ChatGPT is known for its abilities to give you (mostly) accurate information about nearly everything or to write emails and papers that you don’t want to do yourself. But apart from functioning as your personal secretary, ChatGPT could also help you when it comes to cooking!

Kaylee Heartman / Daily Nexus

When I asked ChatGPT “How can you help me with cooking?”, it answers that it can:

Provide you with recipes. Whether for popular dishes or for more customized guidance on how to make use of the ingredients you already have, or even how to work around your dietary preferences.

ChatGPT can actually get pretty creative with suggesting new recipes for you to try. When prompted to give a creative recipe, it gave me a creation titled “Midnight Velvet Chocolate Tart with Sea Salt and Olive Oil.” Personally, I doubt that I would have invented something like this off the top of my head. Not only does it give interesting meal ideas, but it also considers things you have previously told it about your preferences, such as dietary restrictions and even your personal interests such as hobbies, movie genres and favorite characters, which can be seen in the titles it gives its recipes.

Offer you step-by-step guidance on how to prepare whatever meal you’re craving.

Not only can ChatGPT give you common and simple recipes, but I’ve had success getting it to give me recipes for rare, unique cultural dishes. The explanations it offers are thorough, making it easy to follow along and succeed in your culinary ambitions.

Suggest alternatives and substitutions for missing ingredients, dietary restrictions or just to encourage you to try something new.

Back in the day, when we used physical cookbooks and old notebooks containing family culinary heirlooms, it was pertinent to obtain every single necessary ingredient for your recipe to turn out well. I am now cheering that those days are over and we can substitute bananas for eggs and blended oats for flour. ChatGPT can now save you a trip to the grocery store! 

Explain cooking techniques and how to successfully perform them.

Trying to learn how to poach an egg? Make meringues? ChatGPT tells you exact instructions and the things you need, as well as adding helpful tips and tricks.

Assist with meal planning. 

Why pay hundreds of dollars for a subscription service when you can do it yourself with the help of AI? ChatGPT can take into account all of your nutritional preferences and restrictions and craft you a well-balanced, easy-to-follow meal plan for any time period.

Help you figure out what went wrong in your recipes and find ways to correct any mistakes. 

If you tell ChatGPT about an issue that occurred during the cooking process, it suggests various reasons for why this may have happened and how to prevent it in the future.

Apart from these helpful aids, I’ve found that ChatGPT can also be used for other food-related topics.

Do you ever have trouble picking something to eat? Maybe you’re with your friends and everyone claims to be “fine with anything,” or you’re asking your significant other what they want for dinner and they give you the “I don’t know.” Ask ChatGPT to help you decide what to eat, and after you provide details of your meal type, dietary restrictions, preferred cuisines or ingredients you have on hand, it will offer you various meals, also providing the ingredients and instructions for preparation.

I’ve also used ChatGPT to learn more about local dishes and cuisine when visiting new places. You can ask it “What foods should I try when I’m in [insert location]?” It will provide you with a variety of dishes to choose from on your trip and will explain what they are.

So next time you’re looking for dinner ideas, planning a weekend trip or trying to determine what it really is that you’re craving, look no further than ChatGPT!

A version of this article appeared on p.19 of the October 3, 2024, print edition of the Daily Nexus.