Recipe Visualizer & Step Video

My Phone Screen Kept Timing Out While Cooking

Last week I tried making lasagna from a recipe on my phone. Got to step three, hands covered in ricotta cheese, screen goes black. Had to wash my hands, unlock my phone, find my place again. Happened four times during one recipe. Almost threw my phone across the kitchen. Instead I made this tool. Now recipes play as videos with voice telling me what to do next. Problem solved.

Just Paste Your Recipe and Go

Copy whatever recipe you're using. Dump it in the box. Hit generate. Done. Could be from AllRecipes, your mom's handwritten card you photographed, that random blog post you found at 2am. Doesn't matter. Tool reads it, breaks it into steps, makes a video.

No Special Formatting Needed

Seriously, just write steps how you normally would:

Heat oven to 400
Throw chicken in bowl with marinade
Let it sit for 20 minutes
Slap it on a baking sheet
Cook until it's not pink anymore

That's it. Write like you're texting your roommate cooking instructions. Tool handles everything else.

Voice Narration Saves Your Sanity

Hands dirty? Can't touch your phone? Voice just tells you what's next. Changed my cooking life completely. No more doing that thing where you try to use your knuckle to scroll because your fingers are gross.

Who's Using This Thing

Regular People Who Cook Dinner

Got an email from someone who converted all her family recipes to videos. Plays them on an old tablet in her kitchen. Says she hasn't looked at her recipe binder in months. Her mom was initially offended that she wasn't using the handwritten cards anymore, then saw how convenient it was and asked for videos of her own recipes.

Food Bloggers Sick of Recipe Cards

This food blogger makes videos of reader recipes. Posts them as bonuses on her Instagram stories. Takes her like 5 minutes per recipe versus the hour it used to take filming herself cooking. Engagement doubled because her followers can actually cook along in real-time.

Dads Teaching Their Kids

Some dad made videos for basic recipes - scrambled eggs, grilled cheese, spaghetti. Left them on a tablet in the kitchen. His 12-year-old can now make dinner twice a week without supervision. Kid feels independent, dad gets a break from cooking every night. Win-win.

What You're Looking at on Screen

Shows basic cooking icons. Bowl means mix stuff. Oven means bake. Knife means chop things. Not trying to win design awards here. Just clear enough that you know what action you're supposed to be doing.

Some Steps Take Longer Than Others

Tool tries to be smart about timing. "Add salt" gets a couple seconds. "Knead dough for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic" obviously needs more time. Doesn't always get it perfect but it's pretty close.

Ingredient Lists Come First

Video starts with everything you need. Check you've got it all before you start. Can't tell you how many times I've gotten halfway through something and realized I'm missing a key ingredient. Now I catch that before the oven even heats up.

Stop Making These Dumb Mistakes

Being vague as hell: "Season to taste" tells the video nothing. Write "add 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper" so the voice can actually say something useful. Specific is always better.

Cramming too much in one step: "Chop the vegetables, heat the oil, and start cooking them" is really three things. Split them up. Video works better with one action at a time.

Leaving out actual numbers: "Bake until golden" - okay but how long? Give times and temps. My oven runs hot, yours might not. Numbers help everyone adjust.

Not watching it before sharing: Play through the whole video once. Sometimes the tool splits steps weird or timing feels off. Fix it before you send it to your sister-in-law asking for cooking advice.

Making Your Videos Not Suck

Write in Actual Cooking Order

If you turn the oven on first thing, make that step one. If you prep ingredients while it heats, that's step two. Don't make people jump around. Flow should match real life.

Add What It Should Look Like

"Cook for 5 minutes" is fine but "cook for 5 minutes until edges are crispy and golden" is better. Gives people visual cues. Everyone's stove is different so appearance matters more than exact timing.

Separate Prep From Actual Cooking

Put all the chopping and measuring up front. Then start the cooking steps. Lets people get organized before things start heating up and timing matters. Way less stressful.

Settings That Actually Matter

Short videos: Quick stuff like smoothies or sandwiches. Two to three minutes max. Nobody needs a 10-minute video on how to make a PB&J.

Medium videos: Most regular recipes. Four to six minutes. Pasta dishes, simple proteins, basic sides. Standard weeknight dinner territory.

Long videos: Complicated recipes with lots of steps. Eight to ten minutes. Thanksgiving turkey, from-scratch bread, anything with multiple components.

Voice speed: Normal works if you know what you're doing. Slow it down if you're learning a new technique. I use slow speed when trying something I've never made before.

Tech Stuff If You Care

Step Detection Isn't Magic

Looks for cooking verbs. Mix, chop, bake, whatever. Treats those as new steps. Usually works great. Sometimes gets confused if you write weird. Just edit the steps if it splits them wrong.

Voice Quality Depends on Your Setup

Uses whatever text-to-speech your browser has. Chrome on a Mac sounds pretty good. Firefox on Windows sounds kinda robotic. Safari is somewhere in between. Test it on whatever device you'll actually use in your kitchen.

File Works Everywhere

Saves as WebM. Post it anywhere - Instagram, YouTube, wherever. Import it into iMovie or whatever if you want to get fancy with editing. Pretty much universal at this point.

When This Actually Helps

Sunday meal prep: Make videos for your whole week of recipes. Play them while you're doing batch cooking. No juggling multiple recipe tabs.

Sharing with family: My mom can barely read recipe cards anymore. Send her videos instead. She can hear the instructions and glance at the screen occasionally.

Teaching anyone to cook: Give someone a video instead of written instructions. They can pause, rewind, replay sections they didn't get. Self-paced learning.

Content for social media: Recipe videos without actually filming yourself. Generate them in bulk. Schedule posts for the whole month.

Why Videos Beat Recipe Cards

Cards require you to read and remember stuff. Videos just tell you what's next. Big difference when you're actively cooking and your brain is tracking three things at once. Easier to listen than to read while stirring something on the stove.

Timing happens automatically. Recipe says simmer 10 minutes - you have to remember to check the clock. Video just moves on when time's up. One less thing to think about.

Some people hate reading recipes. They need to see or hear instructions. My brother learns everything by watching. Give him a written recipe and he gets lost. Show him a video and he nails it first try. Different brains work different ways.

Not saying written recipes are bad. Sometimes you want to scan ahead and see what's coming. Or quickly reference an ingredient amount. But when you're actually cooking? Video format just makes more sense. Hands-free, clear instructions, automatic timing. Convert your favorite recipes once, use the videos forever. Simple.