Newses & Articles

Computing Creative Cooking
Publish Date : 1395/5/23 Time 15:40:54

IBMCC1Computing Creative Cooking

Chefs are known for their creative mindsets in concocting new dishes.  But with hundreds of spices and flavorings available, it would take a lifetime to test every unique cooking combination out there.

That’s where computers have entered the kitchen!  In a past flavorfacts blog, we wrote about The Science Behind the Food Pairing Tree.  This technology sorts through its database of ingredients to predict new flavor combinations.

Similar to this idea, IBM has created a Cognitive Cooking experience drawing from their cognitive computer technology, Watson.  You may remember Watson as the supercomputer who made a run on Jeopardy in 2011.  Today, Watson is at work in a food truck, crunching through thousands of ingredients yielding quintillions of recipes.

Photo from IBM’s Cognitive Cooking Website.

We have entered an age where computers are partnering with people in retail, healthcare, and beyond.  Clouds of information hold our business data, as opposed to the few file cabinets before.  IBM poses the question on their site, “Is there business value hiding in your data?”

In the video below, IBM explains how Watson sorts through a “recipe book the size of the solar system,” thus saving chefs time in the kitchen.  The Cognitive Cooking system starts with a chef’s selection of main ingredient.  The cloud computes a list of ingredients to pair with the chef’s selection, and from there the chefs build new flavors with the ingredients.

A Recipe for Innovation: Big Data

Each recipe is analyzed according to its ability to surprise.  Tasty new recipes such as the Austrian Chocolate Burrito and the Vietnamese Apple Kebab have been created thus far.  View the recipes and vote for the next meal to be made on IBM’s Cognitive Cooking website here.

What do you think about IBM’s Watson technology?  What does this mean for the future of the food and flavor industry?

The Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States (FEMA) was founded in 1909 and is the national association of the U.S. flavor industry.  FEMA’s membership is comprised of flavor manufacturers, flavor users, flavor ingredient suppliers, and others with an interest in the U.S. flavor industry.  The association is committed to ensuring a safe supply of flavor ingredients used in foods and beverages enjoyed by billions of men, women, and children around the world.