Imagine to come home after a long day at work, tired and hungry. You want to cook something quick for dinner, like some pasta with tomato sauce or some beef. However as soon as you open the fridge you realized that it is almost empty, with just some chicken breast, one sweet potato, few carrots and some coconut milk: not exactly the right ingredients for the recipes you have in mind. Obviously, the prospect of ordering takeout seems like the best idea for a quick and easy dinner.
Well, what if there is a way to turn your leftovers in a quick, easy and delicious meal? No, it is not browsing recipes on online websites, and neither is calling your friend with incredible cooking skills. The answer is AI recipes generators, one of the newest and among the many applications of generative AI in our everyday life. By simply typing the ingredients you want to use, the tools at your disposal and the amount of time you have to cook, AI recipes generators will leverage advanced machine learning algorithms to create a tailored recipe for the occasion.
I had the chance to try the AI recipes generator DishGen and I must say that I was truly amazed by its quickness and responsiveness. One day I really found myself in the situation described above, and even if I consider myself pretty good at cooking, or at least someone that always want to try new meals, I could not find a way to make a use of those ingredients. By simply typing the ingredients I had, DishGen presented me quick recipe for a creamy coconut chicken with smashed potato and carrots.
Even if this generative AI application is worth to be exploited, I do not see it as substitute threat in the culinary industry, but it will surely have a great impact on promoting sustainability. In fact, the pros of AI recipes generators are not only related to the help they provide when there is a lack of human creativity in the kitchen, but they also are very useful to avoid unnecessary food waste, one of the main issues that must be solved nowadays.
Interesting post! Very relatable too as I face a similar problem when I come back home late and have no idea what to make with the limited number of ingredients in the fridge and when supermarkets are closed. I was not aware of this AI and will definitely try it out! Interesting opinion about the neutral impact on the culinary industry, but reading through your post I could not help but think of the various ways in which it could, in fact affect the culinary experience. Could it be a case where creativity gets affected again because one has access to a source that already tells them what to do? Also, if one has access to an AI tool that has recipes, do you think this will affect their going out to restaurants? They already have the recipes and it would be possible to make these dishes, probably at a lower price. Curious to hear your thoughts
A fun take on the use of AI in a problem, I presume a lot of other people are coping with on a daily basis. I for one clicked on this blogpost because of the catchy title and the fact that I often struggle with making a nutritious and tasty meal with leftovers/random ingredients. Your piece of text got me thinking about ways in which such an application could be of additional use in the food industry. For instance GenAI could then also be useful for ingredient substitution (e.g. when facing dietary restrictions), counting calories and coming up with shopping lists as it can easily check what is in inventory and what is not. However although all these functionalities are helpful and make life a lot easier, I agree with you that it probably is not a real threat to the culinary industry. Thanks for the post!
This is a great use of GenAI in today’s fast paced world. I have made use of similar websites when I ran out of food ideas and usually the suggestions it came up with were decent. While this is a big help for us students and those who do not have much time to cook or just can’t be bothered, I do not foresee this being a threat for the food industry either. At the end of the day, cooking is built on a whole lot of tacit knowledge passed down upon generations that is very difficult to replicate and replace. Although, I do wish these food AIs can figure out an objective quantity to when my mom says “Big pinch of salt till it tastes good”.
Thank you for sharing this insightful tool! I think this app would be really useful for students as well. When I started my bachelor’s here at Erasmus it was my first time living on my own, so it took me some time to get used to planning my weekly groceries and cooking. It turned out that I bought some products thinking that I would need them or I just wanted to eat them when I saw them on the supermarket shelf and then it turned out that I didn’t know what to do with them exactly. Therefore, this tool would be helpful for students who are entering into their living on their own era with a lot of stress around the university and little skills and time to think about cooking.
On the other note, I soon started to use the app TooGoodToGo which is helping you to be sustainable by saving products from supermarkets and restaurants that are close to their end date. I really recommend this app but what usually happens is that you receive a bag with all different products and groceries that are close to being out of date and then you have to think about how to cook them fast because they cannot stay for too long in your fridge. So, you try to think about how to combine them and you run out of ideas. This app can be useful in this situation because it sometimes turns out that you throw away some of the products that you received because you didn’t know how to use them in a dish.
Hi Luca, interesting blog. I consider myself a good cook as well and like to cook new meals. However, the situation you describe above sounds familiar. The Albert Heijn is close to my house, therefore I installed their app. Besides the ‘normal’ activities there are some features which are interesting for your blog. There is a feature called ‘left overs’, this is similar to TooGoodToGo, but this one is only for Albert Heijn. In the app there are also a lot of receipts. Now the interesting part… you can add the products you have left at home for example: pasta, zucchini and whipped cream. If you add this into the app, Albert Heijn will come up with different receipts based on those products. The ingredients you don’t have, you can just add to your grocery shopping list.
Hi Luca, thanks for writing this useful blog. Although I love the process of cooking my own meals, coming up with creative ideas is always the hard part. Especially when there are only a few ingredients left in the fridge. DishGen will certainly be a game changer for me! I am still amazed each day how technology is changing our behaviour when it come to food waste while at the same time making our daily lives a lot easier. It seems to be an exciting time to be a food lover and a technology enthusiast! 🍽️🤖🌍
your reasoning about the impact on the dining or culinary industry resonates with me. I agree that the culinary industry will continue to thrive because, as you mentioned, AI isn’t a substitute but a complementary tool. And whenever I go out to have diner it is usually when no one wants to cook diner after a day of work.
thanks for writing this blog!