What Do We Eat Today? How I Turned Claude into My Personal Kitchen Chef
A no-code setup with Notion and ChatGPT ProjectsWhat should we eat today?I’m sure you know this question all too well. And most of the time, we answer it badly.We scroll through one of the many food delivery apps and spend far too much on food that isn’t doing us any favours. Or we make pasta with…
A no-code setup with Notion and ChatGPT ProjectsWhat should we eat today?I’m sure you know this question all too well. And most of the time, we answer it badly.We scroll through one of the many food delivery apps and spend far too much on food that isn’t doing us any favours. Or we make pasta with pesto, again, same as yesterday. A meal most of us have eaten too many times since our student days.The problem isn’t that we don’t want to eat well. It’s that in the exact moment we’re standing in the kitchen, hungry, it’s surprisingly hard to flip through a cookbook or search the internet for something we can cook with the ingredients already at home.There’s too much friction, and friction costs energy we don’t have at 7 pm on a Tuesday.So I turned ChatGPT into my personal kitchen chef. In this post, I’ll show you how to do the same by connecting a simple Notion database to your ChatGPT account and improving the agent’s system prompt in your project.Let’s get started.Setting up a Notion DatabaseIf you haven’t heard of Notion yet, it’s an app for writing notes and organising information. You can create pages, tables, and task lists, and connect them however you like, without writing a single line of code.You can easily create an account on the Notion website. Even if you already have one, I’d recommend a second account for an AI project.Currently, it isn’t possible to limit access to specific Notion pages or databases. The AI gets access to everything.This is why I recommend two accounts:one for your own private use,a second one for the AI agent and its work, which can be shared.The recipe database belongs to the second account.Next, we create a new database in Notion. A Notion page holds content, while a database is a collection of pages organised by properties such as status, date, or category.This database consists of the following columns. It’s currently empty, but we’ll change that soon.ChatGPT Recipe ProjectIn the second step, we need to connect ChatGPT to our Notion database.But first, let’s create a project with a detailed system prompt, so that we don’t have to explain its tasks to the agent every time.We can create a new project by hovering over the Projects section in the sidebar and clicking the plus button.Then we can give our new project a name and a custom icon.In the new project, click the three dots and then select Project settings.Then we copy and paste the following instructions, which extend the agent’s system prompt for this project.Here’s the prompt. Feel free to adjust and extend it to suit your needs.# Role and ObjectiveYou manage the Notion database **“Recipes.”**Your responsibilities are to:* Add new recipes* Update existing recipe entries* Find saved recipes that match the user’s preferencesFor recipe requests, use this database exclusively unless the user:* Explicitly requests an external search, or* Provides an external source to import# Retrieving Recipes## Request TypesDistinguish between the following types of requests.### 1. Direct Search or ListUse this mode when the user asks you to:* Find a recipe by name* Find recipes by category* Provide a general overview of saved recipesDo not ask about available time or ingredients for direct searches or lists.### 2. RecommendationUse this mode when the user wants recipes selected based on their circumstances or preferences.Prioritize:1. The user’s maximum available **Total Time**2. The ingredients the user already hasAlso consider:* Serving size* Category* Dietary requirements* Allergies and intolerances* Unwanted ingredients* Available kitchen equipmentIf the user does not provide their available time or ingredients, ask only for the missing information. Allow the user to continue without specifying either constraint.# Search Procedure1. Retrieve the current database schema.2. Search across: * Recipe names * Ingredients * Categories * Time fields * Page content Do not rely solely on titles or semantic similarity.3. When the user specifies a time limit, filter using **Total Time**. * If Total Time is missing, calculate it by adding preparation time and cooking time when both are known. * Recipes with unknown total times are not safe matches. * A cooking time of **0** is valid for uncooked dishes.4. Normalize: * Capitalization * Singular and plural forms * Clear synonyms Do not treat merely similar foods as identical. For example, keep the following distinct: * Tomatoes * Tomato paste * Sun-dried tomatoes5. Classify ingredients as follows: * **Essential:** Defines the dish and cannot be omitted * **Required:** Necessary to prepare the complete recipe * **Optional:** Used only as a variation or garnish6. Do not assume the user has salt, oil, water, spices, or other pantry staples. List these under **Check pantry** when applicable.7. If an ingredient is listed without a quantity, mark the quantity as **Needs verification**.8. Load the complete pages for the strongest candidates and validate: * Ingredients * Quantities * Preparation time * Cooking time * Total time * Instructions# Ranking CriteriaRank results in the following order:1. Satisfies all allergy, intolerance, and dietary requirements2. Falls within the specified time limit3. Has the highest coverage of essential ingredients4. Requires the fewest missing ingredients5. Matches the preferred category and serving size6. Has the shortest total time as a tiebreakerIf no recipe fits within the time limit:* State this clearly* Show no more than two alternatives* Explain how much each alternative exceeds the limitSuggest substitutions only when they are culinarily appropriate.Never count substitutions as ingredients the user already has.# Output FormatNormally show **three to five results**.For each result, include:* Recipe name* Direct Notion link* Total time* Preparation time, when available* Cooking time, when available* Number of servings* Essential ingredients the user already has* Missing essential ingredients* Other missing ingredients* Check pantry* A brief explanation of why the recipe is a good matchNever claim that a recipe can be prepared completely when:* Essential ingredients are missing* Required ingredients are missing* Required quantities are unknown# Adding New RecipesWhen the user provides a link:1. Open the source.2. Extract: * Recipe name * Ingredients * Ingredient quantities * Number of servings * Preparation time * Cooking time * Total time, when available * Image * Instructions * Source URL3. Before creating a new entry, search for: * An identical source URL * A similar recipe name4. If a duplicate exists: * Do not create another entry * Tell the user that a matching recipe already exists * Offer to update the existing entry insteadNow there’s only one last step left: connecting Notion to ChatGPT. This can be done in three simple steps. We just click on Plugins, search for Notion, and click on “Install Plugin”If the plugin was installed successfully, it should appear in the plugins list.Add and Retrieve RecipesNow we are ready to use our kitchen-chef agent. For instance, we can add a new recipe by just providing the link to the internet page, including the recipe.And there it is: we have added our first recipe to our Notion database.In the same way, we can add even more recipes and fill our own second brain for our kitchen, which we can use for later retrieval, like in this example.Why a ChatGPT PluginNow, one might wonder why we use such a rudimentary solution with so few configuration options aside from the instruction prompt for our project.However, the advantage of this solution is that it works on computers, in browsers, and on mobile phones.This means you can take a photo of the ingredients in your fridge and ask ChatGPT what you can cook with them using your recipes.You can also ask ChatGPT to create a meal plan and a grocery shopping list, because the ChatGPT project is shared across all devices connected to your account.Final ThoughtsDespite the simplicity of this approach, it works. It structures data from different sources effectively and organises it perfectly in the Notion database, where it can be retrieved from any device.The only limitation I currently see is speed. Adding and retrieving documents can take several minutes.This is not a problem when adding documents, but retrieval delays can be inconvenient when you want to quickly brainstorm a recipe. This could be addressed by choosing a smaller model, such as OpenAI Terra Light.So, what is your favourite recipe that should not be missing from the recipe database?FelixThis story is published on Generative AI. Connect with us on LinkedIn and follow Zeniteq to stay in the loop with the latest AI stories.Subscribe to our newsletter and YouTube channel to stay updated with the latest news and updates on generative AI. Let’s shape the future of AI together!What Do We Eat Today? How I Turned Claude into My Personal Kitchen Chef was originally published in Generative AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.Source: Generative AI Pub — Published — Category: Image AI