Chowtown

Using AI to support Chinese businesses, promote culture, and enhance SF’s Chinese food scene with smart recommendations, immersive insights, and digital storytelling for an authentic experience.

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Chowtown - Preserving Chinese Culinary Culture

Inspiration

As a team of Chinese individuals, we are deeply connected to the importance of preserving our culture and ensuring that authentic Chinese food is accessible to everyone. For us, food is a key part of our identity, our traditions, and our heritage.

The Problem

Narrow Consumer Base

  • 67% of consumers are uncomfortable with unfamiliar ingredients in their food.
  • As a result, those unfamiliar with the Chinese language tend to avoid businesses that primarily offer Chinese products and goods

Business Closure

  • Rising rent prices → restaurants with slow sales cannot make a profit to pay rent.
  • More than 50% of Chinese businesses in San Francisco closed down in a year (2020).
  • With anti-Chinese sentiment due to COVID-19, Chinese businesses have become increasingly neglected

Our Solution

Chowtown is a platform designed to bridge the gap between authentic Chinese businesses and restaurants and hesitant consumers. By providing an engaging, informative, and user-friendly experience, we aim to preserve Chinese culinary culture and support struggling businesses.

What It Does

  • Educates users on traditional Chinese ingredients and their significance.
  • Showcases authentic Chinese restaurants with detailed descriptions and menus.
  • Provides a user-friendly interface that encourages exploration and cultural appreciation.
  • Includes a recommendation system to help users find restaurants suited to their tastes along with recipes associated with specific ingredients.

How We Built It

  • Frontend: Next.js for an intuitive and responsive UI. Shadcn and MagicUI for unique design.
  • Backend: Integrated Groq and ChatGPT-4o for generative content.
  • Video Recognition: Used TwelveLabs for analyzing and categorizing video content.

Challenges We Ran Into

  • Educating users about unfamiliar ingredients in a way that feels engaging.
  • Balancing authenticity with accessibility for a wider audience.
  • Handling restaurant data dynamically to ensure up-to-date information.
  • Ensuring that LLM generated content and links work accurately.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

  • Creating a convenient and easy-to-use product that promotes cultural preservation.
  • Successfully integrating a recommendation system to personalize user experience.
  • Building a platform that supports local Chinese businesses and encourages community involvement.

What We Learned

  • Cultural & Market Research: Conducted research to understand consumer hesitations and cultural barriers in food adoption.
  • Full-Stack Development: Built a scalable platform using Next.js, integrating generative AI (ChatGPT-4o) and video recognition (TwelveLabs).
  • AI & Video Processing: Leveraged AI-driven content generation and video analysis to enhance user engagement and education.
  • Product Management: Balanced user needs, business goals, and technical feasibility to develop a viable solution.
  • Collaboration & Agile Development: Worked as a team in an agile environment, efficiently iterating on ideas and overcoming technical challenges.

  • User Experience (UX) Design: Designed an intuitive and engaging UI to make cultural education more accessible to users.

  • The importance of cultural connection through food.

  • The significance of preserving heritage while making it accessible to new generations.

  • How technology can be leveraged to support local businesses and cultural preservation.

What's Next for Chowtown

  • Expand to More Regions: Currently focused on San Francisco, but we plan to grow to other cities.
  • Community Forum: Implement a space where users can chat about their favorite restaurants and share cultural insights.
  • Business Hub: Implement a specific panel where businesses can upload their information along with media to improve our AI content generation.

Built With

  • chatgpt
  • groq
  • magicui
  • nextjs
  • openai
  • shadcn
  • twelvelabs
  • v0
  • vercel
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