CookBook AI: making an app simple for someone who is not technical

The test that hurts

In March, CookBook AI had everything: AI Chef, pantry, cookbook scanning, voice recipes, printed books. Then I installed it on the iPad mini of someone at home who is not technical at all. And I listened.

She only wanted three things: import a recipe from a link, have the week planned automatically, have the shopping list written automatically.

First shock: the AI no longer worked

The AI models the app called had been retired by their provider in the meantime. As a result, all the AI was down, with no clear message.

The fix: a single entry point for AI, with a list of fallback models. If one disappears, the next one takes over. Lesson learned: anything that depends on an external service eventually breaks.

Importing a recipe without an API key

Most recipe websites hide a structured card in their page: title, ingredients, steps. The app reads it first, with no AI and no key. Checked for real on several French recipe sites.

If the card is missing, the iPad's on-device AI takes over. And with the Share button, a recipe seen in Safari or YouTube lands straight in the app.

Simplify, simplify, simplify

• The first-launch welcome goes from 9 pages to 1: three promises, your first name, "Let's go"
• The Add screen becomes a single field to paste a link
• The planner: lunch and dinner, "This week" or "Next week", and a "Fill my week" button
• Shopping follows the plan, rounded to what you actually buy, sorted by aisle

One bug made me laugh: beef ended up in the dairy aisle, because aisles were matched on pieces of words. They are now matched on whole words.

Apple design, for real

That same evening, the whole app moved to Apple's design guidelines: system font, large titles, Settings-style lists, a Calendar-style planner, a Reminders-style shopping list. The app no longer looks like "a Flutter app", it looks like an iPad app.

What is left before the stores

Mostly paperwork: ads on Android, the premium product to create, signing. Tests went from 380 to more than 410, all green.

The best feature is often the one you remove.