Product Requirements Document
Global Flavor Archive is a B2C subscription platform that tells the stories of world cuisines through the lens of human migration. Every recipe in our archive is connected to a migration narrative — explaining who brought this dish, from where, to where, and how it transformed along the way. The platform combines an AI-powered recipe discovery engine, an intelligent ingredient substitution system, and curated cultural context to help users explore the living history of food.
In a world where 281 million people live outside their country of birth and every one of them carries culinary memories, Global Flavor Archive transforms diaspora food culture into a discoverable, shareable, and deeply engaging experience. Our mission is to ensure that when someone cooks a dish, they also understand the journey that made it possible.
Food Tech Cultural Heritage AI/ML D2C SaaS Migration Studies
Age 34, Toronto
Born in Mumbai, raised in London, now in Toronto. Priya misses her grandmother's dal but can't find the right lentils. She wants to recreate authentic South Asian dishes using local Canadian ingredients without sacrificing the flavors of home.
Goals: Find familiar recipes with local substitutions. Learn the history behind her family's dishes. Share recipes with her daughter so the culture survives.
Pain points: Generic recipe sites strip out cultural context. Substitution apps don't understand why certain spices matter.
Age 28, Berlin
Marcus has no migration background but is obsessed with food history. He stumbled onto the story of döner kebab (invented in Berlin by Turkish immigrants) and went down a rabbit hole. Now he wants to understand every dish's origins.
Goals: Discover unexpected food histories. Cook dishes from unfamiliar cultures. Learn geopolitical history through recipes.
Pain points: Food media focuses on restaurant culture, not home cooking. No single resource explains the migration story behind dishes.
Age 41, Melbourne
David's parents are from Sicily. He grew up eating Italian food but never learned to cook properly. Now with young kids, he wants to pass down the family recipes before they're lost — but his nonna's recipes are in her head, not written down.
Goals: Document family recipes. Understand the Sicilian roots of his family's dishes. Find a way to cook authentic food without his nonna standing over his shoulder.
Pain points: Authentic Italian recipes online are often Americanized. Hard to find Sicilian-specific content.
Age 45, Chicago
High school history teacher who uses food as a lens to teach immigration and cultural exchange. She wants primary sources, migration maps, and recipes her students can actually make in a classroom setting.
Goals: Find curriculum-ready food history content. Show students how immigration shapes everyday life. Make history tangible and delicious.
Pain points: Educational resources about food and migration are scattered, often academic, rarely practical for cooking in a classroom.
The heart of Global Flavor Archive is a curated, searchable database of recipes tied to specific migration journeys. Unlike generic recipe platforms, every recipe here carries provenance — a chain of custody from origin culture through migration to present-day home.
Every dish has a story. Our editorial team and community contributors document the migration narrative behind each recipe — who made the original dish, why it migrated, what changed, what stayed the same, and who keeps it alive today.
The single most requested feature from diaspora cooks: "I have X but not Y — what do I use?" Our AI engine understands not just the chemical properties of ingredients but their cultural and functional role in a recipe.
Built on top of our ingredient database, the flavor pairing engine suggests complementary dishes from related or surprising migration paths — connecting a Korean bibimbap to a Mexican bibimbap-style rice bowl that emerged in LA's Korean-Mexican fusion scene.
Context transforms cooking into understanding. Each recipe comes with layers of cultural context that go beyond a simple backstory paragraph.
| Feature | Free | Pro ($5/mo) | Explorer ($15/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recipe archive (500 recipes) | ✓ | ✓ (5,000+) | ✓ (all + early access) |
| Migration story per recipe | ✓ (summary) | ✓ (full) | ✓ + audio narration |
| AI substitution engine | 5/day | Unlimited | Unlimited + dietary layer |
| Flavor pairing engine | — | ✓ | ✓ + meal planner |
| Cultural context layer | Basic | Full | Full + community stories |
| Interactive migration maps | — | ✓ | ✓ + downloadable |
| Personal recipe vault | 10 recipes | Unlimited | Unlimited + family tree linking |
| Export recipes (PDF) | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Classroom/educator mode | — | — | ✓ |
| Tier | Price | Target User | Key Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 /month | Curious browsers, first-time diaspora cooks | Taste before you subscribe. 500 recipes, basic migration stories, 5 AI substitutions/day. |
| Pro | $5 /month | Serious home cooks, food enthusiasts | Full archive + unlimited AI substitutions + flavor pairing + personal vault. |
| Explorer | $15 /month | Dedicated foodies, educators, cultural researchers | Everything in Pro + audio narration + meal planner + classroom mode + downloadable maps. |
Annual billing: Pro = $50/yr (2 months free), Explorer = $150/yr (2 months free). Family plans (up to 4 users) available at 1.5× annual price. Educational institution pricing available on request.
"Migration Stories Read" — the single metric that captures both engagement breadth (are people exploring?) and depth (are they connecting with the cultural content?). This directly ties to our core value proposition: turning recipe users into food history enthusiasts.