- Problem
- Family recipes die in drawers and group chats. Flavor by Design gives them a durable, searchable public home — and treats trust as the product.
- Role
- Founder, builder, content systems operator, product strategist
- Date
- 2026
- Tools
- Next.js, React, Prisma, Recipe data, Newsletter, Affiliate research pipeline
Flavor by Design
A live recipe and kitchen platform: 8,700+ curated recipes with search, portion scaling, and a shopping-list builder. Italian roots, global flavors, receipts attached.
Claim: a working content business, not a hobby blog.
Receipt: 8,700+ curated recipes live at flavorbydesign.org, with search, portion scaling, a shopping-list builder, newsletter hooks, and product copy kept separate from recipe trust. The site is public — go check.
Mission now: measurement. Production stays untouched; the work is read-only — affiliate clicks, conversion, and whether the platform can produce provable revenue. First-dollar proof or an honest "not yet." No revenue claim appears here until the data exists.
Artifacts
Screenshots and visual proof.
Receipts
Outcomes and lessons.
Outcomes
- 8,700+ curated recipes live at flavorbydesign.org.
- Public story ties the project to A Salty Vet and family kitchen roots.
- Affiliate research stays walled off from recipe content — nothing reaches public copy without review.
Lessons
- Trust before monetization. Every time.
- Product research lives in review tools until the consumer-facing copy is cleared.
This project proves a different lane than code: taste, voice, content architecture, search, recipe usability, and long-term brand stewardship — operated as a system, not a stream of posts.
What stays private: internal affiliate scoring, raw research artifacts, and unreviewed product recommendations. The public surface earns trust; the pipeline behind it doesn't get to spend it.