Using AI image generators can help you be more productive at work or spark your creativity when coming up with design concepts, but have you ever used one to daydream about what your perfect meal would look like?
Let a group of friends choose of The perfect meal is sure to inspire some heated discussions. Just as munching on a juicy burger at the end of a long week makes everything better, enjoying a more sophisticated meal in good company at a fine dining restaurant is a natural pleasure.
We may disagree on what constitutes a perfect meal, but we can probably agree on what constitutes aesthetically pleasing food. For AI to truly become an integral part of our lives, it needs to understand what motivates our behavior.
Food is such an essential part of our family life and culture, so I was curious to see what an AI image generator would come up with when asked to create an image for it. Perfect meal.
To find out, I chose five iconic dishes each from French, Indian, Japanese, Italian and Mexican cuisines and asked five leading AI image generators to present them with a modern twist.
1. Mid Journey's Beef Bourguignon
Featuring tender chunks of beef in a beautiful red wine sauce, this French Beef Stew is a traditional French dish that originates from the Burgundy region of France.
Midjourney appears to have completed a hearty meal by slow-cooking the meat to perfection and serving it with a few potatoes, and the AI image generator even went to the trouble of garnishing the plate.
2. Leonardo's Chicken Biryani
For this round we tried out Leonardo's Phoenix model, a new advanced standard setting model that did not disappoint.
Leonardo stuck to a more traditional looking biryani but produced a healthy portion that would make you want to sit down and dig in. The composition of the image was great as the model included a few side dishes, including daal, which earned him extra points for me.
3. Ideogram Yakitori
Next up was Ideogram, a Toronto-based text-to-image generation tool that was asked to recreate yakitori, a Japanese dish made of skewered grilled chicken.
Its approach could be described as prioritizing simplicity and very strict portion control, but aesthetically Ideogram nevertheless doesn't disappoint. It seems to be the only image generator that made an effort to add something special to the dish, although it did unnecessarily add one skewer. I would have gladly forgiven it if there had been more pieces of chicken.
4. Pizza ai Funghi by Adobe Firefly
When I asked Adobe Firefly how to make Italian funghi pizza, I also added the potential added challenge of asking for a vegan version of the doughy dish. In fact, I could get away with a vegan cheese topping, but I was curious to see how they would handle this additional information.
Unfortunately, even though I requested a normal, photo-like AI image, the result was the most cartoonish one. And the pizza itself is not very appealing.
5. Tacos al Pastor by DALL-E 3
Finally, can DALL-E, the AI image generator that powers image creation for both ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, make tasty tacos al pastor? S!
What the image lacks in realism it makes up for in abundance of taco fillings — a modern twist is the choice of fried eggs with fresh pepper — and everyone's favorite taco toppings are displayed around the plate.
Final thoughts
Midjourney, Leonardo, and Ideogram produced impressive results, but the overall lesson is that simply asking an AI image generator to add a modern twist won't have the intended effect.
However, if you want to create your own dish, the prompts allow you to describe it and roughly visualize what it will look like on a plate.
We'd love to see your AI cooking creations, so if you'd like to share yours, email us at ryan.morrison@futurenet.com.
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