French restaurant ignites conversation with AI-generated dining

A French restaurant is putting AI to the test and sparking discussion about what the technology means for the future of dining. 

Cafe Bouffon in downtown Stratford will host Salon AI, a “technology enhanced social event” that will see diners sampling dishes developed by in-house chef Courtney Noble, alongside bites made from recipes generated by large language model-based chatbot, ChatGPT. 

“We wanted to see what ChatGPT is capable of and what it means for the food industry,” said Cafe Bouffon owner Larry McCabe. 

The dinner is taking place Saturday, Nov. 18 as part of the Provocation Ideas Festival, a new event series dedicated to exploring key issues impacting our local communities, which launched in Toronto last year. Stratford’s first iteration of the event focuses on the theme: Promise and Perils of Technology. 

McCabe says he has long been interested in the evolution of AI and the work of futurists like Ray Kurzweil, who predict that technological singularity - the moment when machines become smarter than humans - will occur in our lifetime.

“We want to be working with it [AI] right away because I think it’s going to be transformative very quickly,” said McCabe. “It’s about having fun and doing something interesting but also pushing the business forward.” 

The event will feature blind tastings of four pairs of canapés matched with beverages, with diners left to discuss which canapés they believe were based on chef recipes and which were based on recipes produced by ChatGPT.  

While guessing the entity behind each dish is a playful element of the event, McCabe hopes to ignite thought-provoking dialogue around what the rapid development of AI means for humanity.

McCabe said that his team has been amazed by how few prompts were required to create the recipes through ChatGPT. In fact, there’s already a secret menu item at Bouffon’s sister restaurant, Pazzo Pizzeria, made from an AI-generated recipe, which McCabe said he will reveal during the event to fuel further discussion.

McCabe plans to also incorporate an AI-powered playlist and pieces created by AI art generator DALL-E into the event. Diners will use an app to provide real-time feedback about their experience and observations. 

The “salon” concept comes from gatherings that took place in France during the 17th and 18th centuries that centred on an exchange of ideas.

“It was the first time sociologically where the merchant class and the aristocracy intermingled and created solutions for society,” says McCabe. 

With this in mind, McCabe worked with Destination Stratford to distribute 10 of 80 event tickets to equity-seeking groups in the community. 

“The tendency is for people who are going to attend this to be richer and whiter, but I want this to be a full conversation that involves the whole demographic,” he explained. “I want people to be able to come in here who normally wouldn't because they deserve a seat at the table.” 

McCabe hopes to continue this salon concept to encourage discourse around other important issues impacting the world both locally and globally, such as the affordable housing and mental health crises. 

“I think people are feeling really disconnected right now, and they need these informal conversations around what we’re doing in our society. I hope there’s a good discussion and some weird and unexpected elements. I hope we’ll generate even more ideas about how we can utilize this technology.”