I get a lot of emails, recently I got an email about the just-launched iPhone version of the step-by-step cooking app SideChef. It is already soaring up the ranks in the iTunes Food and Drink store as cooks of all levels discover the app loaded with more than 1,000 recipes by more than 100 chefs and top bloggers along with partners Atlanta’s Le Cordon Bleu and Alice Water’s Edible Schoolyard Project.
SideChef differentiates itself from the traditional cooking and recipe apps offering narrated voice guidance to actually read the recipe steps to cooks step by step. Cooks can say “next” or “back” to move forwards or backwards a step. The “Her” voice command technology acts like Siri to calmly read cooks the recipe allowing your hands to be free and cooking to be fun and enjoyable. Automatic timers keep cooks on track as they continuously run on the app as user’s progress through the recipe.
SideChef contains beautiful imagery taken by the masterful chefs themselves and offers connections to cooks of all levels from around the globe. SideChef’s CEO and founder Kevin Yu, former global manager of community development at World of Warcraft, is using gamification and other social features to build a global foodie community with SideChef.
Ok I’ll bite; I gave Side Chef a try. I went to the app store and found the free app. Now you know if I had to pay I was going to keep it moving. One of the first dishes that came up was a turkey. I would say that was timely. I clicked on it and then the voice began to speak instructing me what to do. There was a list of ingredients and the option to turn off the voice. I could also ask a question, take a photo or quit cooking. This would be a very helpful tool for those who cannot cook or those who do not own cook books. Here is a tip the site gave me for the turkey “you must have a meat thermometer, turkey baster and a roasting pan for this recipe. If you don’t have all three, don’t waste your time because you will more than likely be eating extremely dry or undercooked turkey. Both are not recommended.”
This is really a cool site. I got an email about it and a rep from the company who represents it called me. I told her back in August that I would take a look at it and she actually followed up. There are so many different types of recipes I see one for flavored popcorn, Jam shortbread bars and a smoked salmon quiche. The Jam shortbread bars sounds like something I made in Home economics class. I sure wish they would bring home economics back to the high schools. I think this app would come in handy when you have those chicken breasts in the freezer and you are looking for a new way to prepare the chicken. I like that the site walks you through the recipe. Give it a try it’s free.
(Email the columnist at debbienorrell@aol.com)
