# Parsnip

> Parsnip is a New York-based consumer AI startup building the "Duolingo for cooking" - a personalized learning engine that teaches people to cook through short, gamified lessons instead of just handing them recipes. Founded by PhDs Andrew Mao and Dan Sosa, the app maps cooking into a knowledge graph of 400+ skill levels and uses a human-in-the-loop LLM system to generate lessons, teaching the hows and whys behind food so novice cooks gain confidence in the kitchen.

- **Founded:** 2021
- **Headquarters:** New York, New York, United States
- **Founders:** Andrew Mao (Co-Founder & CEO), Dan Sosa (Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** ~16 employees
- **Products:** Parsnip: Learn to Cook (mobile app), Cooking knowledge graph, Human-in-the-loop AI content engine
- **Notable:** 4.9-star rating on both the Apple App Store and Google Play, Over 80,000 downloads across iOS and Android, Backed by Duolingo co-founders Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker

## Products & services

- **Parsnip: Learn to Cook (mobile app)** — A personalized, gamified learning app for iOS and Android that teaches cooking through bite-size lessons. Users earn stars, build streaks, and progress through 400+ skill levels, learning the why behind techniques rather than just following recipes. 4.9-star rated; free tier with limited daily learning plus a premium subscription.
- **Cooking knowledge graph** — A structured graph of cooking skills and concepts that maps how techniques connect. Machine learning can automatically identify the relevant skills for any recipe, forming the backbone of Parsnip's personalized lessons.
- **Human-in-the-loop AI content engine** — An LLM-powered system where AI does roughly 90% of the work generating learning materials - producing lessons for a dozen recipes at once - with humans refining the final output.

## Achievements

- 4.9-star rating on both the Apple App Store and Google Play
- Over 80,000 downloads across iOS and Android
- Backed by Duolingo co-founders Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker
- Grew from zero to 6 million content views in 8 weeks
- Built a cooking knowledge graph with 400+ skill levels
- Selected for StartX's AI cohort

## Latest updates

- **2024-10** — Rolled out a new human-in-the-loop AI content engine where AI produces ~90% of lesson materials, letting the team create learning content for a dozen recipes at once.
- **2023-02** — Closed a seed round backed by Duolingo co-founders and other angels.
- **2024-01** — Reported growth from zero to 6 million content views in 8 weeks and introduced its mascot, Snippy.

## Links

- Website: https://www.parsnip.ai/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/parsnip-ai
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parsnip.ai/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@parsnip.ai

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/parsnip
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-03