Recently we had an opportunity to speak with Cristina Dobson, the Founder at Animatious Labs, LLC about Recipe Selfie

Please share with us the backstory of what motivated you to create this app.

I own tens of chef authored cookbooks because I love cooking at home for my friends and family, and I recognized that many people do as well.

What happens after we buy a great cookbook and spend lots of money on it? We put it with our other cookbooks and forget about it, because it's hard to read all of our cookbooks every day to find our favorite dinner recipe. There's just not enough time in our busy lives.

That's why being able to have all my cookbooks recipes organized and searchable felt like a great idea that users would love and appreciate.

I wanted to make it incredibly easy for users to store their recipes by simply taking some pictures of the recipe and done!

I created Recipe Selfie so everyone around the world can easily find and cook a chef inspired meal from their delicious cookbooks every single day.

What features do you hope to roll out to your app in the future?

The future will bring Apple TV to help the user look at their recipes on their kitchen tv without the necessity of holding a mobile device while cooking. Just turn on your tv and launch the app with your favorite recipes.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of the creation of this app?

Hearing from people around the world how they can cook chef inspired recipes every day and make good use of their money spent on cookbooks. They love being able to pamper their family and friends with delicious meals.

It makes me so happy knowing people are enjoying cooking at home as much as I do.

What is the coolest or most innovative feature of your app?

The Recipe Selfie app contains a great system to organize your cookbook recipes efficiently.

- You decide how to categorize your recipes, either by cuisine, ingredient, food restriction, and many other creative ways.

- Storing a cookbook recipe is as easy as taking a photo. Each recipe can hold up to 5 photos with cooking instructions and ingredient lists.

- Each photo can be edited with mouth-watering filters and cropped to eliminate unwanted white space.

- You can also sync to your iCloud account and share your recipes across devices.

- You can create dining menus with your favorite recipes for special occasions as well.

What surprised you most in your journey to create this app?

The most surprising thing has been for me to see how the app idea has evolved from beginning to end. It feels amazing to keep getting ideas for cool new features when your app is being tested by users, friends and family. The support from everyone to make Recipe Selfie better and more enjoyable keeps you motivated to push till the end.

Do you have any recommendations or advice for others wanting to create a mobile app?

When you have a great idea that will make people's life easier and/or happier, never give up on your dream to make it a reality. Improving people's life it's the most satisfying reward you can ever get.

How did you decide which platforms to release your app on and do you plan on releasing your app to other platforms?

I decided on releasing the app on iOS as a start to offer app users the opportunity to sync their recipes with their iCloud account across all their mobile devices, and make use of other Apple technologies such as the Apple TV. More platforms will come in the near future.

How is your app different than the rest of the market? Which unique need does it fill?

Recipe Selfie distinguishes itself from other recipe organizer apps by helping users to make great use of their amazing cookbook collections.

I felt typing each recipe word by word is a hassle, so I made it my goal to make it easy for users to store their recipes. Simply take pictures of the recipe and you're done!

Cookbook recipes contain many instructions and visual aides, that's why each recipe can contain up to 5 photos.

You don't have to read all your cookbooks to find the recipe you are craving for. Just search it on your Recipe Selfie app.

Which other mobile apps or technology have inspired you?

Other recipe organizers apps helped me visualize how important they are to have in a home cook's life. My love for cooking inspired me to create new cool features for cookbook lovers like me.

I dreamt of features to facilitate a passionate home cook to create delicious meals every day from their favorite chefs no matter how busy their lives might get.

You can view Recipe Selfie here