Tools · 2026-10-29

NYT Cooking Tests AI That Changes Recipes to Fit Your Kitchen

The NYT Cooking app is adding an AI feature that suggests ingredient and equipment substitutions and rescales recipes, but some readers are unhappy about it.

✨ What the new feature does

NYT Cooking senior editor Genevieve Ko announced that the app is testing a new AI feature. It helps users adapt recipes to what they have at home and what they need at the moment.

The feature can suggest substitutions for ingredients and cooking equipment, scale a recipe to any number of servings, and adjust a recipe to different pans and tools. Customized recipes are private: they can't be published or shared through the app.

📌 Example: baby spinach instead of kale

In one example from the article, a user asked to use baby spinach instead of kale. The app advised adding the spinach later in the recipe because it wilts faster.

This shows the feature considers not just ingredients, but how they behave while cooking.

🔹 Who can try it

The feature is being rolled out gradually while NYT monitors how it performs. It is currently available to all Cooking subscribers on the iOS app. NYT says broader availability will come "soon."

🔸 Why some readers are unhappy

Some readers, in the comments under the announcement, raised concerns about the environmental impact of widespread AI use and worried that such features could spoil the simplicity of the recipe site.

When a user asked whether the AI feature can be turned off, Ko replied, "No, not at this time," and said the feature is completely optional to use. Comments on the announcement have since been closed. An NYT spokesperson said this is standard practice: comments were open for four days, and editors answered questions.

💬 What came before

This is not the first use of AI in NYT Cooking. Two years ago it was used to convert American volume measurements into metric weights. Last year, a feature was added that halves or doubles the original serving size.

Sources: 🔗 The Verge — AI