The Modernist Food MCP connects Claude, Cursor and any MCP-compatible assistant to our molecular flavor engine — 12 tools for ingredient pairing, dish analysis and fermentation design, straight from the chat window.
https://mcp.modernist.food/sse WHY CONNECT IT
Not a chatbot guessing at flavor — a live query into a real molecular database, returned as structured data your AI can reason over.
Pairings come from shared aroma compounds and a salt / acid / fat / heat (SAFH) taste model — not vibes. Every match cites the compounds behind it.
A remote MCP server — add it once to Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or any MCP client and ask in plain language. No SDK, no local install.
Search, pair, analyze whole dishes, design ferments, then export JSON or render a shareable graph PNG — chained automatically by the model.
Standards-based OAuth 2.0 with PKCE — the same flow Claude's native connectors use. Authorize in a click; no API keys to manage.
QUICK START
Pick your client. The endpoint is the same everywhere: mcp.modernist.food.
Add it as a custom connector — Claude handles the OAuth sign-in for you.
# Name Modernist Food
# Remote MCP server URL
https://mcp.modernist.food/sse
# Then click "Connect" and approve the OAuth prompt.Works in Claude.ai (web), Claude Desktop and the Claude mobile apps wherever custom connectors are available.
One command in your terminal:
claude mcp add --transport sse modernist-food https://mcp.modernist.food/sseThen run /mcp inside Claude Code to complete the OAuth login. Prefer streamable HTTP? Use --transport http https://mcp.modernist.food/mcp.
Add the server to your mcp.json (Cursor: ~/.cursor/mcp.json):
{
"mcpServers": {
"modernist-food": {
"url": "https://mcp.modernist.food/sse"
}
}
}For stdio-only clients, bridge with mcp-remote: set "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.modernist.food/sse"].
Two transports, both live. OAuth discovery is served at /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server.
# Streamable HTTP (JSON-RPC) — currently open, no auth
POST https://mcp.modernist.food/mcp
# Server-Sent Events — OAuth-protected (Bearer token)
GET https://mcp.modernist.food/sse
# Health check
GET https://mcp.modernist.food/healthTools return compact JSON by default; pass verbose: true on pairing tools for full compound objects.
THE TOOLBOX
The model picks and chains these on its own. Here's everything it can reach.
Search the ingredient database by name or category. Returns ids, names and categories (verbose adds SAFH taste profiles + compound counts).
Full profile for one ingredient: SAFH taste values, category and aroma compound names (verbose returns full compound objects with families + CAS numbers).
Molecular pairings for an ingredient, scored by shared aroma compounds. Returns matches with similarity and the actual shared-compound names.
Analyze a set of ingredients as a dish: SAFH balance, the bridge compounds that hold it together, and the weak links.
Suggest ingredients that complete a dish, ranked by how many compounds they share with what you already have.
List every ingredient category with how many ingredients each contains — the lay of the land.
no parametersMint a shareable shortlink that opens the interactive pairing graph at pair.modernist.food with your exact dish, mode and theme.
Render the dish pairing graph to a PNG and return both the image URL and an interactive share link (optional QR code).
Export a dish as structured JSON (ingredients, SAFH, compounds, analysis) — ready to re-import into the web app or pipe elsewhere.
List the fermentation & preservation processes (lacto-ferment, pickle, vinegar, cure, dry, smoke, age) with their taste shift, generated aromas and fault effects.
One process by code with its full transform: aromas it builds and fades, its salt/acid/fat/heat shift, and fault-effect deltas.
Design a ferment from a base vegetable + process: predicted taste shift, aromas it develops and loses, fault risk, and LIVE pairings for the fermented result (cabbage → kimchi, garlic → black garlic).
UNDER THE HOOD
"What pairs with roasted strawberry?" Your assistant recognizes the Modernist Food tools and calls them.
Requests hit our pairing API, which scores ingredients by shared aroma compounds and SAFH taste balance.
Compact JSON — names, similarity scores, bridge compounds, taste deltas — that the model reasons over directly.
A grounded suggestion, an exportable dish, or a shareable graph PNG — with the chemistry to back it up.
TRY IT
MEMBERSHIP
Everything below is unlocked right now — the MCP, the pairing engine, the calculators and every mini-site. Paid tiers are on the way; founding members lock in early access and a better rate.
Open access during the public beta. No account required.
For chefs and developers who lean on this daily.
For teams, R&D kitchens and apps building on the data.
Drop your email and we'll lock in early access and the founding rate before paid tiers go live. No spam, no charge today.
Free to join · we'll only email about access & launch.
QUESTIONS
Yes. The MCP server, the pairing engine, the calculators and every mini-site are open during the public beta — nothing is gated. Founding members just lock in early access and a better rate for when paid tiers arrive.
No paid account or subscription. Connecting just runs a one-click OAuth sign-in that your client handles for you (over https://mcp.modernist.food/sse) — there's no signup form and no payment. Membership is about future premium features (higher limits, saved dishes, team seats) — not access to the core tools.
Any MCP client. We give copy-paste setup for Claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor / Windsurf above, and the raw endpoints work with anything that speaks MCP over SSE or streamable HTTP.
Only the ingredient names and dish queries your assistant chooses to look up. Tools return compact JSON from our molecular database; we don't see your wider conversation.
Remove the connector in your client's settings (or revoke it from your account's connected apps) and access stops there. Tokens are short-lived and expire on their own, so there's nothing lingering to clean up.
One URL. Twelve tools. Zero setup beyond a copy-paste.