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Browse public cookbooks (Explore tab)

The Explore tab is where you find recipes outside your own cookbook — trending community cookbooks, recipes by topic, food creators worth following. It’s Forktastic’s read-only side; nothing here happens in your own account until you decide to save a recipe or follow a cookbook.

Explore tab showing trending cookbooks and All Public cookbooks.

What’s on the Explore tab

The Explore tab is the fifth icon in the bottom bar. From top to bottom:

  1. Search bar — search across all public recipes and cookbooks.
  2. Trending cookbooks carousel — a rotating list of cookbooks getting a lot of attention this week. Tap any to open it.
  3. Category chips — quick filters like “Vegetarian”, “Quick weeknight”, “Baking”, “Healthy”, “Comfort food”.
  4. Featured recipes — individual recipes curated by the Forktastic team, refreshed weekly.
  5. Creator spotlight — a public creator profile of the week.

Tap the search bar and type. Forktastic matches your query against:

  • Recipe titles (“garlic butter chicken”)
  • Ingredients (“zucchini” — finds every public recipe with zucchini)
  • Cookbook names (“vegan dinners”)
  • Creator names (“Mark V”)

Results are split into Recipes, Cookbooks, and Creators tabs. Tap any result to open it.

Filter by category

Tap a category chip (e.g., “Vegetarian”) to filter the entire Explore tab to that category. Tap All at the top of the filtered view to clear.

You can combine categories with search: pick “Vegetarian”, then search “pasta”, and you’ll get vegetarian pasta recipes.

Browse a public cookbook

Public cookbook detail with Following button

Tap any public cookbook in Explore to open it. The public cookbook view shows:

  • Cookbook name and cover image
  • Creator name and avatar
  • Recipe count and follower count
  • Follow button — see Follow a cookbook
  • Description — what the cookbook is about
  • Recipe list — every recipe in the cookbook

You can open and view any recipe in a public cookbook without saving it. The recipe screen looks the same as one of your own, with one change: the action bar has a Save to my cookbook button instead of the family-share / edit / delete actions.

Save a public recipe to your cookbook

  1. Open the recipe in Explore.
  2. Tap Save to my cookbook.
  3. Pick which of your cookbooks to save it into.
  4. Tap Save.

The recipe is copied into your account with the original creator’s name attributed. It now counts toward your free-tier 5-recipe limit (same as any import).

Public profile vs your private cookbooks

Making your own cookbooks public (so others can find you in Explore) is opt-in. By default, your cookbooks are private to you and your family. You can make individual cookbooks public from the cookbook settings — see the Share section in Share cookbooks and recipes with family (note: family-share and public-share are different toggles).

Most users keep all their cookbooks private. Publishing a public cookbook is a deliberate choice for users who want to share their cooking style with the community.

Reporting content

If you find a recipe in Explore that’s spam, inappropriate, or violates someone’s rights, tap More → Report on the recipe. Forktastic reviews reports and takes appropriate action.