NYT Cooking Tests AI Recipe Assistant, Saving 1 Chicken Dish but Nearly Ruining 1 Cake
Updated
Updated · The Verge · Nov 7
NYT Cooking Tests AI Recipe Assistant, Saving 1 Chicken Dish but Nearly Ruining 1 Cake
1 articles · Updated · The Verge · Nov 7
Summary
NYT Cooking’s new AI assistant helped adapt recipes for missing ingredients, scaling and equipment swaps, but one test nearly cut a cake’s butter to 6 tablespoons instead of the original three-quarter cup.
In several trials, the iOS-only subscriber feature generated revised recipes inside the app, highlighting changes under a “Your Version” tab rather than altering the original recipe.
A weeknight chicken-and-rice test produced a successful new version using tenders, green beans and red onion, while the tool also handled measurement conversion and rejected obviously bad requests like beef in a trifle.
The reviewer found it more reliable than Alexa Plus for showing modified recipes, though the inability to save versions separately created confusion when switching back to the original.
The result was a useful sous-chef tool for everyday substitutions and planning gaps, but one that still requires users to double-check amounts and cooking times.