Create, cook, then save your recipe!

When I was young, I remember my mum asking me: “What do you want to eat for dinner?” while facing the fridge. The fridge was full of a lot of different things and I did not understand at the time why was it so hard to find what to cook. Now, 15 years later, my mom passed on to me her passion for cooking. Indeed, I love to cook and buy a lot of different products when I go to the supermarket. When lunch or dinner time comes, I remember my mum, 15 years ago. In fact, I ask the exact same question to my girlfriend, because most of the time, I buy a lot of different things without thinking about how to gather them together and I end up improvising something.

So, today, I wondered: why would not I create a database where I can add the recipes I invent when I am inspired. On the other hand, when I’m not inspired, I just need to compute the ingredients I have in my fridge or that I want to eat, and the algorithm returns me all the things I can cook with that ingredients base, from the database. I would build this database myself with my own recipes, and other recipes I tried and liked before.

What benefits does the project bring to its users?

My project would be a tool, targeting cooking lovers like me. People who like to create while cooking and sometimes remembered they cooked something good 2 months ago, but they do not remember how they did it because they improvised 20 other recipes since then. Obviously, you can also add on your database recipes you took from other websites like Marmiton for instance. This project would allow them to help them know what they can cook when they lack inspiration, by inputting the ingredients they have. On the other hand, when they feel inspired and they liked what they cooked, they can grad a trace of it easily, just by inputting the list of ingredients they used, adding a photo and a name for their plate.

What are the technologies involved?

The tool must be easy to use, uploading a recipe on a database should not take long to make sure people take the time to upload their recipe after cooking. The tool would be divided in two different interfaces:
On the first one, you can extend your database by adding new recipes you have taken from websites, books… and adjust them if needed. For example, if you think that you do not need that much butter for the recipe, you can change the quantity from the original recipe. To upload your recipe on your database, you need to inform 4 elements:

1. The name of the plate.
2. The ingredients and the quantities needed.
3. A picture of the plate (Optional but interesting if you have a good visual memory).
4. Remarks.

On the second one, when you don’t feel inspired and you’re facing your fridge as I told you in the context part, you just need to input the ingredients you have/you want to use and the algorithm returns you recipes from your database that you could cook. Then, you just have to choose your favorite one.

Are there competitors on the market?

When I first had this idea, I obviously asked my mum if it was a good idea. She told me that Thermomix is already offering an algorithm that returns you recipes when you input ingredients. However, my tool would be much more personal and not only targeting Thermomix users. My project would target creative cooks, who want to save their inventions somewhere they can find it again when they need it. Of course, Marmiton and other websites (like Cuisine AZ, l’Atelier des chefs…) already offer big databases of recipes. But my database would be a much more personal one, you can share it with someone if you want but you can also keep it for yourself.

How could we make it possible?

For the insight you'll be able to see below when you click on the button "Discover how could the tool look like", I created various html files, in order to redirect you to the interface interesting you.
The html file called "index.html" is the main file. Then, when you clik on the button "Discover how could the tool look like", you're directed to the "recipes.html" file.
On this file, I created two other buttons. By clicking on the left button you'll be redirected to the "uploadnewrecipe.html" file. By clicking on the right button, you'll be redirected to the "findsomethingtocook.html" file. For the moment, both functions (uploading a recipe and finding a recipe depending on the ingredients you input) do not work.
To make them work, I would need to link my glitch file to a Firebase database. After creating a realtime database, I can link it to my glitch file by pasting the code below at the end of my html glitch sheet: Therefore, if you're a creative cook interested in this tool, come and help me end it and make it real! :p

Do you want to have a first quick insight of the project? Click on the button below!

Discover how could the tool look like...