AI sushi menu?
How AI is Crafting Culinary Art through Menu Images
Welcome to the cutting-edge world of gastronomy, where creativity merges with technology to redefine the way we experience food, elevate customer experience, and cut costs in creating kickass visuals for restaurants. In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been making waves across various industries, and the culinary realm is no exception. Gone are the days when AI was confined to crunching numbers and performing mundane tasks; today, it has ventured into the realm of sushi, bringing forth a revolution that tantalizes not just our taste buds, but our visual senses as well.
In this blog, we embark on a journey to explore the fascinating fusion of AI and sushi, specifically focusing on how it is revolutionizing the way we perceive, design, and interact with sushi menus. Picture a world where the allure of each culinary creation is amplified, not just through the richness of flavors but also by the captivating artistry portrayed in its menu images. The traditional paper-based menus are being replaced by vibrant digital displays, showcasing vivid and enticing visuals that leave diners spellbound.
Join us as we delve into the extraordinary techniques that AI employs to craft these stunning sushi menu images, how it influences our dining experience, and the creativity it brings to the culinary industry. Get ready to tantalize your imagination and awaken your taste buds, as we step into a realm where technology and artistry dance in perfect harmony, creating a culinary symphony unlike anything seen before.
Elevating Menu Design, Lowering Cost
Menus may arguably be one of the most important design components when it comes to a restaurant's experience. Yet, menus are so often neglected and food photos do nothing to encourage consumers. A big reason for this neglect is cost. The majority of restaurants do not have large marketing budgets or creative budgets, if any. Therefore, restaurant owners are forced to curate the design and imagery of their menus a lot of the time. So, what can be done?
Midjourney solution:
Using a platform like midjourney, anyone can simply upload an image and build a prompt around that image. Those current menu photographs that your restaurant uses can be uploaded to midjourney and recreated completely. The most difficult part of this process is learning how to write prompts. For example: if you are looking to recreate a specific sushi roll and replicate exactly how it should look in a restaurant, this takes time and variations. Meaning, the first prompt given is unlikely to spit out results that exactly match your dish. Secondly, prompts when it comes to food should include ingredients, the title of the dish (especially if common), and specific guidance surrounding what should be displayed in the image and how. Lastly, to tie together all of your food items, you will want to include a theme note in all of your prompts so that you create consistency throughout your menu.
Going the route of midjourney will alter your entire image and may not be able to always return a completely realistic image to that of what is prepared in the restaurant. This leads us to another route that allows us to maintain the food part of the image but elevate everything surrounding it.
If you are unsure how to get started using MidJourney check out this link: How to use Midjourney | Zapier
Photoshop Beta:
Photoshop Beta is a fantastic generative AI tool that allows us to select portions of an image or specific areas of an image that we can choose to affect. If you are concerned about your food items not looking exactly how they look in real life, then this is a great alternative to Midjourney. For example: let’s say you have a beautifully prepared dish that has decent photos taken. Yet, the dish the food lays on and the surrounding areas are bland. Here is what you could do:
Select -> subject.
Right-click -> select inverse.
Click generative fill below image (on pop up taskbar)
Write prompt.
Select variations through the right column.
This is a great way to still elevate a food photography image but also maintain an authentic food look. That being said, if you choose to go this route, we recommend that you have a decent-quality image of the food, as to avoid inconsistencies in quality throughout the image from the generated fill to the subject.
Production verse AI?
Extremely nice restaurants have extremely nice menu experiences among many others. Unfortunately, due to cost to properly hire a design team and production team to build that side of a restaurant experience is extremely costly. Now, with the help of AI, creating elegant menu experiences becomes accessible to almost everyone. That being said, learning how to write prompts and do so consistently across a menu takes a lot of time and skill as well. A restaurant may still benefit the most from hiring an agency that has the experience and can invest the time into properly designing the menu to be marketable. However, what previously required teams, preparation, and weeks to months of execution, now takes a week for a few people.
Another major area where we cut costs using this method is travel. Manu design in Europe can be done in the US and vice versa. We no longer need to factor travel of teams and equipment to sites for days on end. Instead, we can handle menu curation based on the owner's images that have previously been taken.
Conclusion
The AI-powered menu images offer a feast for the eyes, enticing diners to explore and indulge in a delightful gastronomic journey. By optimizing colors, textures, and presentations, AI showcases each menu item with an unparalleled level of detail, making even the simplest of dishes appear extraordinary.
As technology continues to evolve, so does the art of culinary presentation. AI's role in assisting visuals within a sushi restaurant menu opens doors to endless possibilities, where creativity and innovation merge seamlessly. As we embrace this harmonious fusion of technology and artistry, we can look forward to a future where every dish becomes a visual masterpiece, leaving an indelible impression on our senses and creating memories that last a lifetime. So, the next time you step into a sushi restaurant and gaze upon the beautifully crafted menu images, remember that it's not just a photograph; it's the work of culinary art, powered by the magic of AI. Bon appétit!