Using AI as your personal chef

Hi!

There’s a lot of talk about how AI tools can be used in the workplace but AI can be equally useful when it comes to home life too. 

Not feeling inspired in the kitchen? Can’t face the supermarket but left with a random assortment of ingredients in the refrigerator and no clue what to make?

Or maybe you’ve started a new fitness plan and need meal ideas that give you the right balance of carbs, proteins and fats. 

I thought I’d put a few AI tools to the test in the kitchen and see if I could find some recipe ideas to awaken my inner chef.

Starting simple, I asked for some easy recipes that use potatoes, bell peppers and cod.

ChatGPT

Obliging as ever, ChatGPT suggested 3 different options complete with ingredients and instructions. I did have to prompt further to get quantities for the ingredients but skimming through the recipes it all seemed reasonable with no AI craziness at first glance.

So far, so good! Wondering how much faith I should have in the recipes I asked ChatGPT whether it had made the recipe up - it pays not to trust blindly in any AI output and particularly when it comes to food.

So provided you use your common sense when it comes to the recipes themselves, it’s not a bad start! 3 options, further detail if needed - certainly enough to spark my creativity in the kitchen.

Claude

Moving on to Claude, I expected similar results. Whereas Chat GPT gave full recipes for each idea from the off, Claude offered suggestions with some basic preparation guidelines then asked if I needed any further detail on any of the recipes. This felt a little more user-friendly as I wasn’t overwhelmed with info for recipes I wasn’t interested in.

After playing around with the recipe options I asked about the source of the recipes. Claude confirmed they weren’t original recipes but rather information based on commonly known recipes and cooking methods.

Again, provided you’re not blindly accepting the information given as gospel, both AI tools seemed to be a good source of inspiration and offered some acceptable recipes. 

With decent options from both ChatGPT and Claude I wondered whether specialist recipe tools would give me a better experience. 

ChefGPT

ChefGPT describes itself as a digital personal chef. There are certainly lots of options to tailor the results to your needs.

PantryChef gives you ideas based on your ingredients, MasterChef will give a recipe suggestion based on the types of food you like and MacroChef allows you to input your target macronutrients for a meal. 

Results are tailored based on the kitchen tools and gadgets you have available, your skill level, how much time you have to prepare the meal etc but the downside is you’re only given one recipe option.

The macro breakdown for total calories, carbs, proteins and fats was handy but to get further ideas I needed to input the ingredients again.

There are some useful extras on ChefGPT with meal plans, suggested wine and beer pairings, a cookbook for saving your favorite recipes and even a cocktail recipe generator.

You are limited to 10 generations per month on the free tier though - I used up 50% of my free plan just trying and failing to generate some wine and beer pairings.

Dish Gen

Looking for something a little different? DishGen uses AI to create brand new recipes based on your available ingredients, dietary requirements and recipe ideas.

The free version offers 15 recipe credits a month but as with CheftGPT, DishGen only gave me one recipe suggestion based on my ingredients. You can modify recipes to tailor the result further but if you want to generate multiple ideas you have to start from scratch each time. 

The idea of unique recipes might appeal to some but for those who are less interested in reinventing the wheel and more looking for inspiration it doesn’t quite tick all the boxes.

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I then thought I’d test the waters with some slightly less cohesive ingredients to see how the AI tools responded - onions, milk, gherkins and chocolate… 🤢

ChatGPT launched straight in with some interesting combos. Any takers for creamy onion and gherkin dip with chocolate-dipped pretzels or onion and gherkin sliders with chocolate sauce? Instructions were followed to the letter but the output was less useful. Claude was a little more sensible: 

The result felt much more human with Claude taking the diverse flavors into consideration and offering multiple suggestions. 

ChefGPT’s PantryChef has two options - ‘Gourmet mode’ to get the best recipe outcome but not necessarily use all the ingredients or for those with a more adventurous palate, the ‘All-In mode’ which uses every ingredient.

I tried both and while I’m not sure I’m in a hurry to try the Chocolate Gherkin Soup suggested using ‘All-In mode’, the ‘Gourmet mode’ didn’t fare much better. It gave me a very similar recipe - Chocolate Gherkin Onion Soup.

Either I’ve stumbled upon a great flavor combination that simply demands to become a gourmet soup or the ingredient combination was too challenging to provide any useful results.

DishGen also seemed to struggle here, suggesting ‘Sweet and Savory Onion Chocolate Milkshake’. The recipe also used cocoa powder and chocolate syrup rather than actual chocolate as requested, so not a particularly useful result even if the recipe suggestion had tempted me.

Recipe below if you’re brave enough to give this one a go!

All in all though, I’m pleasantly surprised. There’s plenty of scope for improvements with the specialized tools but the results still gave me a great starting point. 

While it’s probably unwise to blindly trust any old AI recipe, on days when I’m lacking inspiration for meal ideas I’d definitely turn to AI tools again (particularly my new sous-chef, Claude) to get my culinary juices flowing!

OK, speak soon!

Inge
Top Apps Founder

P.S. Check out the Top Apps AI courses here.