I have always enjoyed cooking and food in general. I welcome to thought of experimenting with flavours and trying something new and different…but not too out there. I remember, many years ago, watching my mother pull out all kinds of recipe books from a cupboard, and scuffling through them at break-neck speeds, trying to find the recipe she was looking for. This happened several times a year, when any old recipe just wouldn’t cut it.
In today’s world of technology and inter-connectedness, I set out on a quest to find some new recipes to try out while on holiday. This search, naturally online, opened up a world I had, for some unknown reason, never considered; the web 2.0 cooking world. After finding some great recipes to try out, I started looking deeper and found a world of great social media websites, linking chefs, both professional and self-taught, from around the world, allowing them to share thoughts, tips and recipes with one another.
Below are a few of the websites I found for the budding web 2.0 chef.
Cookstr.com
Cookstr is a relatively new website, indexing recipes by well known chefs and cookbook authors. The recipe search is extensive, from budget search filters all the way through to what season the dish is best suited to and it’s health benefits. I found some great recipes here, including a lemon, lime and peppermint sorbet recipe by Mr. Jamie Oliver that I’ve been itching to try out.
Other features of Cookstr include profile pages for each chef and author, cataloging their work, as well as myCookstr, allowing you to create your own profile, bookmark recipes, make notes and create shopping lists.
Food24.com
24.com’s food division. A great local (South African) network for food enthusiasts and bloggers alike. Food24 has the social aspects, akin to the 24.com website network, and in addition, boasts features such as cooking tutorials and tips, food news, a restaurant directory and blogs relating to food and the development of the food industry. A great local resource for recipes and information from fellow South Africans.
YuppieChef
Yuppiechef specialises in the sale of premium kitchen utensils. Stocking a wide range of kitchen products, from potatoe pealers to dinnerware and frying pans, Yuppiechef has it all. Don’t settle for anything less than the best kitchenware available. Your cooking or baking experience will be greatly enhanced by the quality of the utensils you use. Yuppiechefs aims at a lifestyle, rather than just a run of the mill buy and sell store. Create a lifestyle in your kitchen with premium grade kitchenware at an affordable price.
And hey, if cooking isn’t for you, buy your chef friend a gift voucher from their store. 😉
I’m Cooked
Are you a fan of watching day-time cooking shows, or the local cooking channel? Do you watch and think; “I wish I could do that” or “how’d they do that” ? Here’s your chance.
I’m Cooked is an online video recipe sharing service. Not only are you able to view video recipes by other users in the network, you can create your own as well. Be the cooking TV show start you’ve always dreamed of being. Show off your skills to the world, and learn a few new recipes and tips in the process.
A great resource for those who learn better visually, or just aren’t interested in cook books. 🙂
Super Cook
Right, so this doesn’t look very “unique”, does it? Wrong. Super Cook is revolutionising recipe search online.
In many cases, when searching for a recipe, a user will type in one or two ingredients they have in their kitchen. They will then be presented with several recipes containing those ingredients, but with many additional ingredients as well. At this point, the user will either have to go out and purchase the remaining ingredients, or will throw in the towel. Super Cook allows you to find recipes that you can make right now, with the ingredients you have in your kitchen. By using the “My Kitchen” feature on Super Cook, you are able to add the ingredients that you have in your actual kitchen, to your virtual kitchen. These ingredients are used in the Super Cook search.
Super Cook is a search engine and is constantly searching the web for new recipes. It is also advanced enough to learn which ingredients compliment one another and can, therefore, refine your search results to display the best possible recipe results for your ingredients.
Cork’d
Every great meal deserves a complimenting wine. The wine world is a vast landscape of tastes, hints of scents and memories. Cork’d aims to create further connections in this world.
As a wine sharing and review website, Cork’d is, in essence, a social network for wine lovers. I’ve recently enjoyed several South African wines and learning about their unique tastes and how to analyse them on one’s tastebuds. Watching WineLibraryTV has certainly aided me in this.
If you’re interested in wine, learning about wine and discovering new wines to taste and excite your tastebuds with, or are just looking for a wine to compliment your meal, the users of Cork’d are for you.
Bakespace
Bakespace is a social network for food lovers. In addition to the expected social features (profile, blog, recipe logging) they offer a unique “recipe swap” feature, allowing you to swap recipes with your friends and know what everyone’s cooking.
In the spirit of learning, Bakespace also hosts a unique mentoring featuring, allowing users to learn from other users, or allowing other users to be their mentors.
While Bakespace isn’t unique on the web, it’s features and goals are solid.
TasteBook
No, not Facebook. TasteBook.
TasteBook aims to recreate the concept of the cookbook. Allowing users to mix and match, re-arrange and swap recipes, users on TasteBook are able to create their own cookbooks. These cookbooks are ideal as gifts or as a fun way of telling your chef friend (or mother) that you like (or dislike) their cooking. It also allows users to combine recipes that suit their personal tastes, while discovering new, similar recipes to learn and experiment with.
TasteBook has an elegant, intuitive layout and is a fun concept that I look forward to experimenting with from start to finish.
Found any other great cooking websites for the web 2.0 chef? Post links in the comments below.
Post image: stock.xchng
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