EPICURE TASTE
July 2017
What is Epicure Taste?
After going through two weeks of difficult yet intriguing lessons about web development, our Google Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI) instructors gave us a fun way to apply what we have learned: work in groups of three to create a website of our design.
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I worked with two talented ladies, Sara Kvaska and Sarah Weyand, and we developed web app from scratch to create Epicure Taste. It is website that enables you to find recipes from ingredients, helping you decide what to do with the food lying around your kitchen.
Home page of web app
How does it Work?
Epicure Taste has three components: searching for a recipe by ingredient, search for a recipe by title, and submitting a recipe.
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When searching by ingredient, the user inputs an ingredient of a recipe (e.g. eggs). After that, a list of recipe links in our database that contain that ingredient is returned to the user.
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When searching by title, the user is greeted with a search bar and a list of links to all the recipes in our database. The user can either scroll through or search recipes.
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The final feature is submitting a recipe. It enables users to contribute to our database, and help others find interesting foods to make!
A Learning Experience...
Google's CSSI was my first "formal" introduction to Computer Science, and it was like jumping off the deep end of a pool. In two weeks, I was taught HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, and App Engine, and there wasn't a day where I felt confused and drained. And expecting us to apply this in a final project added to the confusion and drained feelings.
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Despite the difficulties, working on this project was rewarding. I got to work with a dedicated group who shared the same passion I had for CS and I got to learn A LOT about web development. In the end, it felt amazing to stand alongside Sara and Sarah, presenting our work and sharing our story of development, both web and of ourselves.