We may earn a commission from the links on this page.
I love cooking so much that I consider it like a sport and look for any excuse to create complex or unique dishes. I think it's a good opportunity to develop a menu that caters to a large group of people with different allergies and preferences. Until recently, smart cooking technology didn't appeal to me. Because I thought it was only for people who are ignorant and need the help of machines in the kitchen.
But over the past year, I've been exposed to cooking appliances that not only leverage smart technology, but also incorporate AI and machine learning, from ovens to grills to refrigerators. AI can't take away all the effort of preparing meals, and it can't make people who don't like cooking love cooking. It can make the cooking process an order of magnitude easier not only for beginners, but also for experienced cooks.
AI helps prevent food from being undercooked (or overcooked)
For many people, their dislike of cooking stems from anxiety. It's hard to mess up a salad, but it's scary to make anything you can mess up. What if you or someone else gets food poisoning from undercooking? What if you spoil expensive meat by overcooking it? I've been cooking with friends who share this common fear. Friends who lack the ability to tell by visual cues whether a protein is done or not, and friends who have difficulty trusting whether a little pink color is safe.
Tools like predictive combustion thermometers can help alleviate that anxiety. A smart thermometer probe, Combustion can be used in almost any situation, including grills, hot water pots, sous vide cookers, ovens, and stovetops. The device has eight sensors along the length of the probe that take measurements of the inside and outside of whatever you're cooking. It then applies AI and algorithms to accurately predict when food should be removed from the heat. This means you don't have to stand over the stove and watch (the app and probe handle that part). It also means not overcooking food due to food safety concerns. This he admits to 50% of people.
Combustion specifically modified its algorithm late last year to ensure that food meets USDA-recommended standards that exceed simple temperature thresholds. For example, while chicken is generally considered “done” when it reaches a temperature of 165°F, the USDA states that it can also be cooked at a lower temperature for a longer period of time, as well as when using sous vide. We have proven that the same food safety can be achieved. Combustion thermometers can determine whether a food is “safe” depending on the protein's entire cooking history. This will give you the confidence you need to work with proteins, and once you get better results, you'll feel more confident in your cooking. Even as an experienced chef, I love that Combustion does this calculation for me. Therefore, there is no need to rely on external cues such as the texture of proteins.
There are many other temperature probes with features like Combustion. Thermapro (I haven't tested) meeter 2 (What I found was overwhelming).
AI can help reduce food waste
When grocery shopping, we often forget what's in our refrigerator or pantry, resulting in a lot of irrelevant purchases. The worst part is when buying fresh food with a short shelf life. Companies are working on solving this problem. Samsung's latest refrigerators come with built-in 'Food AI' that uses the camera inside the fridge to tell you what more you need to buy. Part of the Bespoke line, these refrigerators are equipped with 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). We also provide recipes based on those ingredients.
I haven't tested Bespoke yet, but the video of the fridge in action shows a clear enough image that you should be able to easily identify the fridge's contents from the app. That means you don't have to worry about whether the refrigerator is turned off or not. Buy butter and eggs while you're at the supermarket.
AI helps you think about what to make for dinner
New technology is taking things even further. AI voice assistants are already integrated into many cooking appliances. Give your assistant a list of ingredients, your mood, what you want to eat, or allow it to ask questions, and it will create meal suggestions for you.
If you don't have an appliance that can talk, there are plenty of apps that will give you suggestions on the fly. dishgen, Meal AI, and eating practice All of these use AI models like Gemini as the underlying engine to generate suggestions based on the language you type, whether it's bulk ingredients or mood-based requests.
Using AI while cooking can actually be fun and save time
There are many “smart” ovens on the market from Tovala, Breville, and June, but for the past few months I've been using the Brava., An expensive toaster oven with a brain. Searching for ingredients through the toaster's graphical interface generates a list of possible recipes. Once you select one, it will guide you to insert the thermometer probe and tell you where to place the food on the tray and where to place the tray. Then press the button and walk away. The oven transmits live video of food preparation, monitors progress and turns off precisely when food is finished.
This oven utilizes light technology instead of the usual heating elements you would expect from an oven. Focuses heat only where you need it, for as long as you need it, especially on the exact food you're cooking. Rather than heating the entire oven, food is cooked from above and below in a very small space. As a result, cooking time is usually cut in half, sometimes even more. Last week, I made sweet potato fries from raw potatoes. It was perfectly crispy in 8 minutes.
Brava currently uses only very lightweight AI behind the scenes, but in the future, companies will be able to process the data returned by the appliance to create more recipes and improve existing recipes. It's easy to imagine how machine learning could help. The technology isn't there yet. I spoke with Zach Selmon, his manager for Brava products. He points out how difficult it is to create a set of parameters to ensure that everyone creating a recipe gets the same result when the ingredients and so many variables involved can vary. did. , for the environment, and for the chef. That's why Brava still employs a team of human cooks alongside its data engineers.
What struck me about Brava is how much fun it is to not have to think about what to cook. It turns out you can skip the tedious part of the process of constantly watching your food while it's cooking. Even better is an oven that can cut cooking time by more than half. You can enjoy the preparation and the results and not have to worry about anything in between.
Excited about the future of AI kitchens
As a self-confessed control freak, I shouldn't like giving up on the cooking and preparation process, but I've found that I actually do. It will save you time and allow you to focus on the parts of cooking that you really like. I gifted some friends with smart thermometers, and the device changed their mealtimes at home. They buy better 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 the process, allowing you to manage your meal preparation from your couch or deck while spending more time with family and friends. No, gadgets won't make you love cooking, but they do make cooking a lot easier.
