By G. Mudalige, Jadetimes News
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is gradually making its way into the culinary world, offering new possibilities for creating unique and innovative recipes. Restaurants like Dodo Pizza in Dubai and Velvet Taco in Dallas have tapped into AI's potential, producing dishes that have captivated customers and challenged traditional culinary norms.
In Dubai, Dodo Pizza sought the help of AI to design a pizza that reflects the city’s diverse cultural mix. With 90% of Dubai’s population being immigrants, Dodo Pizza’s head of menu development, Spartak Arutyunyan, asked ChatGPT, a popular AI chatbot, to create a pizza that encapsulates the various cultures within the city. The result was a pizza topped with a surprising combination of Arab shawarma chicken, Indian grilled paneer cheese, Middle Eastern Za'atar herbs, and tahini sauce. Despite the unusual mix, the pizza has become a massive hit and remains on the menu. However, not all AI-generated recipes were as successful—pizzas with toppings like strawberries and pasta or blueberries and breakfast cereal did not make the cut.
In Dallas, Velvet Taco’s culinary director, Venecia Willis, also experimented with AI, asking ChatGPT to devise a taco recipe. Although some of the AI's combinations were deemed too peculiar, like red curry, coconut tofu, and pineapple, Willis found success with a prawn and steak taco, which sold 22,000 units in a week. She praises AI for its ability to inspire creativity, noting that it can suggest combinations that chefs might not consider on their own. However, she stresses the importance of a human element in validating recipes, ensuring they meet culinary standards before being offered to customers.
While AI’s role in the kitchen is expanding, not everyone in the food industry is on board. Some professionals, like London-based cocktail creator Julian de Feral, are skeptical, arguing that AI lacks the common sense required to create truly intuitive and palatable recipes. Experts like Emily Bender, a linguistics professor at the University of Washington, caution against relying too heavily on AI, as it primarily regurgitates content it has learned from existing online sources. This could potentially harm content creators who depend on recipe blogs and similar platforms for their livelihoods.
Despite these concerns, AI's influence on the culinary world continues to grow. For example, UK supermarket chain Waitrose uses AI to identify emerging food trends on social media, such as “smash burgers” and “crookies” (a croissant filled with cookie dough and chocolate chips), allowing them to quickly adapt to consumer demands.
In Singapore, Italian expat Stefano Cantù has developed an AI-powered app, "ChefGPT," which suggests recipes based on the ingredients users have on hand. Although the app quickly gained popularity, attracting 30,000 users within its first week, Cantù faced significant operational costs due to the AI’s integration with OpenAI’s technology. As he continues to refine his business model, Cantù highlights the challenges of balancing advertising, subscriptions, and user engagement without compromising data privacy.
Back in Dubai, Dodo Pizza is taking AI integration a step further by allowing customers to use AI themselves to create custom pizza toppings via the restaurant’s app. The company plans to extend this feature to its other branches worldwide, positioning AI not just as a novelty, but as a valuable tool in enhancing customer experience and driving culinary innovation.
