CookBook
CookBook is a website for people who enjoy cooking and trying new recipes. You can find all kinds of meals here, easy ones for busy days, traditional dishes from different places, or special family recipes.Everything is in one place, so you don’t have to jump between websites to find something good. The recipes are shared by real people who have tried them, so you know they work.
You can look through the recipes without signing up. But if you want to share your own, you can create an account. It’s easy and free.CookBook is not just about food. It’s about people coming together, sharing what they love to cook, and learning from each other. Whether you’ve been cooking for years or are just getting started, you’ll find something here for you.It’s a simple way to enjoy cooking, try something new, and connect with others through food.
Check it out on GitHub.
Moodboard
For this project, I aimed to create a visual identity that reflected the universal love for cooking and sharing recipes. Inspired by vibrant food photography and a warm, inviting color palette, the mood board embodied the joy of discovering new flavors. The design balanced clean, modern layouts with elements that highlighted the richness of global cuisines. The chosen typography and imagery ensured a seamless fusion of functionality and aesthetics, making CookBook an engaging and user-friendly platform.
SetUp
Before starting the development of CookBook, I carefully selected the right technologies to align with my goals. Since I used WordPress with the Classic theme, I focused on enhancing the platform with Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) for structured content management. WordPress was chosen for its flexibility and ease of use, while ACF enabled the addition of detailed recipe-specific fields such as ingredients, cooking time, and preparation steps.
For hosting and domain management, I leveraged a cPanel-based server, ensuring smooth deployment and maintenance. The combination of WordPress and ACF provided an efficient and scalable solution for managing and sharing recipes in an organized manner.
MVP
he MVP for the CookBook website included the following core features to ensure a smooth and engaging user experience:
- Home Page: A welcoming space featuring trending recipes, user highlights, and easy navigation to explore different cuisines.
- Recipes Page: A categorized list of all available recipes, allowing users to browse by cuisine, meal type, or dietary preferences.
- Single Recipe Page: A detailed view showcasing ingredients, preparation steps, and user-submitted photos for each recipe.
- Search & Filtering: A search function with filtering options to quickly find specific recipes based on ingredients or cuisine.
This foundational structure ensured a seamless browsing and submission experience for users, fostering a collaborative and interactive cooking community.
Research & Planning
To ensure that CookBook met the needs of food lovers and home chefs, I conducted extensive research on existing recipe-sharing platforms, identifying common pain points such as cluttered interfaces and difficulty in submitting recipes. Based on my findings, I structured the platform to prioritize ease of navigation, user engagement, and high-quality content.
Development
Using WordPress with the Classic theme, I built the website with the following technical elements:
- ACF fields to organize recipe submissions efficiently
- Custom taxonomies to categorize recipes by cuisine and type
- Responsive design to ensure seamless functionality across devices
Testing & Deployment
After the development phase, I rigorously tested the platform to ensure smooth navigation, proper data handling, and an intuitive user experience. Performance optimization was also a key focus, ensuring fast load times and a seamless browsing experience.
CookBook was successfully deployed on a cPanel-based hosting environment, making it accessible to food enthusiasts worldwide.
CookBook is more than just a recipe-sharing website—it’s a community-driven platform designed to bring people together through food. By leveraging the power of WordPress and ACF, the project successfully addresses the challenges of scattered, unreliable recipe sources and provides an intuitive, user-friendly experience. Whether users want to discover new cuisines or share their own recipes, CookBook makes it easy, engaging, and enjoyable.
With a scalable and flexible structure, CookBook has the potential to evolve further, incorporating new features such as video tutorials, community forums, and personalized recipe recommendations. The journey of CookBook has been a rewarding experience, merging my passion for development with my love for food culture and digital innovation.
