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I love cooking very much, I treat it like a sport and I look for excuses to prepare complicated or unique dishes. I think developing a menu for a group of people with different allergies and preferences sounds like a good time. Until recently, clever cooking technology didn’t appeal to me because I assumed it was only aimed at people who felt self-conscious enough in the kitchen to need aid from a machine.
But over the past year, I’ve been exposed to cooking appliances — from ovens to grills to refrigerators — that not only utilize clever technology, but also leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning. While AI can’t eliminate all the work involved in preparing food or make you love cooking if you don’t, it can make the cooking process much easier… not only for novices, but also for experienced cooks.
Artificial intelligence can aid you avoid undercooking (or overcooking) your food
For many people, their reluctance to cook is due to fear. It’s strenuous to mess up a salad, but making anything that can be messed up can be intimidating – what if you undercook it and give yourself or others food poisoning? What if you overcook and ruin an pricey piece of meat? I’ve cooked with friends who have these common fears — friends who lack the ability to utilize visual cues to know when the protein is gone, or who can’t believe that a little pink is secure.
Tools like a combustion forecast thermometer can alleviate this anxiety. The Combustion clever thermometer probe can be used in almost any situation – on the grill, in a pot of boiling water, sous vide, in the oven or on the stovetop. The device has eight sensors distributed along the entire length of the probe, which enable measurements of the inside and outside of the cooked food. Artificial intelligence and an algorithm are then used to predict exactly when to take the food off the heat. This means you don’t have to stand over the stove waiting and watching (the app and probe handle this part). This also means you won’t overcook your food for fear of food safety, which is exactly the point 50% of people agree to do.
Combustion specifically changed its algorithm tardy last year to ensure that food meets USDA-recommended standards that go beyond basic temperature thresholds. For example, although you commonly think of chicken as “ready-made,” when it measures 165°FThe USDA has determined that the same food safety can be achieved by cooking for longer periods at temperatures lower temperatureas in the case of sous vide cooking. A combustion thermometer can determine whether your food is “secure” depending on the entire cooking history of your protein. This can give them the confidence to work with protein and, when they see better results, feel more confident when cooking. Even as an experienced chef, I love that Combustion does these calculations for me, so I don’t have to rely on external cues like the tactile sensations of the protein.
There are many other temperature probes with functions such as combustion, including ThermaPro (which I haven’t tested) and Mięsista 2 (which I found insufficient).
Artificial intelligence can aid reduce food waste
When I go grocery shopping, I often forget what’s already in my fridge and pantry, and as a result, I make a lot of bad purchases – especially when I buy fresh food with a compact expiration date. Companies are working to solve this problem. Samsung’s latest refrigerators feature “Food AI” technology and utilize cameras inside the refrigerator to tell you what you might need to buy more. Part of the Bespoke line, these refrigerators feature AI Family Hub+ and AI Vision Inside. It’s not just that the hub can recognize the fresh food in your fridge (up to 33 pieces, anyway); will also offer recipes based on these ingredients.
I haven’t tested the Bespoke fridge yet, but videos of the fridge in action show clear enough photos that you should be able to easily tell what’s in your fridge from within the app, which means you’ll never have to wonder if it’s finished You feel like butter or eggs when you’re at the supermarket.
Artificial intelligence can aid you figure out what to make for dinner
Newer technology goes further. AI voice assistants are already built into many kitchen appliances. You can offer your assistant a list of ingredients, your mood or desire, or just let him ask questions and he will develop meal suggestions for you.
Even if you don’t have a device that can talk to you, there are plenty of apps that provide real-time suggestions. DishGen, MealsAI, AND Meal Practice all utilize AI models like Gemini as the underlying engine to generate suggestions based on the language you input, whether it’s a few ingredients or a request based on your mood.
Using AI while cooking can be really fun and time-saving
There are many “clever” ovens on the market from Tovala, Breville and June, but I have been using the Brava model for several months, pricey toaster with a brain. From the toaster’s graphical interface, you can search for any ingredient and it will generate a list of possible recipes. Choose one and you will be guided through inserting the thermometer probe, told where to place the food on the tray and where to place the tray. Then you press the button and walk away. The oven will send you a live video of your dish cooking, monitor its progress and turn off exactly when the dish is ready.
The oven uses featherlight technology rather than the usual heating elements you might expect from an oven. Concentrates heat only where it is needed, for as long as it is needed, especially on cooked foods. Instead of heating the entire oven, food is cooked from the top and bottom in a very tiny space. As a result, cooking times are routinely cut in half, and sometimes even more. Last week I made sweet potato fries from raw potatoes. They were perfectly crispy and baked within eight minutes.
While Brava currently only uses very featherlight AI in the background, it’s simple to imagine that in the future, machine learning could aid companies process the data coming back from their devices to create more recipes and improve the ones that exist, even though the technology isn’t there yet – I spoke to with Brava product manager Zak Selmon, who noted how hard it is to create a set of parameters to ensure that everyone who prepares a recipe will get the same results when so many variables can vary, from the ingredients, to the environment, to the cook. For this reason, Brava continues to utilize a human team of chefs along with its data engineers.
What surprised me about Brava is how much I like not to think about what I’m cooking. It turns out that the tedious part of the process of watching the food while it cooks can be skipped; that an oven that cuts cooking times in half or more is even better: you can enjoy the preparations and the results without worrying about what’s in between.
I’m excited about the future of AI cuisine
As a self-proclaimed control freak, I shouldn’t have to give up on the cooking and preparation process, but it turns out I do. It saves me time and allows me to focus on the elements of cooking that I really enjoy. I’ve given clever thermometers to several friends, and the devices have also changed meal times in their homes. They buy better cuts of meat because they are less afraid of spoiling it. They take more risks and are more confident.
In the future, AI technology will further streamline this process, allowing you to manage meal preparation from your couch or patio while you spend more time with family and friends. No, a gadget won’t make you a person who loves cooking, but it can make cooking a lot easier.
