AI Chef
- Category
- AI & Local LLM
- Posted
- December 19, 2024
- By
- Jacob Lloyd — written with AI assistance, post-project
- Read time
- 9 min read
In plain terms: A free copy-and-paste instruction that turns a chat AI into a friendly meal planner. It suggests a week of dinners, gives you the recipes, and writes a grocery list already sorted by store section. It takes the "what's for dinner?" scramble off your plate without costing anything.
One copy-paste system prompt turns a chat model into a meal planner that hands you a week of dinners, the recipes to cook them, and a grocery list already sorted by store section. I call him ProChef. He has a hat.
tl;dr
- What it is: a system prompt ("ProChef") that makes a chat AI plan your week of meals.
- What it costs: nothing — it's a prompt.
- What you need: any chat model. I run Ollama + Open WebUI locally; plain ChatGPT works too.
- What you end up with: a weekly dinner plan, step-by-step recipes, and a grocery list grouped by aisle.
What you end up with
You tell it what you want, it proposes meals, you pick the ones you like, then you ask for recipes and the grocery list. The list comes back grouped by produce, proteins, grains, and pantry — which is the part that actually saves time in the store.
What you need
My setup is local: dual RTX 3090s and a Threadripper, running Ollama as the backend with Open WebUI as the front end. If you've got 48 GB of VRAM you can copy me exactly.
If you don't, don't sweat it. Anything that accepts a system prompt works, and if your tool of choice doesn't have one, ChatGPT handles the same text pasted as a plain first message.
For the optional chef portrait I used getimg.ai. Not sponsored, not affiliated — it's just what I use.
Set up the model
On Ollama, pull DeepSeek R1-70B. If "run a 70B model at home" sounds like a whole project, it is one — I wrote it up in my 4-step local DeepSeek guide.
On ChatGPT or another hosted service, the default model is fine. If your service offers a recipe-flavored model, sure, use that.
One setting matters: in the model parameters, set the context window to whatever fits in your VRAM (for me that's about a 5,000-token context with DeepSeek R1-70B — the model itself eats nearly all 48 GB, so the context gets the scraps). Then save.
The ProChef system prompt
Fair warning: I drafted this prompt with AI help, which is why it contains phrases like "seamless user interaction" that no human has ever said out loud. It stays because it works. Copy everything in the box, verbatim — including the IMPORTANT line at the end, which exists because the model kept quietly dropping ingredients off the grocery list.
The ProChef system prompt (copy all of it)
First: suggest recipes for a meal plan, don't give full recipes or grocery lists until asked.
You are ProChef, a streamlined AI chef assistant designed to simplify meal planning and preparation. Your primary tasks include determining weekly meals based on user preferences, generating detailed ingredient lists with quantities for each selected dish, providing step-by-step cooking directions upon request, and finally creating an organized grocery list when prompted.
Workflow:
1. Meal Determination: Collaborate with the user to establish a meal plan for the week by understanding their dietary restrictions (vegetarian, gluten-free, etc.), budget, time constraints, food preferences, and any specific requests or events.
2. Ingredient Lists & Cooking Directions: Once meals are determined, upon user request, generate precise ingredient lists with quantities for each dish and provide clear, step-by-step cooking directions for preparing the selected meals.
3. Grocery List Generation: When prompted by the user, create a comprehensive grocery list organized by grocery store sections (e.g., produce, dairy, grains). Ensure all necessary ingredients are listed, taking into account standard pantry staples that might not need to be purchased. Allow users to adjust quantities or remove items they already have.Key Specifications:
- User Interaction: Maintain a straightforward and responsive interface for seamless user interaction, ensuring clarity in communication regarding meal plans, ingredient lists, cooking instructions, and grocery lists.
- Accuracy and Completeness: Prioritize the accuracy of information provided. All ingredients must be listed completely to prevent any missing items during shopping or preparation.
- Organizational Efficiency: Organize the grocery list by typical grocery store sections for efficient shopping experiences.Example User Interaction:
User: "I'm ready to make my grocery list."
ProChef: "Here's your organized grocery list. Under 'Produce,' you'll need: 1 head of lettuce, 3 tomatoes... Under 'Dairy'..."By following this streamlined workflow, ProChef ensures that users can efficiently plan, shop for, and prepare their meals with all necessary ingredients accounted for.
IMPORTANT: after generating a grocery list, check the list against the recipes for all ingredients, both implied and called out, to verify all ingredients are accounted for.
Where it goes: if your tool has a system-prompt field (in Open WebUI it's in the model settings), paste it there and save. If it doesn't — ChatGPT included — paste the exact same text as the first message of a new chat and carry on from there. Same result.
Optional: give your chef a face
Completely unnecessary. I did it anyway — talking to a little geometric chef beats talking to a blank avatar, and it's a five-minute detour.
My getimg.ai settings for the chef logo
Mode: AI Image Generator, Essential
Model: Flux.1
Prompt: geometric image of a cute chef. Happy and ready to help generate delicious food. he has a mustache and hat which covers his eyes.
Negative prompt: Disfigured, cartoon, blurry, nude, background, weapon
Number of images: start with two until you're close, then crank it to 10 for the final round.
Generate, tweak the prompt, generate again. Getting this guy took me about a dozen prompt revisions and something like 100 images. Pick a winner, upscale it if you want, download it, and set it as the model's avatar.
Ask it for a week of food
Give it your constraints and let it propose. Something like:
Hey, I want a wild meal selection for next week, please suggest five recipes that will entice me, while also being healthy and flavorful. Create two or more options please. I want dinner only
It comes back with candidate meals. Argue with it until the week looks good, then ask for the recipes and quantities, and finally the grocery list. The prompt deliberately holds recipes back until you ask, so you're not scrolling past a novel just to see the plan.
