I’m an AI Skeptic Who Used ChatGPT as My Meal Prep Assistant

Technology has always made me uneasy—credited, in part, to an early obsession with The Twilight Zone and my college thesis on Brave New World, both cautionary tales about trading human agency for technological ease. Fast-forwarding to 2025, I was duly fascinated and fearful of what AIs like ChatGPT could do for—or rather, to—people and society as a whole, so I was reluctant to try the app for myself. 

Although late to the party, I finally caved and have since eased into using the AI chatbot primarily to help with grocery shopping, meal prep, and recipe tweaks. (Okay… and the occasional astrology reading, workout plan, and relationship advice. To err is human, right?) Here’s what I gained with my food-focused queries—plus how I try to maintain at least a modicum of human touch in the process.

It helps me shop for groceries (in a different language)

As a digital nomad currently spending most of my time abroad, I don’t have all the ingredients I’m used to at my disposal. I’m in Seoul, and a typical week usually has me visiting at least three separate food markets around the city to create the specific dishes I’m craving. 

With ChatGPT,  I  get suggestions on certain places that are more likely to have the items that are harder to come by, thus helping to refine my rat race at checkout lines across the city sprawl. It even tells me exactly what to look for in the Korean alphabet—plus valid swaps in case options are limited—saving me tons of time second-guessing myself or typing things out manually on a translation app.

It shares surprising cooking hacks

Beyond shopping, I’ve also learned a few tricks in the kitchen. While I typically pull up recipes before I master them, I’m not a measurement purist and have a pretty good eye and intuition in the kitchen. Still, there are some new tips and techniques that I’ve learned from ChatGPT that have proven to be immensely helpful.

For example, one of my all-time favorite recipes is for Thai–inspired minced chicken lettuce cups… but I’d never seen minced chicken at any market in Seoul (and my elementary Korean language skills make me too nervous to seek it out from a butcher). I asked ChatGPT how I could best mimic this recipe, expecting that I’d have to give up the delectable crumbled texture for smoother chunks of chicken that simply wouldn’t hit the same. 

However, it instructed me to buy boneless chicken thighs (for a richer taste than chicken breast, my typical go-to), freeze it for about 30 minutes, peel off the skin, then slice it into thin strips before rocking the knife back and forth for a ground texture. 

Yes, this took more time and effort than simply buying minced chicken as I was used to, but the sense of accomplishment from the DIY and the ability to make this recipe to a T satisfied my taste buds and my pride alike.

It helps minimize food waste

I’ve lived alone for the majority of my adult life—which, as far as kitchen activity goes, means that no one gets their paws on my snacks and sweets (yay!) but it’s all too common for items like veggies to go bad before I have the chance to finish them. In the effort to save my budget and the planet one meal at a time, I’ve asked ChatGPT to share ideas for what I could make with specific items in my fridge that were on their last leg.

For instance, I had a handful of purple cabbage from a Korean–inspired beef bowl, plus some julienned carrots, cilantro, and mint from my Thai chicken dish. This produce aside, I had some frozen strips of beef and a pack of konjac noodles I typically save for making sukiyaki (a Japanese hot pot dish), alongside fridge and pantry staples like minced ginger and garlic, soy sauce, and fish sauce. While my intuition told me that these ingredients would all pair nicely together, ChatGPT gave me the exact steps to make it into a tasty, comprehensive Vietnamese–inspired noodle dish. The result: Minimum waste, maximum flavor, and a new recipe in my arsenal.

It inspires kitchen creativity, kind of

Despite the merits of my foodie-filled adventures with ChatGPT, I still question and tweak its suggestions on a regular basis, which has actually refined my critical thinking skills and creativity in the kitchen. 

In addition to sensing that certain ingredients can work in harmony together, I often wonder if different methods could yield a tastier result. For example, in the aforementioned noodle recipe, ChatGPT instructed me to cook the beef, remove it, only then sautéing garlic and ginger before adding veggies to the mix. I asked if it would work to add the aromatics first to make the beef more savory and fragrant, and it confirmed that my hunch was right. 

It offers a sense of my macronutrient intake

Lastly, I sometimes refer to ChatGPT when making a meal to get a ballpark range of where my macros stand. I mostly look at protein and fiber, chiefly to support my recent focus on strength training and to keep me satiated (and thus minimizing my lifelong propensity for late-night snacking). 

While I take the estimates as a point of reference rather than a guarantee, I do appreciate having a greater sense of where these numbers stand so I can stay on track with my goals and modify my diet as needed—say, by mixing Greek yogurt with granola, nuts, and fruit for dessert to inch closer to both targets.

The bottom line

Although it pains the skeptic in me to say it, using ChatGPT as my foodie-focused assistant has been game-changing in countless ways. While my wariness hasn’t fully worn off as far as how AI is ultimately changing our brains, relationships, and society as a whole, I have to give credit where it’s due and admit that ChatGPT will continue to be my sous chef of sorts for the foreseeable future.

That said, I’ll continue to view it as a collaboration rather than bible, find opportunities for it to inspire me to be a more nimble and thoughtful cook, and yes—type out “please” and “thank you” should my sci-fi fears of an AI revolt ever come to fruition.