In Mumbai, chef and content creator Natasha Gandhi recently turned to Google Gemini with a common kitchen dilemma: what to do with leftover chapatis. Prompting the AI chatbot, she asked for ideas to create a new, tasty, and quick snack. The response was immediate, offering recipes for chapati chips, chapati enchiladas, and stir-fried chapati noodles. Gandhi's subsequent Instagram video, where she brought these AI-suggested dishes to life, sparked excitement among her 1.6 million followers, who were eager to try them all.
The AI Assistant in Modern Kitchens
Gandhi's experiment is part of a growing global trend where chefs, content creators, and food businesses are leveraging generative AI to stay innovative. For professionals like her, AI acts as a powerful thought-starter. "For me, AI is a spark, a framework, and a direction," Gandhi explains. She clarifies that while the tool can assist with technical suggestions—like balancing flavours or adjusting marinade consistency—it does not provide true inspiration. The final flavour call, she insists, remains a human domain. "Instinct is the base recipe. AI just expands the possibilities," she says, noting it can propose unexpected variations, such as transforming a Maharashtrian thecha into a marinade.
The utility of AI extends beyond home kitchens to high-end culinary operations. When the Mumbai-based hospitality group Hunger Inc. brainstormed Christmas-themed treats, founder Yash Bhanage used a simple AI prompt to visualize "a Gingerbread Man inspired by an Indian halwai." Within minutes, the tool generated playful visuals of a character with a moustache and dhoti. Bhanage notes that AI works as a rapid visualiser, translating imagination into concrete concepts swiftly, which is invaluable in a fast-paced creative environment.
Augmenting Instinct with Algorithmic Efficiency
Globally, acclaimed chefs are also tapping into this resource. Grant Achatz of Chicago's Michelin-starred restaurants Alinea and Next has used ChatGPT for menu planning, even designing a nine-course meal for 2026. His prompts have led to dishes inspired by diverse themes, from traditional cooking fuels to Patagonian fossils.
Back in India, researchers are formalising this intersection of food and technology. Professor Ganesh Bagler from the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, built an AI recipe generator named Ratatouille after pondering if machines could imagine recipes like chefs. His project, part of over a decade of work in computational gastronomy, utilises databases of 584,000 recipes from over 100 countries. "AI can generate new dishes, personalise nutrition, reduce salt/sugar/oil intelligently, and support sustainable ingredient transitions—all at scale, in minutes," Bagler states. He emphasises that for Indian cooking, which thrives on instinct and inherited technique, AI is an augmentative tool, not a replacement.
Executive chef Hussain Shahzad of Hunger Inc. echoes this sentiment. He believes AI's best application is in supporting operations—projecting ingredient needs, reducing waste through data analysis, or managing large recipe libraries—rather than influencing core creativity. "These moments carry emotion, memory, and context, which a machine doesn't have access to," Shahzad says, referring to the travel and memory-inspired dishes that define his best work.
The Future: A Collaborative Culinary Model
The food industry is increasingly adopting AI for research and development. Ruchira Sonalkar, co-founder of Native Tongue, uses ChatGPT to find clean-label alternatives to ingredients like MSG, receiving precise suggestions such as mushroom powder and nutritional yeast to achieve umami flavours.
The consensus is clear: the future lies in a synergy between human creativity and AI efficiency. Bagler and his team are collaborating with culinary institutes, including the Institute of Hotel Management, Pusa, and Le Cordon Bleu India, to validate AI-generated recipes. The Ratatouille application is slated for commercial release by mid-2026. When asked if he would cook an AI-suggested meal for his family, Bagler affirms, "Of course, but I will still do the final tempering of ghee and spices." This final human touch remains the irreplaceable essence of cooking, even in an AI-augmented kitchen.
