Recipe for disaster? I tried Botatouille, BuzzFeed’s AI kitchen helper

I wondered whether a bot could transform the cooking experience - so I let it plan my meals for a day

I consider myself a pretty great home cook. I like to dream up my meals, building flavors without relying on a recipe, like the lamb chops with a mustard-red wine-thyme pan sauce I recently threw together without instructions after finding the meat on sale.

So when I learned earlier this year about BuzzFeed's new AI-powered kitchen companion, Botatouille, I was intrigued. I know it's a controversial tool, as Botatouille's announcement came amid widespread media layoffs - including at BuzzFeed, where the company's CEO announced that the platform would be using AI to enhance" its content. But the name made me chuckle, and its promise of not just offering recipes but being a companion in the kitchen was an interesting prospect.