Development Log
Entry 01 — March 2026
Prototype: AI Cooking Assistant
The Idea
RUE was inspired by a simple idea from Ratatouille: what if cooking guidance worked like a real sous chef?
In the film, Remy quietly guides Linguini step-by-step, reacting to what’s happening in the kitchen.
That made me wonder what cooking would feel like if recipes worked the same way — not static instructions, but real-time guidance.
RUE is an experiment exploring whether conversational AI can play that role.
First Prototype
The first version of RUE started as a simple web interface connected to OpenAI. The goal was to test whether AI could maintain the structure of a recipe while responding naturally to interruptions and questions.
Early prompt frameworks focused on AI analyzing dishes and their ingredients and guiding users through sequential steps while allowing interruptions like “What should I prep next?” or “How long should this cook?”
Once the basic interaction worked, I deployed the prototype using Vercel to create a lightweight beta environment for testing.
Beta Launch
RUE is now in its first round of beta testing as a web application. The focus at this stage is understanding how people actually interact with conversational cooking guidance.
Some early questions I'm exploring:
How much structure should the AI maintain during a recipe?
When should RUE provide proactive instructions vs waiting for prompts?
How conversational should cooking guidance feel compared to traditional recipes?
The current beta helps test these questions before expanding the interaction model further.
What I'm TestingThis project explores a few core questions:
Can conversational AI guide cooking more effectively than traditional recipes?
When should an AI assistant proactively intervene versus waiting for prompts?
How much structure should the AI maintain during a recipe?
Development Stack (Current)
OpenAI — conversational cooking guidance
Web interface — beta testing environment
Vercel — deployment
GitHub — version control