The story of 105 foods, told in pictures
Cinematic pictures, true stories, and real laughs, from the first spark of a cooking fire to the plate in front of you.
Bread through eight eras
Every milestone in the app comes with its own picture, set in its own place and time, and a caption that earns a smile. Here is bread's grand tour, era by era.
No oven, no farm, no recipe. Somebody made bread anyway, and archaeologists found the crumbs.
Dough left out on a warm Nile day came back puffed up. Bakers called it a loaf; the pyramid crews called it payday.
Rome loved its bakers so much it never let them quit. The job passed from father to son, whether the son liked dough or not.
Sneak chalk into your flour and the market inspector would catch you with nothing more than a bowl of water.
With butter, eggs, and milk off the menu for Lent, bakers made do with flour, water, salt, and a very fancy knot: the pretzel.
Steel rollers peeled wheat clean. The flour came out snow white, and the vitamins left with the bran.
A loaf that once needed all night now needed an afternoon. High-speed mixers did the waiting.
Stuck at home, millions of people adopted a pet. It lived in a jar, ate flour, and bubbled when it was happy.
The collection
First Bite opens seven complete foods for free. Each volume opens a whole food family, from Crust & Crumb to Tin, Frost & Rocket, and the Complete Series opens all ten: eight eras and two million years of kitchens, from the first controlled fire to the 3D food printer.
Lit in gold: the seven foods you can open in full with First Bite, free.
Inside the app
No login, no loading screen, no internet. Open the app and you are already standing in the Time Machine.
Travel two million years on a single timeline, from the first controlled fire to the 3D food printer. Eight eras, each with its own natural soundscape, and a world map that traces every food's journey along rivers, trade routes, and sea lanes.
Explore
All 105 foods in ten families, with instant search across names, places, and milestones. Every food opens into a full chapter: timeline, myths, a story, a recipe, and a quiz.
Sixty-three objects that shaped the kitchen, from the saddle quern and the clay tannur to the yakhchal ice house, the samovar, and the microwave oven.
Play
Pick a year and a place and see what could really be on the table, and what could not. No tomatoes in ancient Rome. No potatoes in Paris in 1400.
Type a birth year and meet the foods and kitchen inventions born that year, then turn the answer into a card worth sending.
Test yourself on one food or the whole library. Send a friend a challenge code and dare them to beat your score. A perfect round ends in fireworks.
Make & share
Animated explainers show what heat, water, and time do to food: the gluten network that holds a loaf together, the Maillard reaction that browns a crust, the ice crystals that make or ruin ice cream.
A real historical recipe for every food, adapted for a modern kitchen, with a converter for old weights and measures and a scaler for any number of guests.
Export any timeline, Before & After, or did-you-know as a crisp 1080 × 1350 image, sized for Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.
From the bread chapter
Bread in ten moments
Bread is 4,000 years older than farming. The proof: a Jordanian fireplace.
Food Birthday
Enter any year, from the Stone Age to today, and we'll find the closest milestone in a small sample of the app's timeline. The app itself searches all 105 foods.
Try
Your food birthday
1928
Bread
The greatest thing since... itself
Chillicothe, Missouri · July 7, 1928
The first commercially sliced loaves ran through Otto Rohwedder's machine, and toaster sales soared right along with them.
An example. Enter a year to find yours.
Every chapter is told like a great tour: witty captions, playful titles, and stories that end in a grin. The facts stay true; the delivery is pure fun.
Rain, a crackling hearth, a ship's bell, an oven door. No melodies and no instruments, and every sound can be muted.
Every image shows food, tools, ovens, maps, and landscapes. No people and no animals, anywhere in the app.
No account, no ads, no subscription. After a one-time activation, it never needs the internet again.
Pricing
Start free, add the volumes you love at $9.97 each, or take all ten at once. Every purchase is a one-time payment, yours for life.
Free
Seven foods, the Time Machine, the Utensil Museum. Just your name and email.
No card needed. Payhip emails your download link.
Launch price
$49.97
Regular price $79.97
All ten volumes and all 105 foods for about half the price of buying them one by one.
Secure checkout by Payhip. Your license key arrives by email right after purchase.
Ten volumes, one per food family, $9.97 each. Keys stack: every volume you add opens inside the same app.
Volume 1
Bakery, Grains & Pastries
12 foods, including Pizza, Pretzel, and Bagel
Volume 2
Confections, Sweets & Frozen
12 foods, including Chocolate, Ice Cream & Gelato, and Baklava
Volume 3
Beverages & Infusions
11 foods, including Coffee, Tea, and Hot Cocoa
Volume 4
Dairy, Cheeses & Fats
9 foods, including Cheese, Yogurt & Kefir, and Olive Oil
Volume 5
Meats, Seafood & Preservation
12 foods, including Hamburger, Sushi, and Fried Chicken
Volume 6
Spices, Sauces & Condiments
12 foods, including Ketchup, Chili Peppers, and Saffron
Volume 7
Soups, Stews & Composite Dishes
10 foods, including Ramen & Instant Noodles, Hummus, and Tacos & Burritos
Volume 8
Fruits, Vegetables & Strategic Crops
10 foods, including Potatoes, Tomatoes, and Avocado
Volume 9
Snacks, Nuts & Street Food
8 foods, including Popcorn, French Fries, and Cotton Candy & Marshmallow
Volume 10
Food Tech & Modern Innovations
9 foods, including Space Food, Breakfast Cereals, and 3D Printed Food
One app for everything. Payhip emails your download link with First Bite and every purchase. Need the installer again on a new computer? Open your Payhip receipt, or claim First Bite again below.
Buyers get the macOS and Linux builds at no extra cost when they ship; the same key works everywhere.
Questions
Activation or transfer question? The support page walks through every step.
First Bite is free and opens seven foods completely, plus the Time Machine and the Utensil Museum. Each of the ten volumes opens one food family, eight to twelve foods, for $9.97. The Complete Series opens all ten volumes and all 105 foods.
Yes. Your volumes stay yours, and every new key adds to the same app. If you decide to get the Complete Series, email us and we will send a coupon worth $9.97 for each volume you already own, up to three.
Yes. You pay once and the license is yours for life. There is no subscription, no account, and nothing to renew.
Only once. When you enter your license key, the app makes a single online activation. After that it runs completely offline, on a plane, in a classroom, or anywhere else.
Yes. Open Settings & License on the old computer and choose Release this device, then activate the new computer with the same key. If the old computer is lost or broken, email us and we will move the license for you.
Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit) today. macOS (Apple silicon and Intel) and 64-bit Linux builds are on the way, free for every buyer, and the same key will work on them. It is a desktop app; phones and tablets are not supported yet.
Yes. No pork and no alcohol are used in any recipe, and the classic substitutes are named.
Yes. The writing is witty and family-safe, and the quizzes and Food Birthday cards work well in class. For a classroom license, write to support@velunapress.com.
Every food cites its sources. Where historians disagree, the app gives the mainstream view and says plainly that the point is disputed. Legends are labeled as legends.
Try First Bite first; it is the same app. If a purchase still will not run on your computer, email us within 30 days for a full refund.
