A family tradition,
opened to the world
Spin the Globe started at our kitchen table. My wife and I would spin a globe, let a finger land somewhere — a country, then a region, then somewhere smaller still — and cook whatever that place actually eats. That’s how we learned to make a tagine. That’s how strange and wonderful curries entered our lives. And when we shared what we were cooking, the response was always the same: “I wish my family did that.”
So now it can. The globe here spins the same way ours did: continent, country, region, dish. Every recipe is real — from 618 dishes across 201 countries and 6 continents, each with its story, its substitutions for every table, and a passport stamp waiting for the night you cook it.
Spin. Land somewhere unexpected. Learn it while it simmers. Feed the people you love. Collect the world, one dinner at a time.
Who we are
We’re Richard Moore and Kelsey Tucker, the two people behind Spin the Globe. Richard spent over a decade as a line cook and chef across restaurant kitchens, learning authentic techniques and regional flavors firsthand. Kelsey drives the deep cultural research, historical context, and meticulous proofreading, making sure every dish honors its roots while staying completely approachable for home cooks.
Spin the Globe didn’t start as an app — it started in our kitchen. After Richard stepped away from commercial kitchens, we missed the constant variety of exploring global food, so we turned a simple idea into a ritual: spin a digital globe, narrow in on a hyper-specific micro-region, and cook a meal from that exact spot. When we shared the results with friends and family, they kept saying “I wish I could do that.” After years of private development and plenty of failed attempts thrown straight into the junk pile, sharing Spin the Globe with the world is the realization of a project we love.
How we build our recipes
1. Globe spinning & cultural research: we spin a digital globe to pick a random location, then narrow to a specific micro-region. Kelsey researches the history, culture, and traditional ingredients to understand the background of the food.
2. Technique & translation: Richard applies his professional restaurant background to balance flavors and master traditional methods, while Kelsey proofreads and structures the steps so they make sense in a standard home kitchen. Where a classic uses an ingredient a modern kitchen may need to swap, we work out substitutions that respect the original.
3. Real kitchen testing: we cook, taste, and refine every single recipe together. If a dish doesn’t hit the mark, it gets scrapped — only the recipes that pass our real-world testing make it onto the site.
Before any recipe ships, it passes 22 automated quality checks. They enforce, among other things: no duplicate dishes, honest dietary labels (a recipe may only claim “vegan” or “gluten-free” if it truly is, as written), complete step-by-step instructions, a real cultural story, and — most important — that every dietary substitution is safe even in combination, so selecting dairy-free and gluten-free together never leaves a forbidden ingredient behind.
Spin the Globe is made by Richard Moore and Kelsey Tucker. Richard spent over a decade as a line cook and chef across restaurant kitchens, learning authentic techniques and regional flavors firsthand; Kelsey drives the cultural research, historical context, and proofreading. Together they cook, taste, and refine every recipe in their own kitchen — only the dishes that pass their real-world testing make it onto the site.
Questions, answered
How does the spin work?
Tap the globe and it narrows the world in stages — continent, then country, then region — before landing on one authentic dish from that place, exactly like spinning a real globe with your family. You can also set filters first: continent, dietary needs, main ingredient, time, and difficulty.
Can every recipe really be made vegan or gluten-free?
Yes. Every recipe carries hand-written regional substitutions for six dietary needs (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free). Toggle a diet on any recipe and the ingredient list rewrites itself. When a swap changes the character of a dish, we say so honestly.
Are the recipes authentic?
Each dish is a real recipe from a real region, written with its cultural story and attribution — where it comes from, who makes it, and why it matters there. Substitutions favor what home cooks in that region would actually reach for.
What is the culinary passport?
When you cook a dish and review it, its region is stamped in your passport. Stamps build toward continent completion meters and badges, and families can print a fridge passport so kids can check off the world as you cook it together.
What is the Sunday Spin?
Once a week, everyone in the world gets the same featured dish — one shared destination, cooked together across thousands of kitchens. It changes every Monday.