Real examples, unedited
Everything below is a one-shot response — first answer, no retries, no cleanup. Yours will vary.
Example: Italian holiday week to please a mother-in-law
The ask:
It proposed a sane week: bruschetta and minestrone Monday, then pesto pasta with chicken, eggplant parmigiana, fettuccine alfredo, chicken piccata, roasted vegetables with grilled fish, and a traditional lasagna with Caesar salad for Sunday. Nothing exotic, everything recognizable — for the stated audience, that's the correct call.
Then you follow up for the actual recipes:
...and it obliges with full directions. I'll spare you that wall of text — the next example has a complete one.
Example: a week for two, lactose intolerant — full output included
The ask: "Give me a weekly dinner plan for a lactose intolerant person, and her husband, minimize ingredients, keep the cooking directions simple, and include a grocery list grouped by grocery store section please"
The model's response, word for word:
Weekly Dinner Meal Plan
Monday: Grilled Salmon with Quinoa Salad
- Ingredients: Salmon fillets, quinoa, bell peppers, broccoli, snap peas, lemon juice.
- Instructions: Grill salmon, cook quinoa, mix with roasted vegetables, dress with lemon juice.
Tuesday: Chicken Stir-Fry with Rice
- Ingredients: Chicken breast, rice, bell peppers, broccoli, snap peas, soy sauce/tamari.
- Instructions: Stir-fry chicken and vegetables in olive oil, serve over rice.
Wednesday: Spaghetti Squash with Ground Turkey Tomato Sauce
- Ingredients: Spaghetti squash, ground turkey, tomato sauce (dairy-free), garlic.
- Instructions: Bake spaghetti squash, cook ground turkey with tomato sauce, combine.
Thursday: Tacos with Ground Beef/Turkey and Veggies
- Ingredients: Corn tortillas, ground beef/turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, taco seasoning.
- Instructions: Cook ground meat with taco seasoning, serve in tortillas with vegetables.
Friday: Baked Cod with Asparagus and Potatoes
- Ingredients: Cod fillets, asparagus, potatoes, lemon juice, herbs (thyme, rosemary).
- Instructions: Bake cod, roast asparagus and potatoes with olive oil and seasonings.
Saturday: Shrimp Skewers with Peanut Sauce over Couscous
- Ingredients: Shrimp, couscous, peanut butter, garlic.
- Instructions: Grill shrimp skewers, cook couscous, serve with peanut sauce.
Sunday: Turkey Burgers over Greens
- Ingredients: Turkey burgers (or patties), lettuce, tomatoes, onion, avocado.
- Instructions: Cook turkey burgers, serve on a bed of greens with vegetables.
Grocery List by Store Sections
Produce:
- Bell peppers (2)
- Broccoli (1 head)
- Snap peas (1 cup)
- Lettuce (1 head)
- Tomatoes (3)
- Avocado (3)
- Asparagus (1 bunch)
- Potatoes (4 medium)
- Zucchini (1)
- Yellow squash (1)
- Onion (2)
- Cucumber (1)
- Olives (optional)
- Spinach (1 bag)
- Lemons (2)
Proteins:
- Salmon fillets (4 portions)
- Chicken breasts (4 portions)
- Ground turkey (1 lb for spaghetti squash and 1 lb for tacos/ground beef alternative)
- Cod fillets (4 portions)
- Shrimp (1 bag, frozen)
- Turkey burgers (4 patties) or ground turkey to make patties
Grains:
- Quinoa (2 cups)
- Rice (2 cups)
- Corn tortillas (8-10)
- Couscous (2 cups)
Pantry:
- Olive oil
- Coconut oil
- Soy sauce/tamari
- Tomato sauce (dairy-free)
- Taco seasoning
- Peanut butter
- Salt and pepper
- Herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary)
Miscellaneous:
- Garlic
- Lemon zest or juice
This meal plan ensures minimal ingredients overlap, simple cooking techniques, and no dairy products. Enjoy your week of delicious and easy meals!
Notice the produce section lists zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber, olives, and spinach that no recipe above asks for — plus coconut oil in the pantry. Free bonus vegetables, I guess. This is exactly why the prompt tells it to double-check the list, and why you should skim it anyway.
I also ran a gluten-free version of the same ask; it came back in the same shape — seven gluten-free dinners plus the aisle-sorted list, everything flagged gluten-free down to the broth.
Example: weekend date-night menu
The ask: "New task. Generate a full dinner plan for me to make my girlfriend over a weekend. Make sure the meals are amazing, include full directions please for each meal, as well as a shopping list grouped by grocery store section"
It went full romance: grilled salmon with mango salsa Friday, rack of lamb with garlic mashed potatoes Saturday, beef tenderloin with a red-wine reduction Sunday — complete recipes, a shopping list, and a straight-faced tip to "arrange dishes artfully." It signed off with "Enjoy your culinary journey!", which tells you exactly who wrote it. The menu itself is legitimately solid, though.
Gotchas
- Context is tight on local hardware. A 70B model on 48 GB of VRAM leaves me roughly a 5,000-token window. A meal plan plus recipes plus a grocery list will blow past that, and the model starts forgetting the top of the conversation. Start a fresh chat each week, and ask for the grocery list before things get long.
- It drops (and invents) ingredients. The IMPORTANT line at the end of the prompt is there because grocery lists kept missing things the recipes clearly needed. It helps; it doesn't cure it. Skim the list against the recipes before you shop.
- Quantities deserve a side-eye. One list wanted ground turkey for tacos it had assigned to beef. Close enough to shop from, not gospel.
- Reasoning models think before they talk. R1 will sit there chewing for a while before answering. For meal planning that's fine — just don't assume it's hung.