Yard Kitchen is a digital cookbook with one job: keep the old-time Jamaican recipes alive in a form a new generation will actually open. Many of these dishes — Blue Draws, Mannish Water, Stew Peas, Toto, Gizzada — were never written down. They were taught hand to hand on a Saturday morning, over a Dutch pot, by a grandmother who measured everything by eye. When that generation goes, the recipes go with them. Yard Kitchen exists so they don’t.
Who’s behind it
Yard Kitchen is a project of AMDR Foundation Inc, a non-profit organization registered in the State of Georgia, USA. We work at the intersection of culture, technology, and food preservation. Reach us at info@amdrfoundation.org.
How the cookbook works
Yard Kitchen Volume 1 contains 14 traditional Jamaican recipes presented as a 3D book you can flip through in your browser. Each recipe has four pages: the story behind the dish, the ingredient list, the method, and a plating page with sides and serving suggestions.
Two AI cooking assistants stand by while you cook. Granny Miss Vie is the patient one — she’ll tell you why your dumplings turned out tough, what to substitute when you can’t find scotch bonnet, and which step your auntie always skipped. Chef Marcus is the technical one — measurements, temperatures, timing, why the chemistry works. Either one will answer questions in plain language while you’ve got flour on your hands.
A built-in cook-along mode walks you through one step at a time, with timers for each stage, so you don’t lose your place. A shopping listcollects ingredients across recipes and exports to your favourite grocery service.
Why “Yard”
In Jamaican English, “yard” means home. The yard is where the cooking actually happens — the back step, the outdoor kitchen, the Dutch pot on the fire. Yard Kitchen is named for that place: not the restaurant, not the cookbook on the shelf, but the kitchen you grew up in.