It rarely happens that there is such a short distance between science and everyday life like there is in the Computer Cooking Contest. Computing scientists from all over the world compete with each other in this international competition. They do so not only in order to choose the best computer cook but also to present the efficiency and flexibility of their developments to a wide public in a practically orientated and easily understandable way.

The technology of Case-based Reasoning (CBR), which is used in the Computer Cooking Contest, is an area of research within the field of artificial intelligence and deals with learning systems. CBR is oriented towards human learning behaviour and tries to apply this kind of learning to the computer context. Just as a human being the CBR system has a pool of experiences of sampled situations at its disposal. It is applying these to new, unknown situations in order to get to an appropriate reaction or solution either by repeating already approved solutions or by adapting these to the new situation. In case that this adaptation was successful, the system adds the new situation, including the new solution, to its pool of experiences and thus the system has become wiser.

The CBR methods modelled after this learning method, which are often used in the diagnosis of complex technical or medical systems or to efficiently design complicated processes, now try to manage the apparently easy tasks of (kitchen-) everyday life. These tasks are directly taken from everyday life: Some recipes or even complete menus have to be chosen appropriate to the (virtual) contents of the fridge. If necessary they have to be adapted to availability, taste or health problems.

Something that seems to be simple and that many people manage easily turns out to be the cooperation of numerous complex fields of knowledge: When is a dish an appetiser? What makes a dessert Asian? Which are the chemical and flavourful functions an ingredient of a dish might have? What makes different ingredients similar or even exchangeable? When do two dishes harmonise and what makes a dish finally taste really good? Do all people like the same taste? The answers of these questions are based upon unconscious or only partly explicitly ascertainable experiental knowledge, otherwise they can only be known by trying out.

The Computer Cooking Contest demonstrates in a natural and entertaining way the possibility of computer-based handling of a fuzzy and multilayered field of knowledge like cooking by applying the efficiency of CBR. Thus these expert systems are no longer only reserved for scientists and engineers but can be used for the first time by everybody in everyday life.

The CookIIS System
CookIIS is the contribution of the team IIS to the Computer Cooking Contest. In 2008 the system was the only qualified German contestant and was in first place with the "Menu Challenge" which implied the composition of a culinarily harmonious menu of three courses according to special requirements.
2009 CookIIS won the Second Computer Cooking Contest.