AI in the restaurant kitchen? Top French chefs debate the use of ChatGPT


At the annual gathering of Franceโ€™s finest chefs for the Michelin Guide awards this year, the talk was not only about whose restaurants had gained or lost a star.

โ€œEveryoneโ€™s discussing AI. I was at a table of 12 other chefs, and it was the main thing we talked about,โ€ Matan Zaken, who runs the one-Michelin-star Nhome restaurant in Paris, said at the event at the end of March.

The 32-year-old believes that some of his peers are reluctant to admit just how much they are already consulting services such as OpenAIโ€™s ChatGPT to help them with recipes and ideas.

โ€œYouโ€™d be amazed to know how many people are using it. There are a lot of egos in the business. Theyโ€™re not going to make a big thing about it,โ€ he said.

French-Israeli chef Matan Zaken at his restaurant Nhome in Paris. He embraces the use of ChatGPT in the kitchen. Photo: AFP
French-Israeli chef Matan Zaken at his restaurant Nhome in Paris. He embraces the use of ChatGPT in the kitchen. Photo: AFP

Zaken has made a point of openly embracing the technology, which he says has the potential to produce surprising new pairings of ingredients, offering the possibility of palate-twisting discoveries for diners.

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