Chef AI

Dodi Newman and Patricia Newman

That’s right: AI is, among many other things, an excellent consulting chef. There are many reasons to approach AI with caution, but its advice on the harmless pursuit of cookery is usually sound.

We recently entered a small list of ingredients and the name of an Iranian dish into a Google search field, and within a few seconds, had a usable recipe under its AI Overview. True, one instruction was arguably incorrect, but that just proves that AI, like most things, should be used with caution. It definitely helps to have some cooking experience against which to check AI’s answers.

It also helps to ask the question the right way. To get a good answer (and, of course, AI can tell you how), be specific and stick to the essentials. Given AI’s vast data resources, you may get different answers to what is essentially the same question. For example, the directions given by AI in answer to “How to cook the perfect rib roast” were easy to follow, and the result was a godsend last Christmas, though we skipped the “herb rub.” Prompting “Roasting a rib eye beef roast” gave us a very different answer. If you don’t like the answer you get, rephrase your prompt and try again.

There are a number of AI applications to choose from, among them Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s Claude. Google anything and an AI overview automatically appears and gives you an answer before you can blink an eye. ChatGPT does the same with an extra dose of schmooze. Claude requires you to establish an account but in return is very reliable. Your choice.

Some of the things AI can do:

Gemini can proportionately scale recipe quantities up or down. When we asked it to quarter a recipe calling for three eggs, it not only gave the correct answer but explained its reasoning and told us how to measure three-quarters of an egg. Claude was also smart enough to flag that spices cannot simply be scaled across the board.  When asked, it also adjusted quantities in the instructions, and not just the ingredients.

It can also suggest meal ideas or a full meal plan based on ingredients you have on hand, complete with key preparation tips, suggestions for adding variety, and a well-chosen list of recipes from the internet.

It can tell you how to pick out a fresh jackfruit in great detail and with photos. It can do the same for just about any other kind of produce.

What AI can’t do:

Taste for correct seasoning or tell you what you need to add to make it perfect.

Give you the pleasure of spending a few hours with a well-written, gorgeously illustrated cookbook and dream.

Consider your cultural or national background in selecting recipes. But give AI that information, and you’ll get a tailor-made answer.

All in all, consulting Chef AI is well worth a try, and fun!