Your stomach grumbles as you mindlessly walk toward the refrigerator. Opening the door with great anticipation all you find in the sad abyss of a cold storage box is an onion, a few eggs, chicken breast, and a bell pepper. 

Before you slam the door in disappointment and order takeout from your favorite restaurant, you remember the app you recently downloaded. You quickly take a photo of the contents of your fridge and within seconds the app generates a variety of recipe options you can make.

This is the vision behind YouChef, an app idea initially conceived by UNLV students Allister Dias (business), Christen Smith (hospitality), and Vianey Lozoya (architecture) that uses artificial intelligence to help users save money and prevent food waste.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 2023 the average American is spending 12.4% of their household budget on food and 30-40% of it ends up in the trash can. One in eight Americans experience food insecurity while $200 billion is spent on food that will never be eaten (Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, 2022).

A Class Project Becomes a Business Idea

Though Dias, Smith, and Lozoya had different majors, Lee Business School’s Global Entrepreneurship Experience program brought them together. The four-year, cohort-style program teaches students about international entrepreneurship all while earning a minor in entrepreneurship. During the spring semester of their first year at UNLV, the three were grouped together and tasked with coming up with an idea that would solve a social problem as part of the program’s annual Innovation Tournament.

“We got to know each other throughout the year, said Smith. “I call Allister my equal in male form. He is mathematical, and I am creative.”

Each member brought their own ideas to the table. Dias had been contemplating how to prevent food waste since high school. Lozoya had an idea for a meal-planning app. Smith brought a passion for all things culinary with a hospitality twist. Together with their blended brainpower the first iteration of YouChef was born.

“It wasn't until I came to UNLV that I found people who are willing to run with me on the idea, and really make it a possibility," Dias said.

They created a prototype of an app that with a scan of your fridge would spit out recipe ideas based on the available ingredients. This concept won the Innovation Challenge. 

With a large dose of encouragement and the support of their GEE professor Chad Ramos, the team decided to take what they learned and enter the TechStars Startup Vegas competition in November 2022. The annual event gives local entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch an idea to a room of entrepreneurial-minded people with a variety of backgrounds and skills. Participants vote for their favorite ideas and then spend the next 52 hours bringing the idea to life. 

Smith pitched YouChef. 

It was chosen as one of the 20 concepts that would be the focus of the startup competition that weekend. It was at this point that alumnus David Duval, Victor Evangelista, and Emanuel Costa joined the team. Costa developed the website; Duval and Evangelista took on the coding.

“Over that weekend we connected with people who were literate in AI, computer programming, and app building, and we really fleshed out the idea,” Dias said.

The hard work accomplished during the tight timeline paid off for the team. Smith and Dias – the youngest participants in the competition – presented and won second place out of 20 startups in addition to the People’s Choice Award. More important than the prizes the team garnered that weekend were the connections made with a variety of entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors that solidified this was an idea worth pursuing.

A Presidential Challenge

With the momentum from winning their second competition, the YouChef team decided to apply to compete in UNLV’s second annual President’s Innovation Challenge. 

The President’s Innovation Challenge is a multidisciplinary team competition that encourages social and business entrepreneurship to help solve major problems in Southern Nevada and beyond. This year’s competition commenced in the fall of 2022 with 16 teams submitting proposals to find solutions for a more sustainable future. Six teams advanced to the final round to compete for the $25,000 grand prize.

The winning trio rounded out their team for the competition with the additions of engineering student Ferris Ferris and business student Richard Palenik. Ferris specializes in computer software and Palenik, an alumnus of the UNLV MBA program, holds multiple patents and is a successful business owner. Additionally, Ian McDonough, associate professor of economics and S.J. Faculty Fellow, joined the team as their faculty advisor.

With the focus on sustainability, YouChef had to look at their idea in a new fresh way.

“We added the carbo footprint calculator which allows users to see the impact of their food choices on the environment," said Smith. “If you choose vegetarian versus meat or even chicken compared to beef, will show you what those choices mean in an easy-to-understand way.” 

The app will also offer a food expiration calculator as well as offer users tips about recycling which will help users recycle food waste and containers properly. 

In addition to making YouChef a more Earth-friendly app, the team also made a more conscious effort to address food insecurity. This shift broke the target market wide open.

“The people who shop at grocery stores like Whole Foods have the luxury of worrying about their carbon footprint, whereas people who are worried about where their next meal is coming from most likely aren’t thinking about their environmental impact from food waste,” said McDonough who has focused much of his research on food insecurity. “And the last thing food pantries want is for people to take food just to throw it away. This app has the potential to lighten that burden on food pantries by helping pantry goers maximize usage of the pantry provided food resources.”

The evolution of the app and hard work of the team paid off. YouChef placed second in the President’s Innovation Challenge and won $15,000, which they will use to complete the development of the app.

What’s Next for YouChef

“We intend on launching our app and getting get fully developed later this year, with a planned release of fall 2023 or spring 2024," Dias said.

In the meantime, Smith and Dias will be competing in the Hospitality Sustainability Challenge in Amsterdam this summer. Though YouChef won’t be the entire focus of the competition, it will play a role in their submission.

Upon reflection on the whirlwind of activity over the past two years at UNLV, Smith said this:

“I have learned you don’t have to have one career for your entire life – you can do several things and make them count. I have one life and I don’t want to limit what I can accomplish."