San Jose restaurant unveils a ChatGPT-designed pizza

Al Vallorz, the creative co-owner of Tony & Alba’s Pizza & Pasta, is always looking for an edge, something fun to keep diners interested and coming back for more.

For years, the San Jose chef-restaurateur has designed a pizza of the month — like October’s popular bratwurst and gouda; figs and blue cheese in August; and turkey, brie and cranberry sauce for November. To maintain high spirits during the pandemic, he shared puns with customers. Oh, and he makes a James Bond-style pasta dish, a “shaken, not stirred” carbonara.

He’s also curious about technology, so last month he started feeding requests into ChatGPT, asking it to write a song about the restaurant along with a few puns (“not as funny as mine,” he says) and a story or two.

Then it hit him. Father’s Day is coming up, and he hadn’t decided on a pizza of the month for June. Could this artificial intelligence tool help out? “Design a Father’s Day pizza,” he typed into the app.

“All of a sudden — 10, 15 seconds later — it kicks it out,” he said.

Pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, sliced sausage links, bacon, Memphis barbecue sauce, red onions, cilantro.

ChatGPT was smart enough to avoid that most polarizing of pizza toppings, pineapple, and even bypass the debate over thin crust vs. thick crust vs. deep dish. The recipe said simply, “pizza crust.”

Vallorz was impressed. He figures ChatGPT generated the meat and barbecue sauce ideas from the Father’s Day content it scours. Dads are always at the barbecue grill, right? He stuck with the recipe, using links from Sunnyvale’s New York Style Sausage Co. and Italian bacon (pancetta). After baking, he drizzled the barbecue sauce and sprinkled cilantro over the pie.

“It’s a futuristic pizza,” said wife and co-owner Diana Salciccia Vallorz, so they named it “The Jetsons,” though most people just call it the AI pizza.

Customer reaction has been predictable. “Younger people try it because it’s AI,” said Al. “Older people say, ‘What’s AI?’ ”

When that happens, Diana said, they explain it’s a computer-designed combination of ingredients.

The pizza even passed muster with Alba Salciccia herself, the 84-year-old restaurant founder who is Diana’s mother and Al’s mother-in-law. A purist whose favorite is a simple cheese and basil pie, she ate a small slice of the AI pizza and pronounced it pretty good.

Al launched it May 25 and will offer it for Father’s Day and the rest of the month of June — and longer, as long as customers keep requesting it, and he’s got the ingredients on hand.

But the July pizza of the month will be all-human-generated. It’s Diana’s birthday month, so she gets to decide on toppings.

As for ChatGPT’s future at this restaurant, the couple thinks it’s missing the human touch. However, Al can see perhaps using this “employee” to help answer the phone when the staff gets busy, maybe in a different voice each time. “Thank you for calling Tony & Alba’s,” he says the Sinatra voice could croon. “What would you like tonight?”

Alba interjects with “Dean Martin.” Her favorite needs to be in the rotation.

But what about devising more recipes for the kitchen? Is the family livelihood in jeopardy?

Al shakes his head. “You can’t replace a paesano. They’ll always give you great food and a great time.”

Details: 3137 Stevens Creek Blvd., San Jose; https://tonyandalbaspizza.com.