The company was founded by University of Washington archaeology students Tim Hunt, Carl Lipo, Mark Madsen, Michael Pfeffer, David Quinn, and Dan Shepherd.

The recipe sharing and cooking community website began as an offshoot of one of Seattle's first web companies, Emergent Media.

[3][4][2] The core of the small founding team consisted of Yann Oehl, Kala Kushnik, Ursula Dalzell, and Sydny Carter.

Other categories include methods (such as grilling or baking), occasions, cooking style, and recipes for specific holidays.

"[10] In September 2015, Allrecipes.com launched a revamped website as part of a broader transformation into a social networking service for food lovers.