Artificial Intelligence: How does it help chefs create new flavours?

Nicolas Maier is a typical French chef, a professional with years of experience and 18 Michelin stars on his sleeve, a man who dominates his kitchen and dispenses nuggets of culinary wisdom while preparing food for his guests.

Today, that ancient kitchen resides in a sprawling corporate headquarters on the outskirts of Geneva, where Mayer works for Firmenich, a company with a long and important history in the perfume industry dating back to 1895. But the company, with its subtle instinct, decided to enter a new market. Where the ingredients of the food vary, after the public’s appetite for meat alternatives increased, which launched a frantic race between companies to put plant-based foods on store shelves. The company says that there is a global market for plant-based meat alternatives worth $ 25 billion (£ 19 billion) and believes that it will grow to 200 $1 billion by 2030. To help perfect the flavors of these innovative foods, Nicolas Meyer has hired a new sous-chef named Sam. Sam is not a human being but an artificial intelligence (AI) robot.

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Together with a large team of flavor experts, the robot helps Sam blend a wide variety of flavors for customers. Humans' sense of taste comes from several receptors that are wired to alert our brains to the nature of whatever food we taste or eat. Of course, Sam lacks a sense of taste. But it was trained on a database of ingredients gathered over the company's 60 years of experience. Using a technique called machine learning, Sam tested examples of flavor combinations, learned and developed his own definitions, and matured over the course of 18 months into the AI ​​robot he is today. Eric runs “Flavors are more complex than fragrances,” says Sarachi, the digital division of Firmenich. Sam had to understand, for example, what strawberries are, or how the taste buds of the tongue perceive roast beef, before finding a match between flavors and plant-based nutrients.

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What are "ultra-processed" foods? And what are its dangers that we do not know? The robot is equipped with many components and is known internally as a "5000-key piano". This piano is played by the company's team of human flavor experts. The main flavor experts are the best tasters, who number about 30 in the whole world, Six of them work for Firmenich. Flavor makers are so rare, "You can't replace them, you can only improve and hone their skills," says Saraci.

The role of flavorists is fundamental and is at the heart of Firmenich's work, and Patrick Salward is its chief flavorist: “Being a flavorist means enjoying what is a combination of art and science. I had a master's degree in chemistry before starting this The profession. We train to select the best ingredients to get the flavor we want. We evaluate, describe and compare them.” He uses specific scents and flavors to mask “flavors” such as acid aftertaste, and gives the formula the right body. He talks about the harmony of food ingredients, and how removing a small component can change the overall taste. Sam takes the knowledge of flavor experts and creates new formulas in minutes, taking a fraction of the time Solard and his team spend using their own skills: "He proposes a formula It matches our senses.

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One of the big advantages of an AI bot is that there is no cognitive bias. The absence of these human biases helps Firemench transcend any unconscious tendencies or biases that flavorists may have. Sam's unaffected objectivity that can be found in even the most professional flavorists allows him to work quickly. "It provides added value by combining the knowledge of all the other flavor experts here," says Salward.

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The machine gives a quick indication of how to make up the flavor and how much ingredients to include. Sam can connect Mr. Salward's team of flavor experts on the one hand with the general tastes of consumers on the other hand, and arbitrate decisions when the flavor experts' point of view differs from that of the consumer committee. But the final product needs more, and this is what Mr. Salward's team brings to the tasting party , which is usually held at the beginning of the day. "We try to taste in the morning before having coffee, because by the afternoon your sense of taste gets tired and affected by lunch, so we leave the afternoon to work on the computer."

Back in Nicolas Mer's kitchen, the pairing of a flavor maker and a robot results in the dishes he prepares in his kitchen. He's used to hosting business clients, looking for a specific taste they can put on store-shelf food. Although AI is a "beautiful, powerful tool", flavor experts remain Nicola's close colleagues, and he values ​​the taste of UK consumers highly. Alia: "It's a very developed market with lots of vegan people."

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Fermenich is betting big on the rest of the world changing their eating habits to follow the British lead. He admits that this marriage of science and gastronomy has its critics: "When you mention chemicals, the phrase itself doesn't appeal to gastronomy and its fans."

Nicolas considers his greatest victory to be thick slices of tender, light-colored meat that tastes like good chicken nuggets, but is actually made according to Sam's recipe for plant-based protein, which is like a paste: "The essence of what we do is innovation, for me Molecules is another flavour." Mr. Meyer says he is looking forward to making Christmas turkey and more plant-based recipes.

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But his beef burger is less appetizing than it should be, and sausage is likely to be the dominant taste, so there seems to be a lot of work to be done for Sam and the flavor specialists.