Toledo entrepreneurs launch family recipe heirloom app

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - For many, pandemic isolation over the last year meant time to pick up new hobbies, including the culinary arts. Now, one local dynamic duo has made it possible to share your family recipes in a unique app that brings the creations to life, made right here in Northwest Ohio.

Toledo natives Chris Kozak and Dan Zawisza created the app called “Dishstory.” After 18 months of building the app, the local team launched it just a couple weeks ago in an effort to people all over the world share their family recipes, but not just in written text – through video and audio. The app allows family members to record, save and share their favorite recipes and keep them forever, passed on from generation to generation, and hundreds of users have already signed up.

“During the pandemic, unfortunately, we couldn’t be with a lot of our loved ones this year with the travel restrictions and everything else, and we basically - you would have that person with you in the kitchen to be able to go over those recipes, and you’d be able to see and hear from them, just like you could in any normal year,” shares Zawisza.

The team raised over $100k to make this dream a reality, using all local businesses.

“Dishtory really came together with the help of several local partners, including Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce Small Business Development Center, JumpStart! And Rocket Launch at the University of Toledo. We’ve got great resources right here in Northwest Ohio who helped create this app to take it to the rest of the world,” shares Kozak.

You can download the app on any IOS or Android device, free in the app store for up to three recipes and just $5 for the unlimited recipe subscription for the year.

“One of the biggest barriers to this is the technology, but what a fun way to do this, to have the granddaughter help her grandmother cook those recipes. They know the technology, the other knows the recipes - I feel like this is a marriage, something they can do together.”

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