Your Perfect Holiday Menu Can Be Planned in Seconds With AI - CNET

The holiday season has arrived and, if you're planning to host a big feast for family and friends, it's time to start planning the menu so you have plenty of time to buy those ingredients. And artificial intelligence might be the best sous chef out there. While it might be one of the most magical times of the year, it's also one of the most stressful. Holiday memes are hilarious but there's nothing funny about working in a hot kitchen from sunup to sundown only to have an aunt you see twice a year question the quality of your mac and cheese . "Who made this?" can be a very loaded question when you're hosting. It can be a time to revel in the bounty of the season's most succulent offerings. But it's also when relatives dip too deep in the sauce and start arguments about pronouns at the dinner table. One of the ways AI can help is by taking the guesswork out of planning an undeniably delicious meal, no matter what the holidays throw at you. Here's how to use it. Choose an AI tool and get real about your skills Because I'd like the benefit of choosing certain recipes from around the web, I'm using Microsoft's in-browser, text-prompt AI tool, Copilot . Copilot uses LLM processing as well as cited sources from the internet to respond to conversational search requests, and it can analyze web pages as you browse. But make sure you give it the info it needs. As in, if you can barely boil water, don't ask an AI tool to design a multicourse French-Chinese fusion banquet with sous vide steaks and flat noodles made from scratch. I let Copilot know I was an amateur in the kitchen and it gave me some easy-to-prepare recipes with simple-to-source ingredients and minimal steps and prep. One of the options even sounded fancy -- green bean almondine -- which is literally just green beans with sliced almonds. Don't miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source. Give AI a headcount Let the robot chef know how many hungry people will be in attendance for your holiday meal. I used Microsoft's Copilot to convert this New York Times recipe for gravy to accommodate 20 people and it seamlessly converted the measurements into a larger batch. Screenshot by Rachel Kane/CNET Alter recipes to your needs Not everyone wants raisins in their potato salad and it's best to avoid foods that might upset people's stomachs or inflame allergies when you'll all be at a dinner table in close proximity. For instance, Copilot was able to give me some critical ingredient substitutions on the fly for removing onions from the green bean casserole. Screenshot by Rachel Kane/CNET Take your budget into account Let the AI tool know how much you have to spend on dinner. Copilot was able to provide me with a list of dishes that were low on cost and high...

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