Recipes
Click + New Recipe to create a recipe from scratch. Fill in the title, description, prep/cook times, servings, and upload a hero photo (up to 4 photos total).
Ingredients have structured fields: quantity, unit, name, and an optional note. This powers the portion calculator and shopping list.
Steps are added one per line. Simply type or paste each step on a new line describing one part of the cooking process.
Rating: Click the stars (1-5) on any recipe card. Favorites: Click the heart icon to bookmark recipes.
Use Categories for broad groups (Mexican, Desserts, Soups) and Tags for cross-cutting labels (Spicy, Kid-friendly, Date night). Tags have custom colors.
Importing Recipes from URLs
Click "Import from URL" in the sidebar, paste any cooking website URL, and click Scrape.
Zest uses a 4-tier engine: first it tries the recipe-scrapers library (400+ sites), then JSON-LD structured data, then Microdata attributes, and finally intelligent CSS heuristics.
Review the preview, edit anything you want, then click Save. Imported recipes get an automatic "Imported from Internet" category.
Memories
Memories are what makes Zest different. A Memory connects photos, dates, locations, and stories to a recipe — turning your collection into a culinary diary.
Click Memories in the sidebar, then + New Memory. Add a title, upload up to 10 photos, write the story, and optionally link it to a recipe.
Auto-detection: JPEG photos with EXIF data will auto-fill the date and GPS location. Coordinates are converted to place names automatically.
Moment Cards: Open any memory with photos, click Share, and choose a template (Story, Square, or Landscape) to generate a beautiful image for social media.
What to Cook?
Tell Zest what ingredients you have, and it finds matching recipes ranked by match percentage.
Type ingredient names — suggestions appear from your recipe database. Results show which ingredients you have (green) and which are missing (red).
You can adjust portions right from the results, and add missing ingredients to your shopping list with one click.
Cookbooks & Sharing
Cookbooks are curated recipe collections. Add a name, description, author's note, and up to 2 cover photos with drag-to-reposition.
Sharing: Click Share on any cookbook to generate a public link. Anyone with the link can view the cookbook — no account needed. You can revoke the link at any time.
PDF Export: Click the PDF button on any cookbook to download a professionally formatted PDF with cover page and recipe cards.
Backups & Data
Go to Settings → Backups to enable automatic backups. Choose frequency (12h / 24h / 7 days) and how many to keep.
Manual export: "Export Full Backup" creates a ZIP with the database + all images. "Export JSON" exports recipes in a portable format.
Import: Upload a backup ZIP to restore your instance, or import a JSON file to add recipes (duplicates are skipped).
Health check: Visit /api/health for monitoring tools like Uptime Kuma. It verifies that your instance is running and responding correctly.
Tips
Press Esc to close any modal or overlay.
Click the moon/sun icon in the sidebar to toggle dark mode.
iPhone photos (HEIC/HEIF) are supported out of the box — no conversion needed.
Images are automatically optimized on upload (resized to max 1920px, JPEG quality 85).
Zest — Because recipes deserve memories.