NYT Cooking's AI Assistant Adapts Recipes but Struggles with Baking

The AI assistant integrated into NYT Cooking adjusts recipes and ingredients based on user feedback. Real-world trials describe it as an effective aid for savory dishes and substitutions, but highlight issues with ergonomics and difficulties when converting recipes for baking.

The lack of variant saving leads to errors

The app does not allow users to save the version of the recipe generated by the assistant separately. This limitation has led to quantity errors during use. It became apparent when attempting to transform a Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake recipe into muffins, where the assistant adjusted the cooking time and suggested halving the ingredients to yield 12 muffins instead of 24.

The tool adapts without altering the original and relies on feedback

NYT Cooking now features an integrated assistant designed to adapt recipes, suggest replacements, and manage quantities, all while keeping the original recipe unchanged by creating an alternative version. The tool has been trained on user feedback and, during a few days of testing, provided relevant substitutions and solid cooking advice.

For savory dishes, substitutions and timings hold up well

A recipe for One-Pot Chicken and Rice With Ginger was executed in the absence of certain ingredients. After inputting the available products — chicken fillets, ginger, garlic, rice, broth, and limes, without Swiss chard or cilantro — the assistant generated a variant in a matter of seconds with adjusted cooking times and concrete modifications. The dish cooked in a time comparable to the original and was positively rated, while being different and simpler to execute than improvised substitutions. For a Thai red curry without makrut lime leaves, the assistant suggested grated lime zest, noting the loss of the floral aroma of fresh limes. For everyday issues, such as replacing a pan or dealing with an unsuitable chicken cut, the assistant helped avoid a trip to the store.

The NYT Cooking assistant provides more accurate answers than Alexa Plus

Compared to Alexa Plus, the NYT Cooking assistant was deemed more reliable, despite a somewhat messy presentation. Alexa did not display the modified recipe while delivering similar advice. This launch comes as some users remain skeptical, attached to a catalog of thousands of well-known and tested recipes, along with a comments section considered valuable. Trials of recipes generated solely by AI have also been described as disappointing.