Is there a role of AI in cooking?

Food in AI or AI in food? That might be the question, though I doubt Shakespeare had Parma ham pasta in mind when he wrote it.

The other evening I found myself lost in front of the fridge, staring into the abyss like it might whisper dinner suggestions back at me. No such luck.

So, in a moment of laziness, I thought, why not see what AI makes of this mess? I wrote down a list of ingredients into ChatGPT, half-expecting it to tell me to just order a curry (which I would have seriously considered).

To my surprise, it came up with actual recipes, decent ones too. Out of curiosity, I tried the same with CoPilot and it returned out almost the same answers. Not sure if that counts as intelligence or plagiarism, but there you go.

The recipes were so straightforward that even a cooking novice or a time-strapped cook could whip these up in no time. Smart fridges have been at this game for years, scanning your sad-looking veg and suggesting ways to use it before it dies of neglect via phone apps and creating even shopping lists. They’re still pricey, but one day they’ll probably be part of everyone’s kitchen and telling us what to eat.

In my case, AI suggested creamy Parma ham pasta, a brie and potato bake, a Spanish omelette, a brie-and-onion rice bake and a cucumber-tomato salad with ham. Not bad to be honest but stubborn as I am, I ignored the lot and went for a cheese toastie because I still had bread.

I can see the upsides of using apps like ChatGPT or CoPilot. AI can help plan meals, reduce food waste, and even tailor diets if you’re trying to be saintly.

A friend of mine even got ChatGPT to sort her a calorie-controlled meal plan. She said it looked great; whether she’s following it or just eating crisps in secret, I couldn’t tell you.

But here’s the worry: too much AI in the kitchen and you risk losing the joy, creativity, and sheer chaos of cooking. Food isn’t just fuel; it’s culture, tradition, and the odd burnt pan you swear wasn’t your fault (and it never is).

Algorithms might give you efficiency, but they can’t recreate the human side, the laughter, the memories and the last-minute toastie.

Both apps I used are American, hence the recipes will have bias based on the American diets and what I see online does not make me excited.

Saying that, for inspiration it might be a good tool but it shouldn’t replace the beauty of coming up with ideas yourself. They might taste fantastic and will be handed down generations or they could turn out to be utterly awful. But that just means a lesson learned.

Ibec, the lobby & business representative group suggests that AI can be beneficial in food production and I have to agree as it can streamline processes and efficiency and hence can increase production. Supply chain management is depending more and more on AI assisted methods and I think that’s great but I still like my kitchen to be AI free for now.