Can't get flotilla to work and no cookbooks

Check out the Getting Started Guide to make sure you are clear on what the different parts that make flotilla are here:

http://forums.pimoroni.com/t/flotilla-unofficial-getting-started-guide/1498/6

Could be the daemon failing to start though, what happens when you type the following in the terminal, right after boot:

/usr/bin/flotilla -d