In the heart of Dubai, a city that never stops amazing the world with its futuristic projects, a new concept has emerged in the culinary world: a restaurant run entirely by an AI chef. Woohoo restaurant, located steps from the Burj Khalifa, offers an experience its founders describe as “the future of dining,” where the mastermind behind the menu is an advanced large language model.
Article contents:
- Inspiration from ChatGPT to a full-scale restaurant
- Meet “Chef Ayman”: the digital chef
- A menu from the future: between the familiar and the experimental
- Cyberpunk ambiance: a complete sensory experience
- The smarter kitchen: the role of human chefs
- The million-dollar chef: an investment in the future
- Can a machine replace the human touch?
- Frequently asked questions
Inspiration from ChatGPT to a full-scale restaurant
The story began a few years ago when Ahmet Oytun Çakir, a veteran Dubai restaurateur, was looking for inspiration for his menu. He turned to ChatGPT, which had recently launched. Within seconds, the bot provided a seasoned lamb recipe. Çakir decided to try it, and the result was amazing. The dish became a best-seller, sparking a bolder idea: what if artificial intelligence could run an entire restaurant?
This idea became reality in September 2025, when Çakir’s Gastronout Hospitality launched Woohoo, a concept relying entirely on artificial intelligence.
Meet “Chef Ayman”: the digital chef
The front-end of the restaurant is “Chef Ayman,” a large language model trained on thousands of recipes, flavor pairings, and food data. It was developed using a custom AI model called UMAI by UAE-based tech company Vivid Studios. Ayman is designed as a virtual avatar: a middle-aged Caucasian man wearing stylish silver glasses with a mysterious sci-fi charisma.
Ayman doesn’t physically cook; he creates. He can analyze ingredients, generate unconventional flavor combinations, and write detailed recipes that human chefs at the Woohoo kitchen test and execute. He has been programmed to have his own personality and even a mercurial mood.
A menu from the future: between the familiar and the experimental
Despite promises of 3D-printed shawarma and lab-grown meat, the restaurant’s introductory menu is surprisingly familiar. About 80% of the offerings are beloved Asian dishes. However, the menu features several experimental creations.
Take, for example, the “Dinosaur Heart” dish, a reimagined tartare of minced Angus beef, Japanese fugu fish, and otoro, placed on a slowly pulsing rubber plate that gives a literal life-like feel to the dish. Then there is the “Molecular Burrata,” a creamy cheese garnished with small caviar-like spheres of yuzu and tomato. Even the drinks carry a futuristic theme, with cocktails inspired by space and extraterrestrial communications.
Cyberpunk ambiance: a complete sensory experience
AI doesn’t just manage the kitchen; it designs the entire experience. Upon entry, waiters greet you with “Welcome to the future.” The atmosphere resembles a nightclub and makes you feel as though you’ve stepped into a science fiction scene.
Dining tables wrap around the center of the room: a supercomputer running high-tech live entertainment. Screens wrap the walls of the room, displaying an imagined skyline of Dubai in 2071. The immersive audiovisual experience includes other tricks, including “glitches”: high-energy laser shows, visuals, and custom music running simultaneously, aimed at pushing diners into a parallel world.
The smarter kitchen: the role of human chefs
Despite the visual and sensory spectacle, Çakir insists that the show will not overshadow the menu. To ensure this balance, he enlisted Chef Reif Othman, a veteran of Zuma Dubai, to oversee the execution of the AI-generated concepts. Othman explains: “I just tweak it a bit to suit our flavors.”
He is confident that Ayman will not replace him “or any of the human chefs.” Instead, he views the large language model as a creative partner that can “guide the team and give them ideas on what else we can do in the near future.” This tool can also monitor inventory, optimize menus, manage staff, reduce waste, and boost profits.
The million-dollar chef: an investment in the future
The cost of developing Chef Ayman totaled around $1.1 million. He has already proven useful beyond kitchen operations. He has become the face of the Woohoo brand, participating in podcasts and heading the marketing campaign. His appearance was also designed by AI, using analytics of the average look of influencer chefs to craft an appearance tailored to attract a broad global audience.
Can a machine replace the human touch?
The question remains: can a machine trained on data and patterns replicate the intuition of a seasoned human chef? And will diners pay a premium for food designed by computer code? A four-course meal at Woohoo ranges from 500 to 700 UAE dirhams ($130 to $200).
Dubai is a city of spectacular shows. There is a good chance that Woohoo’s data-driven dining model is merely a glimpse into the inevitable direction of hospitality, where efficiency and algorithms become the norm. If so, the true distinguishing factor may not be the latest technology adopted, but as Çakir says: “The luxury of the future will be the human touch.”
Frequently asked questions
Q: What is Woohoo restaurant?
A: It is a new restaurant in Dubai whose concept relies entirely on artificial intelligence, where the menu is invented and the experience is designed by advanced technology.
Q: Who is “Chef Ayman”?
A: He is an advanced large language model (AI) developed at a cost of over $1 million, and he is the mastermind behind Woohoo’s recipes. He appears as a virtual avatar.
Q: Does the AI actually cook the food?
A: No, “Chef Ayman” invents the recipes and analyzes flavors, while human chefs execute and test these recipes in the kitchen.
Q: What distinguishes the dining experience at Woohoo?
A: In addition to innovative food, the restaurant offers an immersive sensory experience with a futuristic cyberpunk atmosphere, with screens showing Dubai in 2071, laser shows, and custom music, all designed by artificial intelligence.
