My veal stew with egg noodles, photo by Deborah Jones, courtesy of Feast.
I'm working with my friend Susie Heller (French Laundry/Bouchon books, among so many others) who's commandeering the launch of a sleek new cooking app called Feast. It launches Thursday. It's the brain child of tech health entrepreneur Jakob Jønck a co-founder of Endomondo, a running and fitness app with now more than 25 million users. He also was Head of International Operations at MyFitnessPal, a nutrition app with now more than 100 million users. He and Susie are bringing their love of food and cooking to this new app by marshalling dozens of chefs and food writers who also want to share the love—chefs as diverse and talented as David Kinch, Mourad Lahlou, Michel Richard and Jacques Pepin.
The site, which is drop-dead gorgeous, combines these chefs' recipes (more than 500, all scalable at a touch), technique video, chef stories, and a fabulous shopping list function to create a cooking/teaching experience on your iPhone (Android version to follow I hope!). To find out more, click the Feast link above.
This is ultimately a paid app (and when you see how beautiful it is and how many people put so much work into it, you'll understand why) but there will be all kinds of free content on it as well, especially at first. Here are some of the bullet points that appeal to me in terms of why this app is unique.
Mission statement:
We believe eating good, honest, quality food is a human right, not a challenge. So we set out to make it simple, inspiring and absolutely delicious. Feast is a reawakening to the power and pleasure of real food, far from anything processed, preserved, arrogant or preachy.
Welcome to a love story told by world-class chefs, food experts and a community of believers eager to share how a whole universe of amazing fruits, vegetables, grains and meats can boost your body and soul in ways you never thought possible.
What is Feast?
Feast is a personalized mobile cooking platform available for iOS from January 7th.
What can I find on Feast?
You can find hundreds of delicious and easy to cook recipes from some of the world’s best chefs, food experts and culinary minds on Feast. We will introduce you to them by telling their stories. What inspires them, what makes them tick.
You can also find dozens of beautifully shot techniques videos which will help you improve your cooking skills.
What makes Feast different?
Feast is separated by the quality of its content. Our recipes are created by the world’s best chefs and food experts. All recipes are tested by real humans and they truly scale.
With Feast you can also create a smart shopping list with just one click. It was never easier to shop for several recipes at a time.
You are able to personalize Feast by filtering recipes by diet type e. g. Paleo, Vegetarian, Gluten Free or you can rule out recipes if you are allergic to certain foods e. g. Nuts, Eggs etc.
What does Feast cost?
Feast is a free app. However to gain unlimited access to all of Feast’s amazing content you can upgrade to premium for a monthly fee of $8.99 or a yearly subscription of $69.99 via In-App-Purchase.
----------------
Hope you'll check it out!
Oh, and I've got another app, a community based charcuterie app in the works so be on the look out for that next month as well.
Happy cooking!
If you liked this post, then you will enjoy these links:
- My past posts on Happy New Year, Peace on Earth, and This Season's Holiday Cookies.
- Looking for other recipes to try out this January? Check out Food 52.
- Michelle Tam run the blog Nom Nom Paleo, a great resource for those sticking to the Paleo diet.
© 2016 Michael Ruhlman. Photo © 2016 Donna Turner Ruhlman. All rights reserved.
Sounds interesting, but if it is ever released for Android, I don't know that I'd risk buying it, since the Ratio app for Android has been abandoned.
Android, please.
cooking apps? why would anyone pay for the content. Not to many recipes aren't avail online somewhere, free. This one seems a tad high.
one would pay for content because that content has been vetted, recipes tested, and it's a pleasurable experience to use and to have on your phone.
I'm willing to give you that. Vetting and testing is why I buy (too many?) cookbooks. But you never actually own this app which is troubling. Even if we think of this as an ultra-top notch cookbook, $70 is a lot to ask, let alone $70 every year and whenever you decide to stop paying then you have nothing (except memories of well-cooked food).
I agree. Price is too high for not owning a product. Welcome to the new age, I guess. On demand recipes are not at the same price point for on demand streaming content like a netflix. In the end let the marketplace decide as it is the pinnacle arbitor.
I think this really is where quality internet content is headed, toward a subscription model rather than relying on ad dollars to support the work and site. You subscribe to magazines and while one does own a hard copy, one doesn't tend to save and reread old issues. Feast will be offering new content all the time, plus you have the truly great shopping list feature. And I suppose there would be away to print out and save particularly useful content that you want to be able to return to.
Actually I have saved and reread my gourmet magazines which I have since 1989. Every thanksgiving I get out each November issue and try and come up with an exciting menu. Same with music - still buy CDs and burn them. It may be generational, but I prefer to buy and own the content rather than rent time. Regardless, good luck
How about this: Because everything doesn't have to be free.
Someone, somewhere, is creating all this content by working hard and they would like to be compensated for it. While it's nice that people can write for sites like Huffington Post and not get paid, asking people to pay a few dollars for an app or cookbook with well-tested, vetted recipes, I don't think, is really a lot to ask.
