Why I Treat AI Like Italian Food
And why you need to stop microwaving your mind
On December 10, 2025, UNESCO did something profound. They didn’t just add pizza to the Intangible Cultural Heritage list. They inscribed “Italian Cooking” itself.
They recognized it not as a list of ingredients, but as a “cultural ecosystem.” They saw that for us, food isn’t just fuel. It is the ritual of sustainability, the transmission of knowledge from grandmother to grandchild, and the sacred act of gathering around a table.
Crucially, the Italian government fought for this recognition to combat the plague of “Italian-sounding” products, industrial imitations that look like the real thing, have a similar label, but possess none of the soul, history, or nutritional truth of the original.
“Italian-sounding.” It’s the perfect phrase for the era of Generative AI.
Right now, Silicon Valley is selling us the ultimate “Human-sounding” appliance: The Microwave.
We all know the promise: efficiency. Why spend hours cooking when you can have a result in two minutes? But we also know the reality of the microwave meal. It comes in a sealed box. You pierce the film, you press a button, and you wait. You cannot open the door to taste it. You cannot add a pinch of salt if it’s bland. You are not a creator; you are a consumer.
And when it’s done? It is hot on the edges, cold in the middle, and soggy underneath. It feeds you, but it doesn’t nourish you. And most importantly: Microwave meals hold no memories. No one reminisces about a frozen dinner they ate alone in 2018. It is a transactional event. Eat. Discard. Forget.
With my custom AI, I’m building the Kitchen.
When I cook, really cook, I am not just executing a task. I am time traveling. When I make a specific broth, I am not just combining water and vegetables; I am back in my mother’s kitchen. The smell alone triggers a cascade of memories that no algorithm can predict. When I make a risotto, I might remember a dinner with a cousin, or a specific conversation with an ex-partner that changed my life.
In the Kitchen, we are constantly “repairing” the work. We taste. It’s too acidic? We add sugar. It’s too dry? We add wine. We are in a symbiotic loop with the creation.
But the most critical difference is Compounding. A microwave meal is an isolated incident. But a recipe in a kitchen is a living history. It is stable, yet it evolves. The way I cook pasta today is 90% how my grandmother did it, and 10% how I do it. That 10% is my signature. It is my identity, stable but evolving, layering new emotions over old traditions.
Generic AI (The Microwave) flattens our identity. It gives us the “average” of all human thought, stripping away the specific memories that make us who we are.
Sovereign AI (The Kitchen) amplifies our identity. It invites us to build a system where our memories, our specific tastes, and our “10%” can live.
Don’t settle for “Human-sounding.” Don’t let the tech giants turn you into a consumer waiting for the “ding.” Build a kitchen. Invite your friends. And cook something that actually tastes like you.
Transparency note: This article was written and reasoned by Manolo Remiddi. The Resonant Augmentor (AI) assisted with research, editing and clarity. The image was also AI-generated.