KochLust

About

As part of my bachelor's thesis, I explored the subject of cooking. The primary focus was to motivate people to cook for themselves, without actively interfering in the cooking process or taking the manual work out of their hands. For me personally, cooking is a true passion it is a practice that can be highly creative, relaxing, and even meditative.

Goal

During my research, I conducted seven interviews with a diverse group of people, ranging from a university student and a grandmother to a professional head chef. A fascinating discussion emerged around the “authorship” of recipes. The chef noted that since almost everything has been cooked before in some form, a recipe only truly becomes your own once you cook it yourself.
However, I realized that we are losing the habit of physically writing down these successes. Analyzing modern recipe collections revealed a shift from handwritten notebooks to a chaotic, overwhelming digital flood of saved TikToks and Apple Notes. In this digital noise, the personal sense of achievement gets lost. I recognized the need for a “silent witness” to one's own culinary success.

Outcome

My goal was to rescue this sense of achievement by creating a physical “silent witness” for everyday cooking. The result is an interactive recipe printer. You simply tell the device what you just made, much like answering the familiar question at the dinner table, “How did you make this?” The device then instantly prints a compact, personalized recipe on thermal paper, providing a tangible collectable and inspiring you to start your own physical recipe collection.

KochLust

2025
Bachelor thesis
University of applied Arts Linz

Shift to Digital Solutions

Today’s recipe collections have shifted from handwritten notebooks to an overwhelming digital flood of saved TikToks, Messages and Apple Notes. In this endless digital noise, the tangible charm and personal touch of collecting are completely lost.

Interaction

Recording a recipe is effortless: the user simply presses the large yellow button once. A pulsing LED provides immediate visual feedback that the device is actively listening. Once the explanation is finished, a second press turns the LED a pulsing green while the recipe is processed and printed.

Duplicating a recipe is just as seamless. Every printout features a unique ID. Using the exact same push-to-talk interaction, users can simply say, for instance, 'Print ID 1234.' The device then generates an exact copy, with one charming detail: the new user's name is automatically added to the title to personalize the shared recipe.

Maintenance

The bottom of the device features a push-to-open mechanism, similar to a ball pen, which reveals a compartment for replacing the thermal paper roll. The device is battery-powered and can be conveniently recharged via USB-C.

The Battle for Countertop

Recognizing that countertop space is highly limited and frequently occupied by essential appliances, the printer was designed to stand in various orientations. Furthermore, its wireless capability ensures users can place the device wherever they want.

Collecting

Naturally, the question arises: what to do with the printed recipes? After researching different collecting habits, I realized that the true charm of a personal recipe collection doesn't lie in the medium itself, but rather in the unique, 'organized chaos' which develops over time.
To avoid forcing a rigid system onto the user, the printer simply comes with a small clip. This provides an immediate starting point to gather the prints, while giving users the ultimate freedom to curate and organize their collection however they see fit.