Can AI Serve Up the Next Big Culinary Hit?
Is artificial intelligence a secret weapon for restaurant owners looking to spice up their menus, or could it lead to a culinary catastrophe?
When Dodo Pizza in Dubai wanted to create something fresh for its diverse customer base, Spartak Arutyunyan, head of menu development, turned to AI for inspiration. He asked ChatGPT, a popular AI chatbot, to design a pizza that reflects Dubai’s cultural melting pot. The result? A pizza topped with Arab shawarma chicken, Indian grilled paneer cheese, Middle Eastern za’atar herbs, and a drizzle of tahini sauce. Surprisingly, this unconventional mix became a bestseller, defying Arutyunyan’s expectations. “As a chef, I would never have thought to mix these ingredients on a pizza, but it worked, and people loved it,” he said. However, not all AI-generated ideas were a hit; suggestions like strawberries with pasta or blueberries and breakfast cereal on a pizza didn’t make the cut.
Across the globe in Dallas, Texas, Venecia Willis, the culinary director at Velvet Taco, was equally intrigued by the potential of AI in the kitchen. She challenged ChatGPT to create a new taco recipe, using specific guidelines: eight ingredients, one tortilla, and one protein. While some of the AI’s suggestions were questionable—like a combination of red curry, coconut tofu, and pineapple—Willis decided to give a few ideas a shot. One of these, a prawn and steak taco, was put on the menu and sold an impressive 22,000 units in just one week. “AI can be a great tool to get creative juices flowing,” Willis commented, “but there always needs to be a human touch to validate those recipes.”
Not everyone in the food industry is excited about AI’s involvement in recipe creation. Julian de Feral, a cocktail creator in London, feels AI lacks the intuition needed for good mixology. “It just doesn’t seem to have common sense,” he says. Similarly, Emily Bender, a linguistics professor at the University of Washington, warns that AI isn’t magical. “Chatbots learn from what’s already online, so any recipe they produce is essentially borrowed from someone else’s blog,” she explains. Bender acknowledges that future advancements in AI could make it a more valuable tool for creating recipes, but she emphasizes the need for clear, well-defined questions to guide the AI effectively.
Meanwhile, UK supermarket chain Waitrose is using AI differently—by tracking emerging food trends on social media. According to Lizzie Haywood, Waitrose’s innovations manager, AI has spotted a growing interest in “smash burgers” and “crookies” (croissants filled with cookie dough and chocolate chips). As a result, Waitrose quickly introduced these items in select stores, riding the wave of their rising popularity.
In Singapore, Italian expatriate Stefano Cantù created an AI-powered app named “ChefGPT” that suggests recipes based on the ingredients available in your kitchen. Inspired by ChatGPT, Cantù developed the app over a weekend. The app’s popularity soared, gaining 30,000 users shortly after launch. However, the high cost of using AI technology prompted Cantù to explore ways to balance revenue from ads and subscriptions with offering free services without compromising user data.
Back at Dodo Pizza in Dubai, Arutyunyan believes AI should be seen as a fun tool rather than the backbone of menu planning. The restaurant now allows customers to experiment with AI to create unique pizza toppings through their app, and they plan to roll out this feature in other locations globally.
As AI continues to shape our kitchens and menus, the question remains: Can it truly revolutionize the way we create and enjoy food, or is it just a flash in the pan?