The New York Times Cooking's AI recipe modifier actually works

The Times launches AI recipe tool

The New York Times Cooking released an iOS-only beta feature using AI to let subscribers modify recipes. The tool appeared just above ingredient lists.

Commenters revolt against the change

Below the October twenty-third announcement, commenters loudly aired grievances, threatened to cancel subscriptions, and asked how to turn it off. After four days and one hundred seventy-two almost exclusively angry comments, commenting was turned off.

The Times' cooking reach is massive

The site and app were visited five hundred fourteen million times in twenty twenty-five. The YouTube channel has over one point four million subscribers. The Times does not share Cooking's subscriber numbers.

Tech in kitchens has a bad track record

The author's decade of writing about kitchen products shows repeated failures: Bluetooth appliances, apps with poor recipes, toasters with optical sensors. Most smart kitchen products were not very smart at all.

Why the Times is different

The New York Times Cooking and America's Test Kitchen are cooking content makers with deep benches. Developing dependable, delicious recipes is hard, expensive work. Skimping can hurt the brand.

AI has a history as a bad chef

Since AI is often a lousy chef, giving it a role in presenting the Times' gold mine of content is a big risk.

“Since AI is often a lousy chef”

How the customize feature works

Tell the AI you lack a loaf pan and it asks what pans you have, then modifies the recipe.All changes appear in red-orange text.Users can swap ingredients, adjust for dietary needs, or make complicated demands.

The AI knows when to say no

If you ask for something too far outside the recipe's spirit, like turning Eric Kim's gochujang buttered noodles into a cookie, it gives a hard redirect and points to a better-suited recipe instead.

How the AI makes decisions

For recommendations, the language model looks at the recipe itself, the Times' ingredient substitution guide, user comments, and then AI drawing on the Times' expertise, in that order.

The Times is not replacing editors

Camilla Velasquez, general manager of NYT Cooking, says the AI should be a helper, not the main act. The Times has been hiring more than ever and has zero intention of publishing fewer recipes.

“You shouldn't be chatting with it.”

How people are actually using it

So far, people mainly use it for ingredient and equipment substitutions, along with adjusting recipes for dietary needs. Some use it to scale, or scale to match an ingredient they have on hand.

Testing chicken and dumplings

The author asked the AI to swap bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs for boneless, skinless breasts in Alison Roman's five-star recipe with more than six thousand ratings.

One problem with the chicken

The AI suggested shredded breast simmer for thirty minutes while sauce thickens and dumplings cook. The shredded bits that simmered that long were less succulent than thighs would be, though not bad per se.

More recipes tested successfully

The author had the AI turn Francis Lam's roasted mushroom and broccoli grain bowl into roasted mushroom, cauliflower, and squash.It transformed Yewande Komolafe's Toasted Sesame and Scallion Waffles into a yeasted version with overnight fermentation.

The AI as practical helper

The Times' measured approach works well. The AI saves trips to the store, helps use ingredients on hand, makes recipes gluten-free. It serves as a rare example of technology making a product incrementally better.

The Times addresses user concerns

Velasquez says people will be able to hide the AI feature in the app if they want.