Kitchen Vault

Inspiration

Home cooks collect meals from many places e.g. notes, screenshots, cookbooks, social media, and messages from friends. Saving them is slow, recipes end up scattered, and when it’s time to cook you waste time scrolling or hunting for quantities. Grocery planning becomes another manual step. Kitchen Vault was inspired by making the entire loop frictionless: capture quickly, cook calmly, shop easily.

What it does

Recipe Keeper: Kitchen Vault is a lightweight system for the full loop: capture → cook → shop.

• Capture in 3 modes

1. Manual entry for full control
2. Photo extraction to digitize cookbook pages/screenshots
3. Natural language entry to save meals the way friends text them to you

• Focused Cooking Mode: step-first view (large text, minimal UI) that keeps your place and reduces scrolling while cooking.

• Simple Shopping List: generate a list from chosen meals so grocery planning becomes a one-tap action.

How we built it

• Designed the app around a clean recipe model (ingredients, steps, notes, servings)
• Implemented three creation flows: manual, photo-to-text extraction, and natural-language-to-structured draft
• Built a dedicated Cooking Mode screen optimized for readability and step progression
• Generated a shopping list from selected meals with a fast check off experience

Challenges we ran into

• Converting unstructured input (photos and free text) into structured meals without frustrating users
• Designing a cooking view that stays minimal but still feels practical in real cooking situations
• Keeping the shopping list simple while handling duplicates and ingredient variations

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Three realistic capture modes that match how people actually save meals
• A focused cooking mode that reduces distractions and makes step-following easier
• A shopping list that turns planned meals into a usable list instantly
• A clear freemium split: core experience works for free, upgrades unlock power capture modes

What we learned

• Lowering friction at the capture step is the biggest driver for building a habit
• Cooking UX is fundamentally different from browsing UX: large text, less clutter, clear step flow
• “Good enough” extraction plus quick editing beats chasing perfect automation
• Lists only help if they remain clear and fast to use

What's next for Kitchen Vault

Next features to build:

• Import from Instagram/TikTok/YouTube videos (save from a link)
• Import recipes from websites
• Share meals with friends via a simple link
• Search to find meals quickly

Then, based on usage:

• Improve the shopping list (manual entries, better grouping/deduplication)
• Share meals as images/pages for messaging or printing

Built With

• expo.io
• react-native
• revenuecat