Rouxbe Online Cooking School Blog

As an online instructional cooking destination (not recipe site), we’re always on the lookout for great online cooking resources that will help people become better cooks.

This past week a new site hit our radar – a site called Cookstr which was recently featured on Techcrunch. Here’s a video site demo from their CEO Will Schwalbe. Will has a VERY impressive resume as a successful cookbook editor and publisher so it was certainly worth a look.

In short, the site publishes only chef author recipes from cookbooks, such as from Mark Bittman, Jamie Oliver, Mario Batali, Nigella Lawson, Daniel Boulud, Jacques Pepin, Julia Child, Alice Waters ? the list just goes on.

First of all, it has fairly clean design and lots of great search and browse functionality. And it certainly has a lot of great text recipe content at launch. There is no doubt that this site will gain some immediate traction in the online food space.

I’d like to comment though on some of the communication around this launch in hopes to clear up a few things that may be somewhat confusing to our members at Rouxbe – at least it was to me.

Celebrity chefs and cookbook authors get shut out from the web
Cookstr claims to focus on publishing recipes from top chef authors and cookbooks because, in part, Cookstr feels that these celebrity chefs have been “shut off from the web”. Have they Googled “Jamie Oliver” lately? I found 3.5 million links in .12 seconds for Jamie on Google.

Further they claim that their chefs and authors are shut off from the web because, the corporate food sites have other agendas, citing foodnetwork.com on promoting only their celebrity chef’s content (I see a few celebrity chefs on Cookstr), epicurious.com only promoting chef recipes from their sister magazines “Gourmet” and “Bon Appetite” and user generated content sites simply containing “zilions” of untrusted recipes. Will claims that Cookstr.com doesn’t want zillions of recipes (nor does Rouxbe, so I agree with this strategy fully), instead they want really trusted recipes. They want the best recipes in the world AND they claim that these recipes come from cookbooks.

Now, I’m sure there are thousands of user-generated content producers and independent online food publishers/bloggers that might have a few things to say about this claim. I have to agree, as I’ve found over the years that users in many online communities truly care about their content and the sites that they contribute to, and that they actually put up some really great content. Some even better than so called celebrity chefs or cookbook authors – I know because we’ve tested hundreds. Self publishers also tend to take the time to carefully describe key steps and typically provide outstanding support for their content. It is certainly true, however, that not all non pro chefs have great recipes, so a bit of caution needs to be exercised.

Cookstr soon to launch community features where cookbook authors will contribute
I look forward to seeing this but have to say I’m a bit skeptical. I tend to agree with Yongfook from Opensourcefood.com and Babette from Bakespace.com who both think it won’t be easy to get these great chefs to take time out of their very busy schedules to serve an online community looking for recipe support. But I wish the entire team at Cookstr the best of luck here.

But let’s be very clear… even the best recipes in the world, from the VERY BEST chefs or cookbooks are only as good as the cook that is making them. Period!
As I wrote yesterday in the post: Biggest Misconception in Cooking: Millions in the Dark, recipes rarely help home cooks learn to cook. They provide a guide for those following but you need to have some skill and technique background to consistently execute great meals.

So don’t let any site out there tell you that you can ‘TRUST’ the recipes on their site (even those from the best chefs in the world). Trust implies that recipes will work and only your skill set will determine whether or not a recipe will turn out successfully or not.

Myself, I would use recipes on Cookstr for inspiration because I’m always looking for something new and in particular, I’m always looking for new flavor combinations. And for the most part, I trust the experience and palates of professional chef authors. I find very little use for sites that render so much content from a search that you have to weed through the garbage yourself. So Cookstr’s curating role is a good one but again, trust only your own cooking ability. And if you need to hone up on your skills, complement your favorite recipe site with a few minutes a week at Rouxbe’s Online Cooking School.

Rouxbe – The Recipe to Better Cooking