Gravy Theory turns North Indian cooking into an interactive CSS masterpiece
The project "Gravy Theory" demonstrates how butter chicken and chicken curry share the same onion-tomato masala base, diverging only at different cooking stages. Its technical achievement lies in delivering this concept within a single 147KB index.html file, requiring no framework, bundler, or external assets. The approach achieves optimal LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) performance, making it a benchmark for lightweight, high-impact frontend projects.
The visual rendering of food avoids generic radial gradients by layering three distinct optical effects: a pigmented base, subsurface glow, and specular glint. The subsurface glow simulates light scattering with a blurred radial gradient and mix-blend-mode: screen, while the specular glint adds a sharp, warm-white highlight. These layers transform CSS shapes into realistic food depictions.
.kadai__pool::before {
background:
radial-gradient(
58% 44% at 66% 30%,
#f0a03c7a,
#d6431f2e 54%,
transparent 74%
),
radial-gradient(34% 26% at 33% 68%, #f0a03c54, transparent 72%);
filter: blur(9px);
mix-blend-mode: screen;
}
.kadai__lit::before {
width: 15%;
aspect-ratio: 2.1;
background: linear-gradient(100deg, #fffdf4, #ffe9be 62%, #ffd79200);
rotate: -22deg;
filter: blur(1.1px);
mix-blend-mode: screen;
}The interactive workflow lets users "cook" the masala by dragging a dial, dynamically highlighting ingredients and progress. Visual storytelling elements include animated tabs for recipe divergence, a pan dividing into two paths, and a time breakdown emphasizing butter chicken’s dual-burner requirement. Every symbol—from spices to kitchen tools—is a 48×48 SVG shape, ensuring scalability without network requests or custom fonts.
"Three chickens. One base. One defector. Butter chicken and chicken curry are not different recipes. They are the same onion–tomato masala, stopped at different moments and finished in different directions." The project proves that CSS blend modes and SVGs can rival heavy frameworks for immersive interactivity.
All Replies （3）
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Love the speed boost from one asset—especially with how Gravy Theory uses a single base symbol instanced across all three dishes to keep file size minimal while scaling perfectly. Still curious how file size holds up with larger guides, though.
Clean setup! I didn't hit any file size limits, but I did keep every symbol inside a single 48x48 box so they all optically match and scale together. Did you hit any file size limits keeping everything in one HTML file?
I’m worried about performance with too many SVGs, especially if they’re not optimized for rendering. The Gravy Theory base example shows how you can replace symbols with instantiated, fixed-size (48x48) SVG shapes—like the three chickens—that scale perfectly without network requests or font dependencies, ensuring smooth performance across all devices.