The NYT Cooking AI assistant has quickly become a useful kitchen sidekick for one reviewer, but it also demonstrated how AI can stumble when the stakes are high. In a test spanning weeknight dinners and a weekend baking project, the tool saved a chicken dish from being a fridge-foraging failure—yet nearly led to a dry cake by confusing original and modified recipes.
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, a senior reviewer at The Verge, spent several days with the new feature, which is available to NYT Cooking subscribers on iOS at launch. She found that the assistant, trained in part on user comments, excels at practical substitutions and scaling. But she also learned to double-check its math, especially when switching between versions.
Ingredient swaps and the weeknight chicken rescue
On a Friday night, Tuohy opened the NYT Cooking app with a familiar dilemma: she had chicken tenders instead of thighs and was missing chard, cilantro, and scallions for a One-Pot Chicken and Rice With Ginger recipe. She typed her inventory into the assistant’s prompt box and asked what she could do.
Within seconds, the tool generated a new version titled One-Pot Chicken and Rice With Ginger and Green Beans. It shortened the browning time for the tenders, suggested cooking red onion with the chicken, and recommended steaming green beans atop the rice for the final eight minutes. All changes were highlighted under a “Your Version” tab, with the original recipe left untouched.
Tuohy later asked about using Thai basil instead of cilantro, and the assistant agreed, noting how the flavor would shift. The resulting dish, which took the same time as the original, earned her husband’s approval. She noted that while she could have figured out many substitutions herself, the assistant provided validation that her changes wouldn’t ruin the meal—and she didn’t have to leave the app.
The tool also handled more obscure swaps. When Tuohy asked about replacing makrut lime leaves in a Thai red curry, it suggested grated lime zest but warned that it would miss the deeper floral and herbal aroma. And when she proposed minced beef for ladyfingers in a trifle—a nod to a Friends episode—it firmly refused, stating that minced beef cannot be used in the dessert.
Baking blunder: when the assistant almost ruined a cake
Confident after her dinner success, Tuohy turned to baking, a domain where she admits she struggles. She took a Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake recipe and asked the assistant to convert it into muffins, since she lacked a Bundt pan. The tool adjusted the cooking time from three hours to 50 minutes and split the batter across two 12-muffin tins.
But that made 24 muffins—too many—so she asked to halve the recipe for 12. The assistant smartly rounded five eggs down to three rather than an impractical two and a half. Both the original Bundt cake and the AI-modified muffins turned out well, but a sticky situation arose when she switched between the two versions in the app.
Because the modified recipe cannot be saved separately, Tuohy found herself confused while cooking the original. With messy fingers, she asked the assistant how much butter she needed. It replied with 6 tablespoons from the modified recipe instead of the original’s three-quarter cup—without specifying which version it was referencing. She later advised deleting any modified version to avoid such mix-ups, noting that 6 tablespoons of butter would have produced a dry cake.
How it compares with Alexa Plus
Tuohy also pitted the NYT Cooking assistant against Alexa Plus on an Echo Show 11 smart display. Both offered similar substitution guidance for the chicken dish, though with slightly different cooking times. However, Alexa couldn’t display the modified recipe on screen; it only read out changes while showing the original. When asked to walk through the modifications, Alexa improvised and suggested cutting the chicken into bite-sized pieces—a step not in the modified recipe.
Overall, Tuohy found the Cooking app more reliable, if messier to use. She wished for voice control to navigate the app, as she has with Alexa, rather than tapping with garlicky fingers.
The verdict: a helpful sous chef, not the head chef
For Tuohy, the NYT Cooking AI assistant is a solid application of AI that doesn’t alter the original recipe but creates a new one alongside it. It won’t comply with requests that would taste bad, and it provides practical guidance for everyday problems like missing ingredients or equipment.
Still, she cautions that it’s not perfect. She felt the need to double-check amounts and cooking times, cross-referencing with the original to ensure the AI hadn’t done something outlandish. For recipe purists, the chat box is easy to scroll past, and there’s no way to turn it off.
But for someone standing in front of the fridge at 7PM with chicken tenders and no plan, the assistant has earned a place in the nightly cooking routine. It may not be the head chef, but as a sous chef, it’s a useful addition—just don’t trust it with your butter without checking twice.
