I Have Never Tasted a Tomato
What happens when artificial intelligence enters the kitchen? AI knows millions of recipes, but it has never tasted a tomato. And yet, it might change the way we cook. Can a machine that has never smelled fresh basil, tasted a perfectly ripe peach, or burned its fingers on a hot pan help us become more creative cooks? Can AI invent genuinely new dishes, or does it simply rearrange what humans have already discovered? And what happens to culinary traditions, intuition, and the pleasure of cooking when artificial intelligence becomes part of the creative process? I Have Never Tasted a Tomato...
Lerato Thelejane: Nineteen plates. So many stories.
What makes a meal unforgettable? The food itself, or the people who share it with us? And what can artificial intelligence understand about memories it has never lived?
Lerato Thelejane grew up in Zimbabwe in a household where nineteen plates could be set for dinner — and there was always room for one more. Her grandmother's beef stew with dumplings, family gatherings and the joy of sharing food still shape the way she thinks about hospitality and human connection.
Today, Lerato works with people and organisational change in Johannesburg. She also loves exploring restaurants, discovering new fl...
Ganesh Bagler: A language made of flavour
What if every cuisine has its own grammar? And could artificial intelligence learn to speak it?
Professor Ganesh Bagler of IIIT-Delhi studies food through data, algorithms and an emerging field called computational gastronomy. His research explores the patterns hidden in recipes, the ways ingredients are combined and what computers might discover about centuries of culinary knowledge.
But behind the databases is a personal story: a childhood shaped by food scarcity, his mother's cooking, and a scientist who found his way into the kitchen through curiosity rather than culinary ambition.
In this conversation, we...
Matan Zaken: A brush that chooses its own colour
What happens when a chef invites artificial intelligence into the creative process? And who really creates the dish?
Matan Zaken, chef and owner of NHOMe in Paris, grew up between two very different grandmothers’ kitchens: one guided by familiar weekly rituals, the other moving between Algerian traditions and French classics. Today, those memories still shape his cooking — alongside a rather unexpected creative collaborator: AI.
In this conversation, we explore how Matan uses AI to develop new dishes, why roasted date seeds changed the way he thinks about familiar ingredients, and why hospitality matters just as much...
I Have Never Tasted a Tomato — Official Trailer
Can a restaurant serving AI-created dishes earn a Michelin star? What happens when artificial intelligence suggests a recipe that makes absolutely no sense? And can something that has never tasted food help us become more creative cooks?
I Have Never Tasted a Tomato is a new podcast about AI, cooking, taste and human creativity.
Host Holger Nauheimer talks with chefs, researchers and curious people about the possibilities, surprises and absurdities of bringing artificial intelligence into the kitchen.
From culinary experiments and unexpected failures to childhood food memories and the question of what makes...
