AI is getting smarter, faster and more helpful (Picture: Getty)
Artificial intelligence is everywhere, with people asking the bot what to wear, and even using it to solve their relationship woes.
But this is just the beginning, and as it learns more from the large language models (LLMs) it’s trained on, it will get smarter, faster and more helpful.
At least that’s the idea.
At the moment, AI is far from perfect, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have its uses and there are some things it’s pretty good at. Generating backgrounds on Photoshop, removing unwanted objects from pictures, and rewriting emails are all things it manages relatively well.
But what about cooking Christmas dinner?
Last year, preparing your Christmas dinner in an air fryer seemed like the height of modern tech. But now, can AI help?
I asked Google’s Gemini, Open AI’s ChatGPT and Apple’s Siri to see whether they were any use — or no help at all…
Google Gemini
Gemini provided a guide to cooking ‘perfect sprouts’… unfortunately, there’s no such thing (Credits: Getty Images)
I put the same prompt into all three AI assistants, which was, ‘Can you help me cook Christmas dinner?’
Gemini was reasonably helpful, giving me some spiel about what Christmas dinner usually involves, and while traditions vary per household, it at least acknowledged the stereotypical basics – roast turkey, pigs in blankets, stuffing, sprouts, Christmas pudding and mince pies. You get the idea.
It gave me a breakdown of the key components, then offered tips. These included planning ahead with a detailed cooking schedule (though without telling me what that would be), prepping in advance, resting the turkey and not ‘overcrowding the oven’. It then told me to ask if I had any specific questions on recipes or cooking techniques.
I asked for a step-by-step timeline to cooking the turkey and dishes it had suggested. It replied with a loose timeline for what to do the day before, the morning of, early afternoon and late afternoon, with specific sections for pigs in blankets and Yorkshire puddings, followed by just before serving and serving up.
Generally, the information was accurate.A little basic perhaps, but I followed up with more questions, including how to cook the perfect brussels sprouts.
I did get specific instructions but given I don’t like sprouts, I expect I’d be unlikely to like Gemini’s whatever it advised…
Apple Siri (with ChatGPT)
Siri didn’t seem to know its audience, green bean casserole and mashed potatoes aren’t a traditional choice here (Credits: Getty Images)
For Siri, it’s worth mentioning that I was running Apple’s iOS 18.2 beta 3 software for the purpose of this experiment, which includes Siri’s integration with ChatGPT as one of the features coming to iPhone and iPad soon. The final software is due to be released at some point this month, so it’s possible answers would change when it’s in its final build, but here is what Siri with help from ChatGPT taught me.
It said it ‘would love to help me plan a delightful Christmas dinner’ and suggested we started by choosing a main dish, while giving me some ideas, including roast turkey, as well as beef tenderloin, or a vegetarian option such as a mushroom wellington.
I told Siri I wanted turkey, and it told me this was a ‘great choice’ and gave me a plan for preparing what it considered to be a ‘delicious turkey’.
The plan included six steps, from choosing the turkey and the preparation, which included preheating the oven and removing giblets and neck from the cavity, to flavouring, roasting, resting and the option of gravy. All those steps included a good level of detail.
It was all going so well until it told me to pair that delicious turkey with side dishes like mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. I don’t know about you, but neither of those make it on my family’s Christmas dinner menu, certainly not without roasties and parsnips anyway.
Siri and ChatGPT did at least acknowledge cranberry sauce and roasted veg as sides too (though no roast potatoes), and the cooking and flavouring instructions were detailed enough to help you if you were a turkey-cooking beginner.
ChatGPT
Getting a bit more specific gave us the ‘traditional’ result we desired – but no instructions (Credits: Getty Images)
I had to guide ChatGPT to give me what I wanted, though it did acknowledge everyone has different traditions, so it asked me if I had any specific dishes in mind or whether I would like a traditional Christmas feast.
I told it ‘traditional’ after which it gave me ‘a classic menu to guide me through’.
The menu was reasonably helpful, with descriptions like ‘turkey: roasted with butter, garlic, herbs (such as rosemary and thyme), and stuffed with aromatics like onions lemon and garlic’, and ‘roasted brussels sprouts: caramelised with olive oil, salt and pepper (maybe a drizzle of balsamic vinegar)’.
There were no instructions for cooking, however, and no timings.
I asked what order I should cook everything in and how, and like Gemini, I got a timeline based on the days leading up to Christmas Day, the morning of (including how many hours before dinner), then separate sections using the hours before dinner as the measurement.
The detail in the steps was helpful, with instructions like ‘if you plan to roast carrots, parsnips or any other root vegetables, now is the time. Toss them in olive oil, season and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on size’ falling under the ‘two to three hours before dinner’ bracket, but I did have to coax that out with my follow-up question.
Conclusion…
There’s smart cooking tech that can actually do this – but it’s not an AI chatbot (Credits: Getty Images)
I would say yes and no to AI cooking Christmas dinner. It can’t physically cook it for you, of course, so much of the hard work still needs to be done by you.
There is some technology that can help with that element, like smart ovens that can adjust temperature, timings and offer remote control from a smartphone.
Smart thermometers like Meater, meanwhile, connect to a smartphone via Bluetooth and guide you on an app to cooking the perfect joint of meat. They will tell you exactly when to take the joint or bird out of the oven, accounting for rest time based on the weight you input, and you get a great result every time, rather than anything dry and overdone.
More helpful than AI in my opinion, though it only accounts for the meat and not all the trimmings.
AI can guide you in cooking Christmas dinner – with ‘guide’ being the key word. It will give you timings, recipes and a general menu too. You still need to do the leg work.
We are a long way off being able to trust our festive feasts to AI. Be sure to check the information it gives you, especially when it comes to temperatures and cooking times, because AI doesn’t know your oven or how big your turkey, so it can only help you rather than become your knight in shining armour.
It can’t do traditional, but AI can create a rather out there Christmas leftover feast
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So, we’ve established you’re better off using AI for a loose guide on Christmas Day.
But, AI can get quite experimental if you let it…
If you’re feeling braver and you’re willing to trust the process on Boxing Day, why not take inspiration from what chef Big Zuu and Google Gemini cooked up with his traditional Christmas leftovers?
Gemini created a ‘Twixtmas’ menu including: Turkey and Stuffing Pinwheels, Brussels Sprouts Elote, Christmas Pudding Bread Pudding and Cranberry Sauce Ice-cream and more.
Word of caution, depending on your prompts, what it suggests to you could be even more unusual!
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Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.
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