Robust Recipes
ROB NARAN
T
he development of food recipes that are appetizing and
nutritious is typically thought to be beyond the reach of
science and engineering. In particular, chemistry and
thermodynamics, not to mention sensory and aesthetic as-
pects, render this goal challenging for numerical methods
despite advances in computational power. The development
of a viable recipe is thus a trial-and-error process. In fact,
the best recipes are proprietary, and many have remained
corporate or family secrets for generations. The details of a
food recipe include not only the type and quantity of the in-
gredients but also the process by which the food is prepared.
An additional challenge in food preparation is the vari-
able state of the ingredients. It is estimated that a sizable
fraction, perhaps one third, of all fresh fruits and vegeta-
bles are discarded due to spoilage. Recipes that are robust
to spoiled ingredients can thus reduce wastage and make
efficient use of the available materials.
In this article we describe efforts to apply systems and
control methods to develop food recipes that are robust to
material variations. The ultimate goal is to develop a meth-
odology that can mitigate the need for expensive and time-
consuming testing and experimentation.
BENCHMARK PROBLEM
As a benchmark problem, we focus on the development of
a recipe for tomato sauce. The market for this product is
extensive, generating several billion dollars in revenue each
year. In addition, the large number of competing products
on the market suggests that there is a significant opportu-
nity for innovation. The number of available tomato cook-
books reflects the large variation in recipes [1].
An additional motivation for choosing this benchmark
problem is the issue of robustness. Tomatoes can arrive in a
large variety of conditions, ranging from green to overly
ripe due to variations in seasonal time, temperature, humid-
ity, and light. In addition, the large number of tomato variet-
ies [2] gives rise to distinctive flavors, which affect consumer
acceptance. The goal is thus to develop a tomato sauce recipe
that is robust to raw-material condition and variety.
APPROACH
To demonstrate a methodology for robust recipe optimiza-
tion, we consider a well-defined set of conditions. First, we
fix the cooking time and temperature for the tomato sauce;
the conditions are chosen to not exceed 3 h. In addition, we
consider three spices in the optimization process, namely,
basil, oregano, and thyme. Finally, for robustness, we con-
sider a variety of ripeness conditions as inputs, ranging
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCS.2010.939964
Date of publication: 16 March 2011
38 IEEE CONTROL SYSTEMS MAGAZINE » APRIL 2011
from green to overly ripe. We are especially interested in the
sensitivity of the recipe to spoiled tomatoes.
The challenging aspect of this project is online sensing
for feedback and performance assessment. Since artificial
taste sensors are not available, we use mice that are cali-
brated on commercially available products. The quadrupe-
dal sensors are given samples of the batch to taste at 15-min
intervals, which occur 5 min after each addition of spices.
Since spices can be added but not removed from a batch, the
objective is to search for a maximum in the consumption
rate of the batch samples. Once this maximum is identified,
the batch is discarded and a new batch is prepared.
RESULTS
This approach is applied to batches of raw material that
consist of between 10% and 25% spoiled tomatoes. A total
of 24 batches are prepared sequentially, which is sufficient
to vary the three spices in a rich enough way to determine
an optimally robust recipe.
The optimally robust spice combination is determined
by worst-case data analysis, namely, data-sparse principal
component analysis over all 24 batches, which leads to a
convex, and thus tractable, optimization problem. The
results of this analysis are used to prepare a 25th batch for
validation. This batch uses approximately 20% spoiled
tomatoes, which is near the upper range considered in the
optimization. Based on tests of the final product, the sen-
sors showed approximately equal preference for this prod-
uct and a popular commercial brand.
CONCLUSIONS
The methodology used to determine an optimally robust
recipe, which includes online sensing and posterior data
analysis, produced a recipe that is virtually indistinguish-
able from a commercial brand with demonstrated
robustness to off-nominal raw material. For adaptive appli-
cations, online sensing is needed but may be inconsistent
with food-preparation regulations. In this case, virtual sen-
sors are of interest.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Rob Naran earned the associate’s degree in food prepara-
tion from the East Coast Culinary Institute in 2003. He has
been head chef for several banquets of the IEEE Conference
on Decision and Control. He is grateful for discussions
with conference attendees, which inspired this research.
REFERENCES
[1] R. S. Iylon, Red, Orange, Yellow: 1001 Ways to Prepare Tomato Sauce. Oliver,
WA: Brighton Press, 2003.
[2] Tomato varieties from basic to heirloom (2010, Jan.). [Online]. Available:
http://www.eye_luv_tomatoes.htm
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