Can AI cook dinner? India's smart kitchens test the limits of automation

From guided multi-cookers to robotic chefs, AI-powered appliances promise urban Indian homes precision and convenience, but raise questions about emotion, memory, and the meaning of cooking itself

In India’s metros, dinner is increasingly a negotiation — between time, taste and domestic labour. Dual-income households are stretched. Reliable cooks are hard to retain. Eating out daily can hit the budget. Into this gap enters a new category of appliances that promise something radical: not faster chopping or smarter heating, but autonomous cooking.

 

AI-powered kitchen systems such as Posha, Nosh, Wonderchef, and Upliance claim they can prepare full meals with minimal supervision, learn user preferences and standardise taste. The proposition is ambitious. These devices attempt to codify what was once instinct — temperature curves, spice sequencing, stirring intervals — and convert it into programmable precision. The consumer pitch is clear: home-style food, minus the human cook.

 

But can technology replicate the human rhythm of cooking? And more importantly, will Indian households want it to?

A new price ladder in the kitchen

The pricing spectrum reflects the category’s early-stage stratification. In India’s emerging AI-led kitchen market, products range from roughly Rs. 25,000 at the entry level to over Rs. 1.5 lakh at the premium end.

 

Bengaluru-based Upliance sits at the more accessible end, with its AI-guided cooking assistant priced around Rs. 27,000– Rs. 30,000. It offers structured guidance and semi-automation, targeting urban households seeking support rather than full autonomy.

 

Nosh, developed by Euphotic Labs, occupies the mid-premium segment at approximately Rs 70,000–Rs 75,000. Positioned as a hands-free cooking robot capable of preparing complete Indian meals, it represents a more ambitious leap into automation. At the top end are global robotic kitchen platforms such as Posha and devices like Rotimatic, each commanding six-figure price tags. Here, the promise moves closer to near-complete delegation. The range signals a transition: from assisted smart tools to robotic systems that aim to take over entire cooking sequences.

 

Karthik Subbarayappa, director (Kitchen, Home Improvement and Sports) at Amazon India, says the category is witnessing rapid traction. “The AI-enabled cooking appliance segment is experiencing remarkable momentum. Demand has doubled year-on-year, with visible premiumisation as consumers invest in intelligent cooking solutions that offer convenience and precision.”

 

He adds that adoption spans multiple price tiers. “These devices are currently complementing rather than replacing conventional appliances, offering guided cooking, automated temperature control and recipe assistance.”

 

In other words, the smart kitchen is evolving — but not yet replacing the traditional one.

Inside the robot kitchen

Yatin Varachhia, co-founder of Nosh Robotics Pvt Ltd, describes it as a compact robotic system rather than a mere appliance. “Nosh is a home-cooking robot — it enables restaurant-style dishes at home using your own trusted ingredients, rather than relying on outside food or ready mixes,” he says. While the device offers an optional subscription for advanced AI-driven features such as voice-based recipe creation or converting YouTube recipes into cooking steps, core recipes and functions remain accessible without a paywall.

 

Its premium pricing, Varachhia argues, reflects hardware complexity. “The robot has six motors, two pumps, a heater, an AI processor, a camera and multiple sensors working together in real time. It is closer to a compact robotic system than a conventional appliance.”

 

A key cost driver is on-device or ‘edge’ AI processing. Unlike cloud-dependent systems, most computing happens within the appliance itself, intended to enhance reliability and safety.

 

Performance, however, reveals both strengths and limits. There are certain dishes it consistently delivers well, and a few where it struggles or requires human intervention. “Nosh performs consistently well with paneer curries, subzis like bhindi and tinda, pastas, and Asian dishes such as chowmein and khao suey," points out Varachhia. "It also delivers excellent results with chicken, prawns, and fish. Dals and rice-based dishes take longer than a pressure cooker. For pulao or biryani, being a one-pot system without water draining, the outcome can be slightly wetter than traditional methods. For mutton, we recommend pre-boiling in a pressure cooker; once added, the final dish turns out exceptionally good.”

Assisted intelligence vs. automation

Wonderchef, meanwhile, frames its AI range differently. Ravi Saxena, chief executive officer and founder of Wonderchef, distinguishes between conventional multicookers and AI-enabled systems. “Traditional multicookers execute a function once the user decides what to cook and how. Our smart appliance range, led by Chef Magic, is a system," he says. "It combines hardware, software, guided recipes and intelligence to take over decision-making during cooking. The shift is from manual operation to assisted confidence.”

