Mandoline

Turn your recipes into recurring revenue. AI-powered app lets influencers monetize their content with subscriptions, exclusive drops, and affiliate integrations.

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About Mandoline

Inspiration

Every cooking influencer faces the same problem: content disappears into the algorithmic void. A recipe video gets millions of views, then vanishes from feeds forever. Meanwhile, fans screenshot ingredients, pause videos mid-cook, and DM asking "what was that spice again?"

I built Mandoline to bridge that gap—a complementary channel where creators can offer exclusive content to their most engaged fans, and where AI handles the tedious work of formatting and personalization.

My first creator partner is Eitan Bernath, a chef and food personality with 3 million Instagram followers. Mandoline gives Eitan's most dedicated fans a premium experience: privileged access to his signature recipes, exclusive content not available on social or in his cookbook, and AI-powered recipe generation in Eitan's style.

But more than that, I wanted an uncluttered experience. No ads breaking up instructions. Just the recipe, beautifully designed and presented, ready when you need it.

What it does

Mandoline is a recipe app built around creator content, starting with Eitan Bernath. The app is organized into four tabs:

  • Eitan. Eitan's signature recipes and exclusive content, beautifully organized by category. Privileged access for subscribers.

  • Create. Generate new recipes tailored to your diet and preferences, inspired by how Eitan cooks. Eitan can also create brand collaborations—recipes designed specifically for partner cookware and products, unlocking sponsorship revenue.

  • Shop. Smart shopping lists built from Eitan recipes, with direct access to products from Eitan's shop.

  • Organize. Save your favorite recipes into beautiful folders, and instantly import more recipes from social media, photo library, text, cookbooks, or the web.

The core experience is deeply personalized. Any recipe can be adapted to dietary preferences (keto, vegan, gluten-free), cooking expertise, or specific equipment.

For creators like Eitan, Mandoline adds a complementary monetization channel through premium subscriptions ($2.99/mo or $29.99/yr with a 7-day free trial), exclusive recipe drops, brand partnerships, and a deeper connection with their most engaged fans.

  • Admin dashboard. A dedicated creator dashboard where creators can add their own recipe creation cards, run brand collaborations, manage recipe publishing, track marketing performance, and link directly to their shops.

How we built it

iOS App: Swift and SwiftUI with MVVM architecture. The goal was native performance and a design that feels like it belongs on iOS—clean, focused, beautiful. We leaned into liquid glass, iOS 26 polish, and full light/dark mode support.

Backend: Firebase Cloud Functions (TypeScript) handling recipe generation, recipe import from anywhere, and core business logic.

Subscriptions: RevenueCat simplified everything about subscription management—handling receipt validation, managing entitlements across devices, and creating attractive paywalls without rebuilding the wheel. It let me focus on the product instead of payment infrastructure.

AI Integration: OpenAI powers recipe import and generation, ensuring consistent, beautifully formatted results every time.

Challenges we ran into

Recipe sources are messy. Every website, app, and cookbook formats recipes differently. Making import seamless across all of them required handling countless edge cases.

Keeping AI costs sustainable. I did not implement aggressive caching, but the AI pipeline is extremely optimized for cost efficiency while delivering amazing quality. The goal is to stay profitable at scale.

Staying focused. The temptation to add every feature at once was constant. I chose to nail the core experience first—recipes that live forever, beautifully organized and personalized.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • The import just works. No matter the source—web, social media, or cookbook—recipes land in your library clean, consistent, and ready to cook.

  • Design that disappears. Users tell us cooking from Mandoline feels effortless. The interface stays out of the way and lets the recipe shine.

  • A real monetization path for creators. I've built something influencers like Eitan Bernath can use to complement their social presence with a premium app experience.

  • Profitable AI at scale. The AI pipeline is optimized for cost efficiency without compromising quality, keeping the business viable as usage grows.

What we learned

  • AI is powerful, but architecture matters. AI tools are amazing, but you still need solid software architecture and good engineering practices to build something reliable and robust.

  • AI should augment, not disrupt. It shouldn’t break the connection between a creator and their audience. It should enhance the creator’s voice and the user’s experience.

  • Personalization is the killer feature. Users don't just want recipes—they want recipes adapted to them. Dietary restrictions, skill level, equipment. That deep customization is what converts free users to premium.

  • Subscription fatigue is real. The value proposition has to be immediate and obvious, or users churn before week two.

What's next for Mandoline

  • Meal planning. Weekly planners that automatically scale recipes and consolidate shopping.

  • Calories & nutrition. Detailed nutritional data for every recipe, as more and more people are conscious about eating healthy.

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