Why Zap Cooking Exists
Food has always been social.
Long before feeds, likes, or algorithms, recipes were shared person to person. Around tables. In kitchens. Through stories, notes, and small variations passed along over time. Food was never about optimization or scale. It was about connection.
Zap Cooking exists to bring that spirit into the modern internet.
Most food content today lives inside platforms designed to extract attention. Algorithms decide what you see. Ads shape what gets promoted. Creators produce value but rarely own their audience or benefit directly from their work.
Zap Cooking takes a different approach.
This is a Nostr native space where recipes are shared as open events, identity belongs to the individual, and value flows peer to peer. Discovery comes from people, not ranking systems. Creativity compounds through conversation, remixing, and shared curiosity.
The goal is not to be the biggest recipe app.
The goal is to create a place where food culture can live openly and grow naturally.
A Note From the Founder
Zap Cooking started with a simple curiosity. What would food sharing look like if it lived on open rails?
I have spent much of my life building and working inside systems where small improvements compound and trust matters. When I discovered Nostr and Lightning, it felt like a natural extension of that thinking. Identity that travels. Value that is voluntary. Participation without permission.
Food felt like the right place to apply it.
Zap Cooking is not a finished product. It is something in motion. It evolves in public and improves through use. While this page reflects where Zap Cooking began, it does not belong to me alone. It is already shaped by the people who share recipes, offer feedback, contribute code, and show up with curiosity.
I help prepare the ground and tend the space. What grows here is up to the community.
What This Place Is About
Zap Cooking is built on a few simple beliefs:
- Food connects people
- Culture matters more than clicks
- Creators should be supported directly
- Identity should travel with you
- Communities grow stronger when participation is easy
If you believe those things too, you already belong here.
An Open Invitation
Post a recipe.
Follow a cook.
Share an idea.
Zap someone whose work you appreciate.
Help shape what this becomes.
Food has always been community.
Zap Cooking is simply a modern expression of that truth.
Why Nostr
Zap Cooking is built on Nostr because it lets people participate without giving anything up.
You do not create an account.
You do not hand over your data.
You do not get tracked, ranked, or pushed by algorithms.
Your identity belongs to you.
Your recipes belong to you.
Your relationships move with you.
Nostr makes it possible for Zap Cooking to be open without being chaotic, social without being extractive, and simple without being controlled.
It also means Zap Cooking is not a closed platform. It is one place in a broader network of people and tools that can grow and change over time.
If you have never used Nostr before, that is okay. You can explore, read, and learn at your own pace. There is no pressure to understand the technology to enjoy the culture.
Under the hood, Nostr keeps things honest. On the surface, it simply feels more human.
Open by Design
Zap Cooking is built in the open.
The code is public. The ideas are shared. The project evolves through use, feedback, and contribution.
You do not need to be a developer to participate. Sharing recipes, testing features, and offering thoughtful feedback are just as important as writing code.
If you are curious how things work, the project lives in public on GitHub:
https://github.com/zapcooking/frontend