Changing the Way We Cook

NY Times recently posted an interesting article on the evolution of digital cookbooks. While the traditionalists still take pleasure in planning and cooking the traditional way, i.e. using cookbooks, preferably with “splatters and sticky notes that evoke holidays past” there is a new generation of cooks and chefs that prefers using cooking apps on their digital devices. Digital applications are also changing the way in which recipes are followed and instructed: they no longer exist as a string of words. With featured like embedded links, built-in times, graphics, and voice-prompts, some kitchen tools are actually no longer required. The popularity of such digital applications is the new possibilities to learn and create more accurate version of the actual recipe: swiping, tapping and zooming through information presented in multimedia is a good match for the experience of cooking, which involves all the senses and the brain, as well. And when those faculties fail, as often happens in high-stress kitchen scenarios like Thanksgiving, apps can come to the rescue with features like technique videos, embedded glossaries and social media links.

The article details apps such as CulinApp that allow the reader/cook to view the recipe in four different formats, best suited to that individual. These range from recipes for the novice cook—a step-by-step view presents each recipe step in full screen, or using CulinView, a nonverbal way for a more confident cook to follow a recipe. After ingredients are measured and the oven heated, the rest of the process is shown in a flow chart, illustrated with bright images of mixers, whisks, ovens and ingredients. With arrows and color-coding, it sketches out the process for the more confident cook who already knows how to cream butter and sugar, say, but needs to be reminded what to do with the chopped apple and grated fresh ginger. SpinView puts the whole recipe on one page, with the option of scrolling through the steps. Finally, for the traditionalists, there is the Cookbook view, formatted in the old-fashioned way.

Many developers say that recipe animation, either employing stop-frame photography, line drawings or infographics, is the future of digital cooking instruction. Video, on the other hand, while it can be valuable for bringing a personality into the kitchen, has several drawbacks. It is expensive to produce, and eats up precious memory. Cookbooks have long offered their own kind of enriched content, in the form of scribbles left in the margins by cooks who found they liked a little extra cinnamon, or a higher oven temperature but with the endless possibilities of the digital platform, there is an application for that as well.

The interesting nature of such digital apps is that established and somewhat traditional organizations like the Culinary Institute of America are also embracing this change by expecting incoming students to use their tablets and digital applications, instead of the traditional cook-books. However, I think it will still be some time before this market really takes off and books become completely obsolete.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/dining/are-apps-making-cookbooks-obsolete.html?ref=technology