Where did the idea for Le Chaudron come from?
First, from a desire: to launch my own project, to create something of my own. I love to cook, especially the food of France's regions — the real thing, rooted in the land. There are already plenty of recipe apps out there, I know that well. But I'm convinced that mine has its place among the big ones, in its own way: an app that is simple and beautiful, that brings it all together and answers the question we all ask ourselves — “okay, so what are we eating?” I wanted something that makes you hungry and really helps in everyday life.
Except you had no development experience at all…
None! Not a little: none at all. I had never written a line of code in my life. When I talked about it, people told me “you need a team, a budget, months”… Normally, yes. I was on my own, in my office, at home. On paper, it was impossible.
And yet the app exists. How?
By teaming up with an AI — Claude, by Anthropic. That's how I built everything. The split is simple: I bring the vision, the ideas, the decisions, the eye for detail. The AI writes the code. I describe what I want, we move forward brick by brick, we test, we fix. Over the months, on my own, I ended up building what normally takes a whole team of developers.
Me, the vision. The AI, the code.
What was the hardest part technically?
There were several big pieces I'm proud of. The first one is the weekly meal plan. You plan your meals, and the app automatically gathers all the ingredients from all your recipes to give you a shopping list ready to check off — no duplicates, with the right quantities. It sounds simple, but behind the scenes it's a real puzzle. Today, you plan your week in 2 minutes.
You mentioned several challenges…
Yes! There's one that, for me, is truly Le Chaudron's DNA. We brought together three ways to find a recipe in one place: you take a photo of your fridge, you scan a barcode, or you simply type in your ingredients. And from there, the app suggests three recipes — including one made to measure, 100% invented by the AI, using only what you have on hand.
Scanning, or snapping your fridge: others did it before us, I won't pretend otherwise. What's truly “Le Chaudron” is having brought it all together: several ingredients go in, one recipe comes out. That's the very idea of a cauldron (a “chaudron” in French), isn't it? You toss in what you have, and out comes something to cook. That's where the little bit of alchemy happens.
Several ingredients go in, one recipe comes out.
And then there's the look. I wanted it to be beautiful, like leafing through a cooking magazine. We created “magazine” pages with layouts that adapt and visuals that breathe. For a non-coder, going from a plain list to that was a whole other world. It has become Le Chaudron's signature.
And where is Le Chaudron today?
It has grown a lot! Today, it's nearly 2,800 recipes, from all over France and from some forty countries around the world. The app also has its own website, with Le Journal du Chaudron: our magazine, telling the stories of dishes, products and seasons. And the name is protected: Le Chaudron® is a trademark registered with INPI, the French intellectual property office.
And it keeps going. The app is coming soon to iPhone, and Le Chaudron is learning languages: the site now speaks English, and soon Spanish. The names of the dishes stay in French, though. A blanquette is still a blanquette!
What have you taken away from this adventure?
That ideas are just waiting to come out. If one passionate person, alone in his corner, can build a project like this from his office, then a lot of people can too. Today's tools make possible what, yesterday, took an entire team. I put into it what I know how to do: a passion for good food and a love of regional, down-to-earth cooking. The rest, we built together.
What's next?
What's next is the community — and that's what will truly bring the app to life. Everyone can already share their own recipes in the app: their grandmother's, their hometown's, their region's. Little by little, we're going to enrich every region together, bring out the real recipes of the land, the ones you can't find anywhere else. A map of our regions filling up with recipes from the people who actually cook them.
And I'm aiming for another milestone: connecting the shopping list to an online grocery partner. The goal: in one click, your grocery pickup cart is ready to order — from meal idea to groceries, effortlessly. You plan, the app makes the list, and the grocery order follows right behind.
That's what drives me: on its own, Le Chaudron is already nearly 2,800 recipes; with a community and the right partners behind it, it comes alive. The best is yet to come.
A map of our regions, filling up.
Vincent
Founder of Le Chaudron