Three friends from Boston have created Tender, a food-centric play on the popular dating app. Users still swipe, except this time it's on images linked to recipes, and not on potential dates. If a user swipes right, the recipe is saved to their "cookbook" which they can access at any time.
Tender also has filters for drinks, desserts, vegan, vegetarian, pork, beef, and, seafood. Jordan Homan, Necco Ceresani, and David Blumenfield-who met as freshman roommates at the College of Charleston in South Carolina and bonded over going out and cooking food. "As a twenty-something, we are all constantly combating the impulse to just eat-out or pick something up," "But Tender gets you psyched about the prospect of making food, and it makes it easy to do so." The app provides users not just with an endless scroll of the Internet's food porn, but also their corresponding recipes. If users are interested in the pictured dish, drink, or dessert, they swipe right and save the recipe to their "Cookbook" where they can access the recipe and its original link. If they aren't interested, they can swipe left to discard the recipe and scroll on to the next one.
The idea of Tender was born in the South End last fall, where the three postgrads were reunited. Cersani, who had worked in restaurants during college, originally proposed the idea, and Homan and Blumenfield immediately agreed to join him.
They then spent their free time cooped up during Boston's snowy winter, repeatedly pitching and refining pieces until they had something ready to show the world, just in time for spring.
So far the main feedback has been, "It's so addicting," Homan said. According to Homan, they've added more than 200 accounts in the last week, mostly in the Boston area so far. Homan said the app has also personally expanded his horizons. From browsing a few particular food sites to finding recipes and cuisines he never would have discovered, the app has revealed many surprising meals.
"How often do you really think, 'God, I could go for Indonesian tonight?'" Homan said. "But when you get smacked in the face with a picture that looks so appetizing it is hard to say no to at least giving it a try. " Tender-again not to be confused with its dating counterpart Tinder-has filter options for drinks, dessert, chicken, pork, beef, seafood, vegan, and vegetarian. Homan said swiping picks up the most just around commute time.Homan says they designed Tender for young adults, who have some cooking knowledge and an intention of eating out less. But they have been surprised by how well the app has taken hold among an older demographic.