Sure there is plenty of free content on the web, some of it is excellent (such as here on Michael's site) - but at some point, it's nice to support, with a few dollars, the people who are providing recipes and cooking advice so they can continue.
thanks for your input, Max
I'm with you, Max! I think it's time to put out money where our mouths are, so to speak. Great content is worth paying for and it really is a beautifully put together app, I am excited to use it.
Signed,
Newly Minted Premium Member
I have no issue paying for quality anything if I need or want a product. Owning a cookbook is much different than an service based cooking app. For example, my cookbook might have a recipe for cookies, not use cookies to potentially monitor my usage, my cookbook is still usable if I switch phone operating systems (i.e. apple vs google play store), does not require power, or will want access to my phone book. I'm no luddite, I work as a system engineer in electronics. I've adapted less is more, much like simpler cooking. But hey, that is me. Hopefully there is more market demand then whatever demographic I fall into.
Everything you have done with Susie Heller has been superb. (I still laugh at your own comparison to John McPhee, hehe.) I am happy to pay for the work people do; just because it's on the internet doesn't mean it has to be free. However, I am not always crazy about chef's creating recipes to cook at home. Some have done a wonderful job at this; I'm thinking about Pierre Franey in particular. So I will definitely give this app a chance.
The subscription model implies that new and continued content will be available, so it's not just another 'cookbook' but something that will grow with you as well offer new insights/recipes as the year progresses.
A recipe for a dish with summertime ingredients may not appear until June; heartier soups, in winter. And, perhaps, that one dessert you remember from Bouchon will be available, without you having to buy the entire Bouchon Bakery cookbook.
another good point, thanks
Just heard about this from Jacques' FB page. I've been developing an app that compliments this well. Would love to discuss/collaborate with you, Michael. If you're interested?
Hello,
How to I sign up?
I have just one question: Will you be adding new recipes throughout the year?
yes, new content regularly
Will we be notified when new recipes are posted on the website? This looks very interesting. Sterly sends her love by the way.
Please allow me to regress.
Regress to the topic of aged eggnog.
I made a batch using Oban scotch.
I put it into storage for the year and re read the recipe, realized I needed to add 3 c of milk after 1 week of storing.
I added the milk and the volume exceeded my storage containers by about 1 cup, so I sampled it.
It's essentially the Major Award.
I will tell you that I kept it simple, no recipe, and I'm using Oban scotch.
My thought was to feature the Oban. No rum, no cognac, no nutmeg.
I replaced a little sugar for the expensive truffle honey that had been in my pantry since the Major Award cocktail post.
It had shavings of truffle, very fragrant.
I add the orange peel just before serving,as I did not want to corrupt the storage with a potential hazardous ingredient.
The results after 1 week are great, truffle and cream, add twist of orange at the end.
I kept saying " it's a major award" after every sip.
I' hope to fill you in next winter, after a year of storage.
Adding a whole liter of Oban to this concoction, I kept hearing a little nurse Ratchet voice on my shoulder, telling me " you need to have your head examined".
After the first sip another voice on the other shoulder said...
"fuck you nurse Ratchet, it's a major award"!
I'm looking at "steam-fried eggs over smoky potatoes" which is a paid recipe, but there is a nice picture of the finished dish and the list of ingredients. I think I've stood in front of a cooking device long enough to figure out the method. Nice app.
Thanks for cobininuttrg. It's helped me understand the issues.
Will there be an android version?
yes I know there won't be many of us. but will there be an Android version? there are phones and tablets now.
$70/YR? You're serious, right? I'm just an average blue collar who loves to cook, but my conscience does not allow me to spend like this for an app
I'm impressed by your writing. Are you a professional or just very knllbedgeawoe?
Talking about apps related to menus, I would like to tell you that there is an interesting app for creating the menu of a restaurant and showing it to the guests in an attractive and intuitive way, the app also has a powerful order manager, so guests or people from staff can create orders and then they can be managed in a really easy way, give it a try! It is for Android. Take a look at http://restaurantmenu.cymaxtec.com/b?u=zUoKOgE6tEmLTqmb-kF1RA
Cheers!
Thank you for finally creating what we have been wanting for a long time. Especially the ease of shopping lists. Plus the photos are beautiful.
For people complaining that they don't 'own' anything - copy the recipe into Evernote, which is what we've been doing for a couple of years - making our own cookbook from internet recipes and the cookbooks we have on the shelf. It simply isn't feasible to know or browse through all of your cookbooks (at least if you have as many as I have), and remember what worked and what didn't, and you certainly can't link to anything in a cookbook or see a live demonstration in your cookbook. Yes you can scribble in it but I've never liked to write in books.
This is a nicer version of what we've cobbled together, and the two approaches aren't mutually exclusive. Voila, you 'own' something.
I don't know about the price but that's something that will get figured out eventually; it's all part of app development. I would like to see a bookmark feature. Not sure if that's in the paid version or not.
...Also want to remind people to keep the attribution if they cut and paste. Be nice.
Apparently not available for iPad.
And I agree- $70/year is way expensive.