A.I. in the Kitchen

by Jane Applegate Belzer

How I used modern AI to trace my husband’s immigrant grandmother’s old-world recipe.

It all started with memories of a fruitcake. Not a fruitcake of the traditional Christmas kind but a cake with lots of fruits and nuts made by my husband’s grandmother, who immigrated from Bessarabia/Moldova in the early part of the 20th century. A food memory, the kind only a grandmother can stir. And my husband asked if I could replicate such a cake.

Well, I love a good baking challenge, but I needed more information about this cake. Ingredients? He recalled lots of dried fruits. Maybe plums. Maybe cherries and raisins. Certainly some orange peel. And nuts. Probably walnuts. I started looking through my baking books.

“Why don’t you ask A.I.?” asked my husband. Hmm. Ask A.I. for a Moldovan fruit cake?

At this point I need to tell you that I am not proficient with technology as we know it today. I didn’t have a computer at my fingertips until I was in my 30s so the many new technology tools available today are mostly mysteries to me. And, along comes AI, first introduced to me at an OLLI faculty lunch by Bruce Gobioff. As he described many possibilities being offered as new teaching tools, I thought, I don’t think this will ever be for me. But, I downloaded the ChatGPT App on my phone just for fun.

My approach to Chat went something like this: “Is there a fruitcake recipe from Bessarabia?” And off Chat went.

“I couldn’t find a well-documented, widely recognized fruitcake recipe specifically labeled “Bessarabian fruitcake.” However, I can share something close – an old, traditional Eastern European (Moldovan/Bessarabian-region) cake that resembles a fruit-cake in spirit in that it is rustic, rich, festive and sometimes gets additions like nuts or raisins. It’s called Baba Neagra (Black Granny/OldWoman) and while it is more of a dark, dense cake than a classic Western fruitcake, many people in the region treat it as a celebratory, holiday-type dessert.”

Now, I think we might be on to something! Chat then went on to provide me with a recipe for “Baba Neagra” which called for 10 eggs and a cup of fermented milk, finished with brandy for flavor and preservation. Nowhere in the recipe were there fruits and nuts. After listing ingredients and directions, Chat provided a couple of notes telling me that I could add some “modern variants,” even suggesting some rose-flower jam for extra flavor. And, next, a disclaimer: “There is no ‘official’ Bessarabian fruitcake.” It seems that many traditional recipes from the Bessarabia/Moldovan/Romanian region were passed down orally or through handwritten family cookbooks. With social upheavals, migrations and changing tastes over centuries, some desserts, especially cakes, have been lost or merged with other recipes. According to Chat, what remains tends to be simpler, rustic cakes or breads rather than fruit-heavy cakes more associated with Western traditions.

Now, what? With Chat, I knew I could ask for more, so I did. And another recipe was produced, this one with nuts, fruits and spices. The recipe was different. Five eggs instead of 10, no fermented milk. No brandy. I wondered why these changes. The footnotes said this cake would be somewhere between gingerbread and a honey cake. I read all of this to my husband, who is the one with the flavor memory. No, he says. This is not like what his grandmother made. So, I head back to my cookbook collection.

Even though Chat did not get this cake memory quite right, I have not abandoned it as a handy kitchen adviser. When I am wondering about an ingredient or a cooking or baking process I know Chat is available to help. For example, I recently attended an OLLI lecture about Cross Creek and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, who was known to bake “Utterly Deadly Pecan Pie.” This made me just curious enough to ask Chat, which found the recipe in her 1942 Cookbook, Cross Creek Cookery and reproduced it for me. I also asked Chat how to freeze French toast, the difference between buttermilk and whole milk in baking and how to make marzipan. And I asked where to find fresh tortillas in Tampa. So, Chat really is full of kitchen help.

Recently, just for fun, I asked Chat what kinds of resources it offers to help me plan and prepare daily meals. Did I ever get a long response to that query:

You may still be wondering if I made the cake that started me on this AI journey. I did. But I did not use the recipe A.I. provided. In the end, I chickened out. I decided on a tried and true book from Yotam Ottolenghi, an Israeli chef and cookbook author—his Festive Fruitcake recipe, with a few modifications, of course. The cake was delicious.

And this was a lesson for me about using A.I. in the kitchen. While the suggestions and advice sound good, always double-check with reliable source material. Will I continue to use A.I. in the kitchen? Absolutely, but I’m not afraid it will take over my job in the kitchen. Human hands will always be needed to open the refrigerator and make a meal. At least for now, I’m secure.

Jane Applegate Belzer, retired professor and Dean of USF’s College of Education, joined OLLI in 2012. She has taken OLLI classes in literature, art, history, lifestyles, nature and technology. Jane is a member of the Food Glorious Food and Talking Movies SIGs. In the past she teamed up with Ara Rogers to teach A Course is Born: From Concept to Classroom, an OLLI course for prospective instructors.