In one of the earliest culinary moments of lore, Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden for biting into a fruit from the tree of knowledge.

In recent years, the proliferation of smartphone applications and websites dealing with food, menus, and restaurants has made literal this biblical link between food and knowledge—from apple to Apple.

According to computer science professor Ryan P. Adams, food-based sites have been popping up since the beginning of the internet’s history.

“I think evolution has programmed us to crave information in the same way that it causes us to crave calorie-rich foods,” Adams said.

With the growing popularity of online restaurant review sites such as Yelp and Urbanspoon, Harvard entrepreneurs—ranging from experienced businessmen to new programmers working on class projects—have tapped into this common desire to unite food and technology.

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Laurent Adamowicz, former chairman and CEO of Paris-based luxury food company Fauchon, has vivid memories of his first exposure to the less savory side of the food industry. A grisly visit to a slaughterhouse during his time at Fauchon focused his attention on food production—and sparked his desire to create a tool to show diners the often hidden ingredients and sources of their food.

After coming to Harvard as a senior fellow at the University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative, Adamowicz launched his project, called Bon’App, in May.

The free website and smartphone application keeps track of users’ food intake and offers information about those foods’ ingredients and nutritional values on the go. Adamowicz calls it “a personal nutritionist in your pocket.”

“When I see 38 ingredients in a piece of bread, I don’t want to buy it,” he said. “It will tell you what’s in the food before you eat it, rather than entering the data afterward. We are more about prevention.” He added that while competing apps emphasize dieting and losing weight, Bon’App focuses instead on making healthy choices.

In August, Adamowicz added a voice activation feature, which allows users to simply say a menu item aloud and, within seconds, view a list of local restaurants offering that item, as well as its calorie, fat, and sugar content. Users can also personalize the app to display food items satisfying their allergies or personal preferences.

“It’s not just that I can see the food around me—I can use Yelp for that—but it chooses the food that’s right for me,” Adamowicz said.

Bon‘App aims to present that information in an easily readable format. For example, the app represents calorie intake as a battery that starts at green in the morning then turns yellow and red as the user eats up the daily limit.

Since he is spending this year at Harvard, Adamowicz first launched the app for the Boston and Cambridge market. Currently, Bon’App stores information about 139,000 menu items from most restaurants in Cambridge, around 300 restaurants in Boston, and 103,000 chain restaurants nationwide.

It also includes menu items from Harvard University Dining Services. Students can look up nutrition facts for the day’s entrée items before they walk into the dining hall, and the app places their favorite items—from red spiced chicken to pumpkin gnocchi—at the top of the list.