Computer Cooking?

AI has taken over much of our lives today.Yet can it take over our kitchen and our time honored recipes? Can  artificial intelligence give us the perfect Thanksgiving dinner? That's what both chefs and home chefs want to know.

Regular contributor  Priya Krishna along with AI tech writer Cade MIller for the NY TImes, explored the possiblities in yestrrday's New York Times Food section. This is a new branch of AI but it is making headway. These computer generated recipes do share many aspects with their handwritten counterparts. There is the list of ingredients, exact measurements , step by step instructions and even fabricated notes with personal touches. The best test of these, as food editors and chefs of all sorts know is Thanksgiving. Ms. Krishna, along with other New York Times Food writers, Melissa Clark, Genevieve Ko, Erik Kim and Yewande Komolafe decided to try out a technology known as GPT-3 to devise a holiday menu. GPT-3 is a neural system that's more adept at analyzing large amounts of data. it has created credible recipes in the past. In fact some can pass for human generated ones. in order to create recipes, Ms. Kirishna had to put in her background along with likes  like Italian and Thai food along with making not too sweet desserts.It also asked for what ingredients she often cooks with. she then added "Show me a Thanksgiving menu made for me."

How did the computer do?The first recipe was pumpkin spice chaat or bite sized snacks that can be used as appetizers. Ms. Kirishna was confused by the concept but impressed with the program's inventiveness. Minutes later she had a palusible menu. Along with the pumpkin spice chaat there were recipes for green beans with miso and sesame seeds, a turkey with a soy-ginger glaze and a naan based stuffing. She wanted a cranberry sauce that wasn't too sweet and a little spiced and she got one with those exact requirements.. There was also a pumpkin spice cake with orange cream frosting. How did it all work out? The personal notes about using the flavors of Ms Krishn'as childhood fot the turkey were a li. The naan stuffing required thirty-two components. The recipes were light on salt and fat.  Still there was hope - until they were tasted. The naan stuffing tasted like chana masala and fruitcake got into a bar fight, There was no butter or oil to moisten the bird and it came out incredibly dry and stringy,. It was also flavored with only one garlic clove. The chaat tasted like grassy mush. The cake looked like two pancakes sandwiched together with icing. Her felloow food writers were hard with their comments, with Ms Ko summing it up - "Food with no soul."

Should we rely on AI for our recipes? No, We need the human touch for delicious recipes and time honored dishes. It's this that makes meals especially holiday ones memorable and beloved.