FOODIE.

Inspiration

I cook almost every day and I truly love it. Cooking is my love language. One of my friends is a chef, another one is just a great home cook, and I'd often ask them for help or for a recipe of something they once made. It was always a struggle, because for them it's all so easy: "throw this in, chop that, add a bit of this — and done." So I'd ask them to write me a more precise, step-by-step recipe. But those recipes would get lost somewhere in chat history, and finding them was nearly impossible — even though I really wanted to keep them!

Same thing with Instagram and YouTube — I have a favorite egg recipe that I kept forgetting, and to find it in my Instagram saved posts, I'd spend about 15 minutes scrolling. And that number keeps growing every year, because the saved content just keeps piling up.

Also, since I live far from my parents, I can't always taste my mom's favorite dish, so I cook it myself following her instructions. But wouldn't it be amazing to have a cookbook called "Family Recipes"? That's incredible! And they're always with you, wherever you are.

I've seen hundreds of nice recipe apps, even paid for some of them, but eventually realized — no single app can give you all the recipes you want. When I searched for a duck recipe, it showed me 1,000 options, and while I was trying to find the perfect one — delivery was already on its way to me. But one app can give you a place to keep all the recipes you love. And if a recipe doesn't exist yet — it'll help you create one in a couple of taps.

What it does

FOODIE. is your personal recipe journal that keeps all your favorite recipes in one place — no matter where they originally came from.

You can import recipes from Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, websites, notes, messages, or even photos. Instead of manually rewriting everything, FOODIE. processes and organizes it all so you can enjoy cooking — not struggle with what goes where, in what order, and how much you need.

Create or add new recipes in seconds. Craving chicken with mushrooms for dinner? Just ask FOODIE. — and it'll offer you three recipe options right away. No more spending an hour scrolling in search of "the perfect one."

Build your grocery cart, group it by ingredient type so you don't have to dig through each recipe for what you need.

Launch Cook Mode while you're cooking.

How we built it

FOODIE. is built with React Native (Expo) and TypeScript. Recipe recognition and parsing is powered by Google Gemini AI. Backend runs on Supabase, subscriptions through RevenueCat. The entire app was built solo in roughly 10 days.

Challenges we ran into

I wanted FOODIE. to be super simple and intuitive, so users could focus on the joy of cooking instead of figuring out the app or struggling with recipes. Making cooking easier — that's the main goal. Everything had to be accessible in just a few taps, with easy editing if needed, and fun to use.

Another challenge was ingredients. Most APIs were expensive or had terrible-looking images. I decided to create my own ingredient library with custom images to make the app visually appealing — like a beautiful cookbook on your kitchen counter.

Finally, setting up the Apple Developer account and uploading my first app was a big hurdle. I spent around 2 full days just learning the process out of 10 days spent building the app.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This is my first mobile app — and it's on the App Store. Built solo in 10 days. I also created my own ingredient library with custom images — so every recipe looks beautiful, not like a dry text list.

What we learned

I learned that I can build an MVP in less than 10 days. I discovered new ways AI can help with different tasks, and realized how important it is to work on an app whose idea personally resonates — it makes everything much easier. Also I felt in love in mobile app deveopment and want do it rest of my life but the way is hard.

What's next for FOODIE

I have so many ideas that I can't keep track of them all, so I jot them down quickly before even more come up.

Refine the app's code. Gather user feedback. Launch FOODIE on the App Store and start learning marketing =) Optimize for iPad — many people cook from iPads, and it makes following recipes much easier. Add nutritional info like calories, macros, and a recipe health rating. Let users track their cooked recipes, note difficulty, and rate them for taste. Explore collaborations — for example, a button on other sites so users can instantly get a favorite chef's recipe book in FOODIE.

The main goal is to make cooking easy and enjoyable

Built With

• expo.io
• geminiapi
• react-native
• revenucat
• supabase
• supadata