooking and seasoning suggestions that kept me warm even when snow was falling outside.
Probably the most successful dish was the homemade mushroom risotto. I would consider it the pinnacle of my cooking technique, but the meticulous detail got me through the labor-intensive process without a hitch, while the truffle oil and white wine made the dish feel a lot more luxurious than it was. Small adjustments like that during the week made doing the dishes feel less like a chore.
Luckily there was a simple grilled vegetable dish with hummus and other dips another night, so I wasn’t completely exhausted every night. It’s not that these recipes were difficult to find on their own or in many cookbooks, but the AI did make the process feel like it was customized to my preferences and overall planning.
Nightmares in the kitchen
I vowed to follow every recipe from ChatGPT (barring any obvious poisons), but that almost led to me abandoning the entire experiment on day two when my inexperience led to a disastrous sweet potato curry. The description of a hearty, spicy dish sounded great, but I ignored the fact that the recipe called for way too much garam masala and cayenne pepper. It even seemed like a lot to me at the time, but the success of the fish put me to sleep and I went along with it. I love spices, but after one bite my taste buds died and I couldn’t talk for hours. It may have been okay after scraping off the sauce, but the cooking time for the sweet potatoes was not good either. Biting it released bits of potato that cleared my mouth just in time for the cayenne pepper to really get in.
I recovered and all seemed well until the last night, when I thought a dairy-free baked ziti sounded easy and fun. The AI apparently did not understand how plant-based cheeses behave during baking. The result was a grainy, unappetizing texture that made the entire dish seem like a chore to eat. Adding to the disappointment, the AI recommended mixing the marinara sauce with nutritional yeast, which created a bland, strangely bitter flavor profile. It looked fine when it came out of the oven, but that first bite was all I needed to know it was a failure.
Leftovers
The experiment confirmed some of my beliefs about AI in the kitchen, for better and for worse. As AI is now, you can certainly benefit from using it as a tool. But only as a helper, not as a final word. Clear, detailed directions are crucial if you have a specific idea of the type of dish you want. But don’t throw away your recipe books. AI is not a replacement for human chefs creating a menu. You can and should trust your instincts and make adjustments when you think it makes sense. Maybe by cutting back on the cayenne pepper or looking up how to best use substitute ingredients. Still, as a source of inspiration and culinary try-out, you could do worse than putting a chef’s hat on ChatGPT.