About Smaquli
Smaquli was born from a frustration you may recognise: you save recipes, and when you want to cook, you can’t find them.
Where it started
It started with Instagram. We’d see tasty recipes go by and save them, or send them to ourselves. After that we never looked at them again. And when we wanted to cook, we couldn’t find them: we didn’t remember what the recipe was called, there was no filter, and we didn’t even know where we had saved it. Sometimes the recipe was only in the video and not in the caption, or the video had gone offline.
And if we did find one, it served four, while there are two of us. So we converted everything ourselves, on the back of an envelope, and the steps still had the amounts for four.
We love cooking and baking, and keep trying new things, from kitchens of all kinds of countries and cultures. The inspiration comes from social media. What we wanted wasn’t another cookbook, but a clear recipe to follow, in one recipe book of our own.
That’s why we built Smaquli, first for our own household of two. We used it ourselves, in our own kitchen, before opening it up to others.
from saved to savoured
The name
Smaquli is smaak (taste) and culinair (culinary) in one Dutch word, with a q.
Who’s behind it
Smaquli is a small company from Bussum, in the Netherlands. We build the app ourselves, and we cook and write the recipes on this site ourselves. The recipes and articles are by Lydia Louter.
More about Lydia LouterA question or an idea? Feel free to email us at info@smaquli.com.
Why a web app
Smaquli is a web app. You open it in the browser and add it to your home screen, on Android and on iPhone. After that it works like an app, but without an app store.
- You install it in a few taps, without an app store account.
- You get new versions by themselves; there’s nothing to update.
- On Android, Smaquli appears in the share menu once installed, just like a regular app. On iPhone you share with a Shortcut.
- Android and iPhone get the same app at the same time.
The downside: you won’t find Smaquli in the App Store or on Google Play. Get started explains how to install it.
Go to Get startedWhat we do with your data
In plain English; the precise version is in the privacy statement.
- The app runs on our own server in the Netherlands. We only store your password as a hash, never readable.
- To get a recipe out of a link, video or recording, Smaquli uses AI models. They only get the recipe, not your name or email address. Training and storage are switched off at the service that provides those models.
- We don’t keep videos. We keep a voice recording until it has been written out, and not after that.
- Payments go through a payment service. Card and bank details never reach us.
- Your recipes are yours: you can always export them.
- On this website we only measure visits if you give permission.