Project Foodie
The combined vision of EMMY® Award-winning producer Eli Holzman and his brother, The Meatball Shop Co-Founder Daniel Holzman.
Overview & Process
A Comprehensive Custom System
The client needed to be able to manage numerous visual and informational assets for each recipe: photos, videos, ingredients, tools, portions, difficulty level, steps, and timers. The app needed to surface all of these to the user in a visually pleasing and accurate manner.
Custom Measurements
Users need to be able to select a number of servings and have the ingredient measurements automatically scale up or scale down. The client needs to be able to override some of the automatic scaling when the situation calls for it.
Custom Video Player
We worked with the client to assemble a custom video player that allowed the user to skip ahead and back to crucial points in the cooking process, as well as keep track of steps, ingredients, and timers. All of this was done while maintaining visual cohesiveness with overlaid assets.
Event-Based Custom Process
We built a custom backend using Python/ Django to allow for maximum flexibility. The content managers at Project Foodie can build the cooking experiences in the app using time stamps that correspond with video content.
Real-Time Cooking
Project Foodie is a unique app that guides users through real-time cooking instruction. Each meal has deep levels of information.
We created a comprehensive backend management system that also allowed the app to update quantities inside the written step-by-step instructions, as well as the on-screen events that guide the users through the cooking process. The app contains a set of dynamic timers that display on the video when tapped, but also exist independent of the video content - that way if a user has to leave the app for some reason, they will receive a system alert that the timer is done and they won’t burn their toast!
The app contains 3 levels of access: With no account, users can scope out the offerings, but can’t access features such as favorites or grocery lists. Guest users have access to a subset of meals, but can use favorites and the grocery list. Subscribers can access all of the meals and enhanced features such as Instacart integration.
We integrated Amazon links so that users who don’t have some of the tools required for meals can add a recommended brand to their Amazon carts by tapping “Buy Now” in the tools section of the meal. This created monetization opportunities for the client.
Meals start with a preview - akin to a movie trailer - that shows an overview of the process from prep to mise en place. The app displays a list of ingredients, list of tools, and step-by-step written instructions. Users can select different serving sizes for each meal, and the ingredient quantities automatically scale. This required some very heavy lifting, in order to comply with the customary units of measurement for cooking, such as teaspoon to tablespoon conversions, and multiples of units such as “pinch” and “sprig” and units that scale non-linearly - like cilantro.
Media in the Kitchen
Project Foodie garnered attention not just for its fantastic content, but also for the tech behind the delivery of that content. Appearances on The Rachael Ray Show and NBC12, mentions in food and Hollywood industry publications, as well as being honored by Apple's App Store as "App of the Day" and "Editor's Choice" proved that the hard work paid off.
Learn more
Media in the Kitchen
Project Foodie garnered attention not just for its fantastic content, but also for the tech behind the delivery of that content. Appearances on The Rachael Ray Show and NBC12, mentions in food and Hollywood industry publications, as well as being honored by Apple's App Store as "App of the Day" and "Editor's Choice" proved that the hard work paid off.
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