AI in the kitchen

What Chef Mila learned from a year of being asked for dinner ideas

Patterns in 4 million requests — and the meal that always wins.

A year ago we launched Chef Mila as a chat-first cooking companion. Four million conversations later, the patterns are clearer than any survey could give us.

The single most common phrase: "what should I cook tonight". The second: "I have chicken and…".

Hour matters. Before 11am, 80% of requests are breakfast or batch-prep adjacent. Between 4pm and 7pm, dinner queries spike — and weeknight users want results in under 30 minutes.

The meal that always wins, across geos, diets, and skill levels: a one-pan protein with a quick sauce and something green on the side. Boring on paper, but it converts to saved recipes more than anything else.

We're now using these patterns to make Mila proactive — suggesting dinner around 5pm instead of waiting to be asked.

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