AI Kitchen Appliance DelishUp with ChatGPT Takes Cooking from Chore to Adventure in Indian Kitchens

Gone are the days when cooking was just a mundane household chore. Thanks to artificial intelligence and ChatGPT cooking may become a fun adventure in the days come. DelishUp, a smart cooking appliance designed by IIT Bombay alumni, Mahek Mody, and Mohit Sharma, uses artificial intelligence and ChatGPT to help novices cook sophisticated dishes. The device aims to make cooking less intimidating, and makes more people venture into the kitchen with confidence, eager to experiment with new dishes and ingredients. Recently, Mahek Mody spoke to Dataquest about the device, its new ChatGPT integration and future plans of the parent company upliance.ai.

DQ: Tell us about the intent behind designing DelishUP?

Mahek Mody: DelishUP, our smart cooking assistant that has been in the market for four to five months now. We are solving a unique problem that specifically affects young people in India. With the exposure to various food trends through OTT platforms and social media, our taste preferences have evolved, but our cooking skills have not kept pace with the changes. Traditionally, we learned to cook simple Indian dishes like dal, chawal, roti, and sabzi. However, with the desire to explore new dishes, we often struggle to follow recipes that require different cooking techniques and ingredients that we are not familiar with. This is where DelishUP comes in.

DelishUP comprises a jar with blades and a heating coil at the bottom that enables the user to chop, blend, and cook within the same appliance. This unique feature unlocks new possibilities for cooking various dishes, such as stir-frying onions, making pasta sauces, and cooking noodles. With a touchscreen interface that offers 250 recipes ranging from coffee to Paneer Makhani and pulao, the user can select the dish they want to cook and adjust the serving size. The ingredients are listed with clear instructions, and the built-in weighing scales allow for precise measurements.

For those who are new to cooking, DelishUP provides tutorial videos on basic skills, such as cutting and peeling onions. The cooking process is straightforward, with clear instructions on when to add ingredients and how to cook them. The device even alerts the user when the dish is ready to serve. With DelishUP, cooking has never been easier or more accessible, and the Chilli Garlic Noodles recipe can be made in just 20 minutes.

While we have showcased the surface-level capabilities of DelishUp, we're continuously estimating the temperature of the food inside using food science. For instance, we know that tomato gravy needs to be at 95 degrees Celsius for 14 minutes to cook. My co-founder Mohit spent the last six years in cloud kitchens perfecting the art of cooking in small spaces with the aid of technology. We've encoded this information into our AI, which estimates the food's temperature and makes decisions on how to cook it.

Our approach ensures that we consistently produce delicious food and prevent overcooking. Even if customers want to modify the recipe by adding more tang or garlic, DelishUp can accommodate their preferences. Customers rave about the quality of food they're able to cook, even with limited cooking skills. That's the essence of DelishUp – it's a superpower that enables anyone to cook anything from mushrooms to risotto to chili garlic noodles. We've also added salads, tea, and coffee to our repertoire, dramatically expanding the range of use cases.

It's now 2023, and while automation is prevalent, DelishUp remains a recipe discovery platform. You can browse recipe trailers at the top and categorize recipes as you scroll down. We're constantly improving our AI's competence by adding more features.

DQ: How can the number of recipes be increased on the AI device?

Mahek Mody: Firstly, we are a connected device, meaning that we are connected to Wi-Fi in your home, allowing recipes to be added on a daily basis. For example, when we created the video two months ago, there were 200 recipes, but now we have 250 and continue to add more gradually. This will eventually bring the ability for users to add their own recipes. Our thought process behind selecting recipes is actually quite simple. DelishUp has a singular mission - we want to encourage people to cook at home more often. Why? Because cooking at home is a healthy habit. It's a fact that when you cook at home, you order less food from outside, and you can control the quality and quantity of ingredients that you consume. This, in turn, will make you healthier, feel more energized, and ultimately level up your daily routine. Our mission is to make it easier for you to cook at home more often.

DQ: Tell us about the new ChatGPT integration with DelishUp?

Mahek Mody: ChatGPT now has encompassing knowledge of food, ingredients and recipes and can make generative and responsive suggestions to all cooking prompts and needs. With the delishUp, our mission has always been to get more homes in India cooking, and the integration of ChatGPT into the delishUp is a major step in that direction. We wanted our owners to have the ability to cook what they wanted at whim. Food is deeply personal, and we understand that everyone has different needs and preferences when it comes to cooking. By integrating UpAI with ChatGPT, we can now cater to the varied needs, requirements and preferences of our owners. We are thrilled to be at the forefront of bringing truly smart and connected technology to Indian homes. e AI powered “UpBot” enables owners to seek cooking tips, receive assistance with modifying recipes during cooking and clarify doubts. The UpBot can offer suggestions on customising existing recipes on the upliance to suit dietary needs and preferences. Examples of customisation include making recipes vegan, sugar-free and low calorie. Additional features also include speech recognition.

In addition to the 200+ in-built recipes, owners can now also request any recipe they desire. Owners can generate trending recipes from social media or a recipe they have seen on their favourite cooking show, or request for a recipe with an unusual combination of ingredients, the delishUp will generate a recipe for it. 

DQ: Will it be available on Amazon or Flipkart anytime soon?

Mahek Mody: It is currently available on our website at Rs 21,999. Yes, we are planning to launch on Amazon and Flipkart in about two to three months. However, when we do, you can expect a price increase as well, because now we have retail partners and they are focused on organic growth.

Today, our customers are the ones who really benefit from our product. They come to our website, make a purchase, and we make it available to them at a price that makes sense to them. Currently, we spend very little to no money on marketing. Our existing customers share their experiences with their friends and family and sometimes we have our products on showcase in retail spaces in Bangalore.

We are also offering a trial where people can pay us 499 and keep the product for four days. This allows customers to actually cook with the product before making a purchase. This growth strategy is working well for us right now. Once we have established our presence, we will raise our prices when we launch on Amazon and Flipkart.

DQ: Do you offer customer support?

Mahek Mody: Yes, we do offer doorstep services wherever we operate. You can request service directly on the chatbot by hitting the "Call me" button. We can run onboard diagnostics and remotely identify any issues with your DelishUp device, even before we arrive. For software-related issues, we can often fix them remotely by sending an update. In case of physical damage, we can pinpoint the exact part to replace and send it with our service person. Our goal is to leverage technology to improve not only the customer experience but also the product's reliability. We believe modern appliances should be self-aware and able to diagnose themselves. In most cases, we can resolve issues by simply getting on a call with the customer and providing guidance. We don't even consider this a unique functionality - it's just how appliances should work these days.