I use ChatGPT for a lot of things: proofreading and editing my writing, creating shortcuts for work, solving how-to problems, getting feedback on ideas, and helping untangle the spiderweb of thoughts in my head. But of all the ways I’ve used it, the most enjoyable has been collaborating to create recipes.

In fact, it’s been so much fun that I decided to create a new page on my blog: Recipes by Me & ChatGPT—a growing collection of meals, breads, desserts, and experiments built the same way they all started: through conversation, testing, tweaking, and usually a little improvisation.

Every recipe will come with more than a list of ingredients and instructions. I’ll walk you through the process—and even the conversations with ChatGPT—that led to the final product. And if I can’t help myself, I’ll probably share what surfaced along the way—insights on grace, patience, humility, and other truths born from experimenting, failing, and putting my apron on again.

I’ve found that I hear the Lord best when I’m in the middle of using the talents and skills He’s given me.

Because as much as I love sharing my food, I enjoy sharing what the Lord shares with me.

One thing you should know: I’m not a trained chef. I’m just a regular guy who enjoys creating things, solving problems, and feeding people. Everything you’ll find here has been cooked, tasted, tweaked, and made again until I was happy to put my name on it.

Every recipe has also been tested on family, friends, or coworkers before earning a place here. Their enthusiastic feedback gave me the confidence to share them with you. If a regular guy like me can learn to make food people genuinely enjoy through this process, I think you can too.

But beyond the joy of creating edible art and the lessons hidden in the process, there are several practical reasons cooking with ChatGPT has become one of my favorite hobbies.

How Cooking with ChatGPT Changed Everything for Me

Recipe Websites Are Annoying

You know this.

Pop-up ads. Auto-play videos. Endless scrolling through someone’s life story just to get to the recipe.

I understand why recipe websites do it—they have to make money. But those interruptions are much easier to tolerate on a computer than in the kitchen, with flour on your hands and your phone propped up beside you.

When you’re creating a new dish, your mind is already juggling enough—timing, ingredients, substitutions, temperatures, and maybe even the dog under your feet. The last thing you need is flashing ads and clutter pulling your attention in five different directions.

ChatGPT is the opposite.

Clean. Simple. Focused.

Its uncluttered, conversational interface keeps me locked into the creative process instead of fighting distractions.

Recipe Websites Don’t Talk Back

Even once you get past the ads and finally reach the recipe, there’s another problem: it can’t adapt.

If you don’t have bread flour, there’s no way to ask a recipe website if all-purpose flour will work. Maybe you’re making garlic knots and wondering, Would these be better brushed with melted butter before baking, after baking, or both? A recipe website can’t answer that question.

But with ChatGPT, the recipe talks back.

It gives immediate, interactive feedback tailored to my situation, helping me troubleshoot problems and answer questions as they arise.

For example, our oven runs a little hot. If ChatGPT tells me to bake cinnamon rolls at 350°, I simply mention that my oven runs hot.

Me: “my oven runs a little hot”

ChatGPT: Good to know—that actually matters for cinnamon rolls 👍

🔥 If your oven runs hot

You’ll want to adjust slightly so they don’t over-brown on the outside while staying doughy inside.

Best adjustments:
– Lower temp to 340–345°F instead of 350°F
– Start checking 5 minutes early (around 18–20 min in)
– If tops brown too fast, loosely cover with foil for the last 5–10 minutes

In other words, I don’t get stuck. I improvise. I keep moving.

Cooking with ChatGPT is like having a beer with Gordon Ramsay while I cook—quick answers, instant feedback, and constant adjustments—but without the irate yelling.

It’s less like following a recipe and more like cooking in conversation.

ChatGPT Helps You Create with What You Have

This may be my favorite part of cooking with ChatGPT.

Recipe websites start with what you need.

ChatGPT works with what you have.

Instead of planning a meal around a recipe, I can look in my refrigerator and pantry and build a meal from what’s already there, rather than making a last-minute dash to the grocery store.

This isn’t hypothetical. Many of my favorite recipes started with some version of:

Me: “I need to cook dinner tonight, and I found hamburger meat, fresh carrots, and Corn Flakes.”

ChatGPT: That’s a bit of a “creative pantry challenge,” but you can still make something decent—corn flakes can actually work as a binder/crunch like breadcrumbs. Here are your best options:

That simple shift has changed the way I cook. When you work a full-time job and manage a side hustle, the nights you’re responsible for dinner need to be as simple as possible.

ChatGPT Keeps Track of Everything

Conversations with ChatGPT can get long, especially when you’re creatively iterating through a new recipe.

When I come back to that recipe the next time I want to make it, the final version may be buried somewhere in the conversation.

That’s not a problem.

I simply ask for it again.

Or I ask, “How many tablespoons of lime juice did we decide to use?” Or, “Remind me why I used real maple syrup instead of maple extract.”

No endless scrolling.

No hunting for the one detail I forgot.

ChatGPT can pull it back up in seconds.

ChatGPT Makes Scaling Recipes Easy

Whether I’m cooking for two people or twenty, I don’t have to recalculate recipes anymore.

One week I’m making pull-apart yeast rolls for the family, but another week, I’m making them for the office. And often the math isn’t as simple as doubling the recipe.

Instead of pulling out my phone’s calculator and hoping I don’t miss an ingredient, I simply tell ChatGPT how many people I’m feeding. It recalculates the recipe in seconds and, when needed, explains how the larger batch may affect mixing, rise times, baking times, pan sizes, or other details.

This benefit can make the difference between being a hero or a zero.

The Biggest Benefit: More Confidence in the Kitchen

When I step back and look at all of this, I don’t think the biggest benefit has been better recipes.

It’s been greater confidence.

Cooking with ChatGPT has accelerated my learning far more than following recipes from a cookbook or a website ever did. Not because it does the cooking for me, but because it gives me more quality reps in less time.

Think about Tom Brady.

He didn’t become the GOAT by reading books about quarterbacking. He became the GOAT by throwing thousands upon thousands of passes, getting immediate coaching, making small adjustments, and then throwing thousands more.

Every rep taught him something.

Every correction made the next throw a little better. Those quality reps produced one of the greatest quarterbacks the game has ever seen.

Cooking with ChatGPT works much the same way.

Every question gets an immediate answer. Every answer leads to another attempt. Every attempt teaches me something. Instead of getting stuck, searching five websites, or wondering if I’m about to ruin dinner, I keep moving. Every conversation gives me another quality rep because the feedback is immediate.

Those extra reps have accelerated my learning. They’ve helped me experiment more, solve more problems, test more ideas, and build confidence much faster than I ever could with an irritating website recipe.

Confidence isn’t something ChatGPT gave me. It’s something I earned through more quality reps. ChatGPT simply made it possible to get those reps faster.

And the proof isn’t just that I feel more confident.

The food keeps getting better.

My family enjoys it. My coworkers ask me to bring more. They’ve told me they would go back to a restaurant just for my jalapeño cheddar biscuits and garlic knots.

That’s the real reason I’m starting Recipes by Me & ChatGPT.

Whether you love spending time in the kitchen, survive on ramen, or would rather order takeout, I hope you’ll visit Recipes by Me &ChatGPT from time to time. New recipes will be added regularly as they’re created, tested, and refined.

Or perhaps you’ll steal my idea of cooking with ChatGPT and never come back. That’s fine, too.

Steal away!

You might just discover what I have—that better cooks are made one quality rep at a time.