These days, cooking content has evolved into countless forms. From YouTube tutorials and Instagram reels to food blogs filled with personal anecdotes, recipes have become more than just instructions—they’re now experiences. But as this evolution has brought more creativity, it has also introduced complexity. Recipes are often buried under layers of storytelling, ads, and unnecessary information, making it harder to simply cook.
At fork.club, we believe that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. We wanted to go back to the essence of what a recipe is, stripping away the distractions to focus on the core purpose: helping you cook something delicious.
The dictionary defines a recipe as: A set of instructions for preparing a particular dish, including a list of the ingredients required. This straightforward definition became our north star. Recipes don’t need to be complicated; they need to be clear, concise, and timeless.
Although some recipes might be more complex than others, we believe they should all be created using some basic building blocks. To achieve both structure and simplicity, we’ve created a markdown-like system tailored for recipes. This approach strikes a balance between flexibility and clarity, ensuring that the format remains intuitive and easy to read.
We designed our recipe format with the lightest possible boilerplate to ensure that the recipe remains "pure." When you look at a raw recipe, it should be instantly readable and free from clutter. The simplicity of the structure makes it easy to create, share, and even adapt recipes quickly.
For example, here’s a recipe for classic pancakes:
# Classic Pancakes
- Yield: 5 servings
- Duration: 30 minutes
Fluffy pancakes that are perfect for breakfast or brunch.
Top with syrup, fresh fruits, or your favorite toppings!
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
1. In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients.
2. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg, and melted butter.
3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.
4. Heat a pan over medium heat and pour batter for each pancake.
5. Cook until bubbles form, then flip and cook for another minute.
6. Serve warm with syrup or toppings of your choice.
The raw format is simple, intuitive, and directly readable. You don’t need fancy tools or platforms to understand it—just basic text.
We also prioritized a format that adapts easily. Whether you’re quickly noting down a recipe from memory or transcribing one from a cooking show, this minimal structure reduces the friction of recipe creation. It’s a system designed to empower cooks, not constrain them.
Another advantage of using raw text is how it aligns with the way people naturally create content. Most are accustomed to keyboards and free-text input, which makes writing recipes intuitive compared to filling out constrained forms. It also opens up inherited benefits like easy copy-and-paste, moving content between sections, or repurposing parts of a recipe seamlessly.
Additionally, using raw text positions us perfectly for integrations with AI tools from day one. Since text is the primitive input for these tools, our recipes can benefit in multiple transformative ways:
These features make raw text not just a practical choice but a strategic one, laying a solid foundation for innovation and usability.
While simplicity is our foundation, we also recognize the potential of modern technology to enhance the cooking experience. We’re uplifting recipes with interactivity—allowing users to scale ingredient quantities with a single click, create timers directly from instructions, and switch between units effortlessly.
What makes this approach unique is our commitment to preserving the raw format. All these interactive features are built on top of a clean and readable recipe structure, ensuring that the original recipe remains timeless, portable, and as "pure" as the day it was written.
Author: Jorge Bastida
Published: January 14, 2024
RFD: #0002
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