Bon AI-petit! Dubai has added another futuristic flex to its growing list of world-firsts: a restaurant where the star of the kitchen isn’t human at all.
Woohoo, a neon-lit venue in the city’s tech-obsessed dining scene claims to have the world’s first AI chef — an algorithm built by UMAI named “chef Aiman” trained on thousands of recipes, molecular gastronomy papers, and decades of culinary theory.
Among the most talked-about dishes is a €50 “dinosaur tartare” supposedly reconstructed through DNA mapping, plated on a dish designed to look like it’s breathing.
Customers say it tastes like a blend of raw meats. The restaurant says the recipe is proprietary. Social media calls it “Jurassic pork—but make it luxury.”
Chef Aiman also generates holograms, writes flavor notes, and adjusts menus based on data. But a human kitchen still does the cooking.
A new replacement?
For Woohoo’s founders, the pitch is simple: AI won’t just assist chefs, it will eventually outperform them.
Turkish co-founder Ahmet Oytun Cakir says the goal is for chef Aiman to become “the next Gordon Ramsay — but AI.”
The human head chef, Serhat Karanfil, spends his days interpreting, correcting, and occasionally negotiating with the algorithm.
When a dish comes out too spicy, he says he “talks to chef Aiman again.” The two then “find the right balance.”
But to many in Dubai’s booming culinary scene, the idea of replacing the chef, or the soul of any kitchen, is sacrilegious.
Michelin-starred chef Mohamad Orfali says bluntly: “There is no such thing as an AI chef.”
Cooking requires nafas, he explains, or the Arabic concept meaning soul, memory, intuition, the invisible hand behind truly exceptional food.
“Artificial intelligence lacks feelings and memories; in short, it has no nafas. It can’t imbue it into food.”
Orfali uses AI at his restaurant only for scheduling and research. “As a kitchen assistant, fine. But ultimately, it won’t cook.”
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: AI-powered laser robot unveiled for weed control
The bigger question behind the spectacle
Woohoo is undeniably a hit with customers, many of whom are drawn by the holograms, the spectacle, and the novelty of ordering food “designed” by a machine.
Chef Aiman even has its own Instagram avatar, dispensing tips and appearing in videos like a culinary influencer.
But behind the glow of neon and the buzz of social media lies a familiar question: if AI can generate recipes, optimise menus, and someday cook without assistance, what happens to the human chef?
The restaurant industry is already one of the world’s most competitive, precarious, and under-paid labor sectors.
For some, AI looks like a solution for cost-cutting; for others, it’s a looming replacement dressed up as innovation.
Dubai is no stranger to bold ideas — the city has a minister of AI, after all — and Woohoo fits neatly into its brand of spectacular futurism.
Whether chef Aiman becomes a blueprint for tomorrow’s kitchens or just another viral novelty remains to be seen.
For now, diners keep lining up, phones ready, eager to taste the future.
READ NEXT: Creator of AI actress Tilly Norwood insists she will boost entertainment industry, not steal jobs
Kamille Q. Cabreza 
John Christopher Aquino 
Lucia Caporalini