 

Indian cooking depends heavily on techniques such as sautéing onions and masalas to precise stages — something standard multicookers cannot automate effectively. Chef Magic incorporates an automated stirring blade and Wi-Fi connectivity, enabling continuous recipe updates.

 

“The intelligence lies in managing heat, stirring and sequencing automatically,” Saxena says. “It is not just about pressing buttons.”

 

Wonderchef targets three segments: busy professionals seeking healthy meals without standing over a stove; global Indians missing authentic flavours abroad; and modern families building 'smart kitchens'.

 

Saxena observes that once consumers perceive the device as a cooking companion rather than a pot, price sensitivity reduces. “The value lies in saved time and reduced stress,” he says.

The emotional counterargument

Meanwhile, the debate in India’s kitchen is not purely technical. Celebrity chef Ajay Chopra offers a pointed counterview to the rise of AI-led kitchens, arguing that the issue is not just about cost or convenience, but about what cooking represents. “My concern is not only that these machines are expensive,” he says. “They risk taking away the love from cooking. I understand that people are busy and looking for easier solutions. But cooking is more than saving time — it's about the human touch.”

 

Chopra often invokes a familiar cultural memory. “We all say our nani or dadi cooked the best food. What did they add? We put salt and it becomes salty. We add turmeric and it turns yellow. We add chilli and it becomes spicy. But where is love in the namakdani?”

 

For him, love is not an ingredient but an attitude. “Love is patience — the patience with which someone cooks for a loved one. When you remove that quotient, food becomes functional. It fills the stomach, but it does not create memories.”

 

He argues that the brain registers more than hunger. “Apart from signalling that we are hungry, the brain also responds to emotion and memory. That is what makes certain dishes unforgettable.”

 

While Chopra acknowledges that AI-powered equipment may help speed up processes in professional kitchens, he remains sceptical about daily dependence. “As a chef, I would say use such machines once in a while. But I would see them more as a tool — perhaps even a gimmick — rather than an everyday replacement for cooking.”

 

Home chefs, too, are cautious about the growing automation of the kitchen. Mallika Singh, owner of Mallika’s Kitchen, believes that while AI may enhance precision, it cannot replicate the deeper essence of cooking. “We are witnessing a fascinating moment where technology — especially artificial intelligence — is redefining daily life, and the kitchen is no exception,” she says. “An AI cooking bot is a triumph of precision. It can execute routine and repetitive tasks with measurable consistency. But cooking is also about nourishment and soul.”

 

For Singh, gourmet cuisine is not merely about execution but transformation — turning raw ingredients into an emotional experience. “The uniqueness of a dish doesn’t come from an algorithm. It comes from the human touch. When food is prepared with intention, something intangible enters the process.”

 

She argues that cooking, particularly in Indian homes, carries emotional weight. “When a mother cooks for her child or someone prepares a meal for loved ones, it is not just routine work. It is awareness, celebration and care poured into the pot. That emotional factor is what makes a meal memorable,” she argues, pointing out that technology can replicate recipes but not motivation. “Until a machine can feel the joy of feeding someone or the passion of a creative breakthrough, it will remain a tool for the mundane. In fine dining, if mood and temperament are missing, the flavour is never quite complete,” she says.

Efficiency meets identity

The rise of AI-enabled cooking appliances mirrors broader shifts in urban India’s consumption behaviour. Time has become a premium currency. Kitchens are shrinking in high-rise apartments. Domestic help is less predictable. Younger households are more comfortable delegating tasks to technology. In that sense, devices such as these are adaptive responses to structural lifestyle changes.

 

Practically, they solve real problems — delivering consistency, reducing supervision and structuring complex Indian recipes. For dual-income families, first-generation professionals and global Indians, the value of saved time is tangible.

 

But cooking in India has rarely been purely functional. It carries memory, ritual, and generational continuity. The act of tempering spices, adjusting salt by instinct, or cooking a dish repeatedly until it tastes “like home” is deeply embedded in identity.

 

The likely near-term outcome may not be replacement but coexistence. Much like dishwashers did not eliminate washing utensils by hand entirely but altered labour patterns, AI cooking systems may handle routine meals while humans reserve special dishes for celebration.

 

The real question is not whether AI can cook dinner. It clearly can — at least technically. The deeper question is whether Indian households will allow algorithms to mediate one of their most intimate daily rituals.

 

For now, AI kitchens in India remain urban, premium and aspirational. They signal convenience, efficiency and technological confidence. But they also sit at the intersection of logic and love. Dinner, in India, has never been just about nourishment. It has always been about who cooks — and why.