~/sajjad $ cat projects/recipe-bot
← cd ../projects
Systems
Kitchen recipe assistant
Live · Aug 2026AI assistant
A chef wanted any recipe from any cuisine on her phone, instantly. I built her a chat bot that answers in seconds with ingredients and method only. The instructions behind it are hidden from the user, and it runs for pennies on infrastructure the business already paid for.
Routes ruled out
- A shared AI workspace was ruled out because anyone with access can read the instructions, so the prompt would never stay private.
- A WhatsApp bot was dropped because the business verification needed to use it wasn’t available to the business.
- What shipped is a Telegram bot whose webhook calls a serverless function on the business’s existing telephony account. The function calls the model through the API, not a consumer subscription.
Designed for the user
The chef is experienced, so every reply is ingredients and method in metric, under 300 words. There are no storage tips or safety lectures on every reply. Allergens are a command away when they matter.
The prompt and both keys are stored as server-side environment variables, so the person using the bot can never see or change them. There’s no new hosting bill, and nothing to install beyond a chat app she already had.