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Don’t let my slim figure fool you — I love to eat. I have a dedicated folder on Instagram filled with restaurant recs, and I’ve recently used ChatGPT to make my chaotic meal planning a thing of the past. Even with all the new dishes my AI food planner has added to my weekly rotation, I’m still constantly on the hunt for fresh, exciting recipes to try for dinner.
That’s when Google Labs caught my attention. In the middle of my ongoing search for tasty new recipes, I stumbled on Food Mood — one of Google Labs’ experimental AI projects — and it completely changed the way I think about cooking.
Food Mood is described as a “playful fusion recipe generator that creates unique dishes inspired by multi-country cuisine with the help of Google AI.” When you open it, you’re greeted with a simple, intuitive prompt that lets you mix and match options like starter, main course, or dessert; how many people you’re cooking for; and two different international cuisines to blend into one dream dish.
Curious to see what it could do, I dove into the world of Google Labs and started experimenting with Food Mood’s fusion recipe generator to see what kind of meals it would come up with. Major props to Gaël Hugo and Emmanuel Durgoni — two Artists in Residence at Google Arts & Culture Lab — for bringing this creative idea to life.
I came up with three fusion recipes: one just for me, one for a couple, and one for a family of three
As soon as I opened Food Mood, it served up my first experiment:
“I want a soup for 1 person mixing influences from Algeria and Somalia.”
After I clicked “Let’s Cook,” Food Mood instantly generated a dish I’d never heard of — Harira Bariis Soup. The description leaned into the fusion angle, promising a blend of North African spices with comforting grains from the Horn of Africa. It sounded warm, bold, and surprisingly coherent for something invented on the fly.
Next, I decided to push things further. I’m not much of a dessert person, but I wanted to see how creative Food Mood could really get. This time, I prompted:
“I want a dessert for 2 people mixing influences from Bouvet Island and the United States Minor Outlying Islands.”
Food Mood delivered Arctic Breeze Coconut Clouds — a light, airy dessert described as a mix of “polar purity and sun-kissed sweetness.” It was imaginative, a little weird, and exactly the kind of playful fusion I was hoping for.
For my final test, I wanted something more practical — a main course for real people, not just a novelty dish. I asked for: “I want a main course for 3 people mixing influences from Jamaica and Japan.”
To my surprise, Food Mood came back with Teriyaki Jerk Salmon with Coconut Rice — a clever mashup of spicy jerk seasoning and savory teriyaki, balanced by tropical coconut rice. It felt like a dish I could actually cook and serve to my family.
After three prompts, Food Mood was three for three. Each recipe was creative, cohesive, and genuinely interesting — not just random cultural mixing for the sake of it.
I was impressed by Food Mood’s presentation, particularly the amount of detail it gave for every dish
Besides its strong fusion recipe invention capabilities, I was also impressed by Food Mood’s listing of further details for its dishes. It lists all the necessary ingredients for your latest recipe, provides a step-by-step guide on how to actually make it, and offers some additional pro tips for its preparation.
Another cool aspect of Food Mood’s presentation is how it gives you the option to look up other types of cuisines that feature the ingredients in your current dish.
For example, the three main ingredients in my Harira Bariis Soup are olive oil, vegetable broth, and chopped fresh cilantro. I was given three different explanations after clicking on each option. The olive oil option took me to an article titled “The Secrets of Extra Virgin Oil,” the vegetable broth option brought up a picture of a bowl of vegetable soup (that looked amazing, by the way), and the chopped fresh cilantro option displayed a photo of the item itself, along with a summary of what it is and what it’s used for.
Final thoughts
Google Labs has a ton of creator-made experiments that I can’t wait to play around with now that I’ve been exposed to the fusion recipe generator known as Food Mood.
Whenever I run into a cooking rut and need some inspiration, I’ll be sure to tap into Food Mood to find something one-of-a-kind to make. I encourage anyone reading this right now to see what all the hype is about and see what Food Mood can make for you.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to put this next prompt into action: “I want a main course for 3 people mixing influences from the Philippines and Puerto Rico.”
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