In this paper a heuristic computer-based approach is described to vary cooking recipes by replacing ingredients. Conceptually, the approach is integrated in a speech dialogue system. The approach is based on a scoring system. The score value is used to rate different ingredients as candidates to substitute a specific ingredient of a recipe. This substitution score depends on different factors: 1) rating of the similarity between the ingredient which has to be replaced and the substitution candidate 2) rating how well the substitution candidate fits the recipe 3) gustatory preferences of the user. The substitution candidate with the highest score is proposed to the user.
