Why I built Forage

I grew up in a household of four, and my mom cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all of us. Every so often she'd sigh and say she was at her wits' end — she didn't know what to make. It took me years to understand what she really meant. She was a wonderful cook. She wasn't out of skill; she was out of decisions. Figuring out what to cook, again, in the moment, every single day — that was the exhausting part.

Years later I married someone who loves variety, and planning the week's meals became our own complicated little ritual. Different kitchen, same question: what are we actually making this week? We tried apps, and they were all good at the same thing — holding onto recipes. The saving felt like progress, but with a thousand-plus recipes banked, we still stood in front of the fridge most nights, improvising. The collection was never the bottleneck. Turning it into a plan was.

So Forage started as a spreadsheet, built around how we already cooked: a rotation, a cadence, a shopping list that follows from the plan instead of being a separate chore. Then it became a script. Then this.

It's built by someone who cooks most nights, not someone chasing a feature roadmap — so it prioritizes the boring stuff: what's in rotation, what's overdue for a repeat, and getting out the door with the right list. Every feature exists because we needed it first.

And once the plan is made, Forage stays with you through the week. Your schedule tells you what's for dinner before you have to ask. Cooking mode walks you through a recipe one step at a time, with timers built right in — no scrolling with flour on your hands, no juggling a separate timer app. The small conveniences add up: less friction between "what's for dinner" and dinner.

If any of this sounds like your kitchen, you're exactly who Forage is for. I hope it gives you back a few decisions a week.