As an avid food enthusiast, my cooking skills leave much to be desired. However, living in New York City allows me to escape the need to cook, as the city offers an abundance of top-notch restaurants within walking distance. Recently, I discovered an AI app called SideChef's RecipeGen, which claims to transform any photo into a detailed recipe. Intrigued, I decided to put it to the test. SideChef is a well-established recipe platform that has been on the market since 2013. Their new beta AI feature, RecipeGen, is a step-by-step home cooking app that is available for free download and use. To see the app's accuracy, I experimented with two methods. Firstly, I uploaded a photo of a dish I had enjoyed at a restaurant. Secondly, I submitted a photo of a meal I had prepared at home, as I knew exactly what ingredients I had used. The restaurant dish I chose was a brunch item from Malibu Farm in California. I checked the menu for the ingredients, which included sourdough focaccia, breakfast potatoes, strawberry or basil butter, kale, spinach, ricotta, eggs, and bacon. Unfortunately, the recipe generated by SideChef fell short in capturing the details.

It missed several key ingredients, lacked the specific flavors like strawberry butter and sourdough focaccia, and mistakenly included milk instead of ricotta. To give SideChef another chance, I uploaded a photo of a ramen dish. However, the app encountered an error and failed to generate the recipe. Undeterred, I moved on to my wife's specialty—sweet potato gnocchi with sausage. I provided the exact list of ingredients: sweet potato, egg, flour, sausage, mushrooms, butter, broth, and Parmesan. This time, SideChef performed better, accurately identifying the main ingredients and even suggesting the addition of sun-dried tomatoes, likely due to the presence of basil in the photo. While the app's cooking instructions were more complex than necessary, our tried-and-true method was 70% aligned with SideChef's suggestions. In conclusion, SideChef's RecipeGen has its limitations. It struggles with nuances and may occasionally make assumptions when uncertain. Yet, it can serve as a useful tool for inspiration and ingredient ideas, particularly in restaurants where obtaining detailed dish information from the waiter may be inconvenient. However, for those with even modest skills in the kitchen, SideChef may not be of much use, especially to those who prefer to cook creatively without being bound by rigid recipes or relying on AI guidance.