Everyone who cooks with a phone knows the pain: dough on your fingers, phone screen locked, you have to tap-tap-tap it back on, then squint at 10-point text while the onions burn. It's the reason most people either print recipes or give up mid-way. Cook Mode in FreshGarant is a fullscreen recipe reader designed specifically for this moment.
The 4 things Cook Mode fixes
1. Huge, high-contrast text
Steps are shown one at a time in extra-large text you can read from across the kitchen. No pinch-to-zoom, no squinting at 10-point sans-serif on a wet screen.
2. Screen stays on
The screen never sleeps in Cook Mode. No tapping with sticky fingers. When you finish and exit the mode, normal screen timeout returns.
3. Timer per step
Every step that mentions a time ("simmer for 20 minutes", "bake 45 min") gets an inline start-timer button. Tap once → countdown starts. Buzz when done. No juggling a separate timer app.
4. Distraction-free
No ads, no thumbnails, no scrolling stories about the recipe author's childhood dog. Just: ingredients, current step, next step, timer. That's it.
💡 One-tap next step
A big tap-target at the bottom of the screen advances to the next step. Big enough to hit with your knuckle if your fingers are covered in something.
Cook Mode vs. printing recipes
| Cook Mode | Printed recipe | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | 1 tap | Find recipe → print → find printout |
| Text size | Adjustable, large default | Fixed to whatever printer produced |
| Timers | Built-in per step | Separate timer app / stopwatch |
| Update mid-cooking | Instant | Reprint everything |
| Portability | Always on your phone | Sits at the counter, lost after |
| Waste | Zero paper | 1 page per recipe |
How it works in practice
- Open any recipe in FreshGarant (from your saved library, "What can I cook?" or an AI-generated one)
- Tap Cook in the top-right corner
- The recipe transforms into a fullscreen reader with:
- Ingredient list on the first slide
- One step per swipe
- Big timer button when a duration is mentioned
- Progress bar at the top so you know where you are
- Tap the big "Next" area at the bottom or swipe left to advance
- Screen stays on throughout — no interruption
Best paired with AI recipes and "What can I cook?"
Cook Mode is designed to complete the loop:
- See what's about to expire (home screen)
- Ask Gemini for a recipe using those ingredients (AI Recipe)
- Cook hands-free with the generated recipe (Cook Mode)
End result: less food wasted, less phone-tapping, better meals.
🍳 Kitchen-tested defaults
Text size, brightness boost and portrait lock are all tuned for standing at a counter with a phone propped up. You can tweak them, but the defaults just work.
Small extras that matter
- Portrait lock — phones on a counter shouldn't randomly rotate to landscape when you brush past
- Wake lock — screen stays on regardless of your system settings, only in Cook Mode
- No notifications — incoming calls still ring, but banners and toasts are suppressed so you don't lose your place
- Servings scaler — cooking for 6 instead of 4? Adjust once, all ingredient amounts scale automatically before you enter Cook Mode
🍳 Cook Mode is PRO — try 7 days free
Cook Mode is part of FreshGarant PRO along with the AI Photo Fridge scanner, AI recipes and cloud backup. Start the free 7-day trial and cook your first hands-free meal tonight.
Download freeSummary
Cooking with a phone shouldn't mean tapping a locked screen with your elbow. Cook Mode turns any recipe in FreshGarant into a hands-free, big-text, always-on kitchen companion — with timers built into each step. Pair it with AI recipes generated from your fridge, and you've got the modern cook's ultimate combo.