The Pocket Cooking School – Take Rouxbe with You!
Hi students! Want to help us test out a really cool new feature? It’s not completely finished and it’s not perfect…yet, but we think that it’s ready for some testing if you’d like to try it out.
It’s called the Pocket Cooking School and it enables you to find and display related Rouxbe video content when you are on other websites.
For example, let’s say you are looking at a soup recipe that you’d like to try, but you can’t remember (or haven’t watched), the Rouxbe videos for making soups. Well, now you can highlight the recipe, click a button and voila, Rouxbe technique videos will magically appear before your eyes related to making soup….right there on the third party site.
CLICK HERE to give it a whirl.
One caveat…during this testing phase, the Pocket Cooking School only works in flash video, so you won’t be able to use your mobile device at this time (something we’ll address later after testing).
Watch video above to learn more.
Cheers,
Joe Girard
Co-Founder & CEO
Well, well, well. Just before I purchased the lifetime membership recently, I was concerned about justifying the expense to my husband. There are the obvious benefits, which turned out to be good enough for him, but little growth spurts like this (PCS) make my job a HECK of a lot easier. You should have seen his face light up when I hit the Pocket Cooking School bookmarklet and all that great info popped up!
I am SO sold on this site. And so’s he. ;o)
This is just the tip of the iceburg… just wait. :-)
I’m rubbing my hands together in anticipation! This creates quite a challenge when typing…. :o)
Can’t WAIT!
Joe:
The above referenced website returned (in “Other Related Tips & Technique Videos” subsection) “Tips to Make Ribs Ahead”, a very appropriate result for a rib recipe. However, the video is null and so is the bookmark. I even went directly to the Rouxbe site to look for it and it doesn’t exist. There is no video or bookmark for “Tips to Make Ribs Ahead”.
This seems to be a pretty cool addition to the Rouxbe experience, but actually not one I’m likely to use much. After all, Rouxbe has taught me to pursue perfecting of technique, not pursuit of recipes. It’s actually a reversal of my Rouxbe-induced mindset. LOL, but I do get it.
Hi Bryan,
Thanks for the comment. We are looking into this bug.
This is exactly why we are testing. Thanks so much. I will report back on our findings.
Cheers,
Joe
This is wonderful I love it.Well done Joe.
Hi Bryan, this has been fixed now. We actually deleted that video which is why it was showing up as “null”. We are making improvements to it. But it did highlight the need for us to update the mapper results algorithm when we moved content out of published mode, so thank you.
Cheers, Joe.
Amazing!
ohhhhh…. that’s addicting! Check out what happens with this link: http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/roast-chicken-with-chilli-and-basil
Very nice!
Are you planning on creating an app for the lessons soon?
RE: app. We likely will be working on a highly optimized mobile version of the site after we launch the new cooking classes feature in the next couple of months, rather than an app. It will work really well on all mobile and tablet devices soon – in fact, it works really well at the present time, but could work better.
Cheers, Joe.
Wowwwwwww. This is going to be so great! It’s one of those features that you secretly wished for when looking for recipes online but never imagined it could be done so amazingly.
Hopefully the flash requirement and limitations on mobile devices is addressed soon like you mentioned. I tend to just have my iPad (rather than my laptop) propped up on my kitchen counter while I’m preparing a recipe and following along with the cooking school lessons.
I’ve had Rouxbe now for a couple of years now after convincing my husband that it was the perfect birthday gift for me. I can’t begin to tell you how much it has enhanced my experience in the kitchen!
Hi Leisel,
We will work on it as soon as we can.
In the interim, all the content on the site still works fine on iPad.
Cheers, Joe.
Hi Joe, this is great !!! Thank you.
Gianfranco
I think I’m too much of a novice (only a few months into the Rouxbe thing) and also too much of a computer illiterate to benefit from this wonderful advance right now. At this stage, what would be a big help for me (because I’m hard of hearing) would be to have easy access to the text of what is being said in the Rouxbe videos. This either in a caption format at the base of the video screen (or in a text page that I could access before viewing the video so that I could read a copy of the text that will be spoken in the video). That would be a blessing for me. But I hope you won’t think I’m being impatient about that. Actually I’m a very patient guy, and now that I’ve received a much appreciated opportunity to upgrade my membership to a lifetime one and took advantage of it, all the time pressure is off of me. I can now just take my time listening to the videos over and over again, and take the quizzes over and over again until I finally figure it all out. So, one way or another, I will learn how to cook, but having access to a text page that allows me to easily read the text of what is being said in a particular video would be so nice. But again, not twisting your arm, just sharing my thoughts with you. I know you are working on this and will eventually have it available. In the meantime, I’m still plodding along, and ever so happy to have found Rouxbe and to be part of the wonderful learning experience you make available to everyone who is interested in learning the extremely valuable skill of cooking. I remain a big fan, and appreciate that the solution to my handicap is in the works. This was primarily to let you know that at my level of knowledge (concerning cooking and of computer litteracy) I can’t help much, but some day in the distant future, I too will be able to jump in and help a bit in situations such as this one. Bless you all for making this wonderful Rouxbe product available. You are truly visionaries destined for greater and greater business successes. Marc P.
I think more focus should be on more curriculum, and lessons. If i find a recipe i want to prepare i can just simply go to rouxbe and refresh on how to braise or ect. It seems like too many results pop up when trying to follow a simple recipe, i believe that this feature just complicates things, and could turn a 30 minute recipe into a 60+ minute recipe. I just think that when trying to be innovative and improve on the already great rouxbe that other areas need to be explored such as baking lessons, and offering some type of credentials for completing the program. But obviously alot of people find this new feature intriguing, so keep up the good work guys, i am just one guy who dont think that this particular feature will be that valueble to me, but like i said others seem to love it so far.
I tend to agree with Dan. Also, it would be helpful for me to have a printed list of the steps to use the Pocket Cooking School so that I don’t have to watch the video and take notes. I’m willing to give it a try but it does seem to complicate matters and extend time involved for a simple recipe.
Mattie:
Instructions are simply:
1. go to http://mapper.rouxbe.com/info/pocket-cooking-school
2. hover your mouse over the Rouxbe PCS (green) link, then click your mouse and hold.
3. drag the Rouxbe PCS (bookmarklet) to your browser bar (if you don’t know where this is either watch the video or it’s right above the tabs at the top of the page.
4. Release the mouse to drop the bookmarklet on the top of the browser. Your Pocket School School is now ready to try.
5. go to recipe and highlight the title, ingredients and method and the click on the bookmarklet. We will do the rest.
Try this small recipe as a test:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/fresh-pasta-recipe/index.html
Great comments Dan and Mattie. Perhaps I need to explain a couple of things.
The development of the learning paths (curriculum) is in full swing with a completely different development team so don’t worry there is no delay here. We agree that it’s top priority.
However, there is a bit of strategy to the release of this feature. As you will learn, if you don’t know already, cooking is all about learning the fundamentals. Once you learn the fundamentals, executing recipes becomes really fun and exciting because you learn how to adapt easily AND drive incredible success in the kitchen.
With that said, imagine learning a new skill, technique of cooking method with our new class feature and then voila, you all of the sudden open the door to hundreds or even thousands of recipes that leverage this basic technique. Well this is what will be happening soon. As students are out mapping content to our lessons, we are working on the classes. And as you learn new skills and techniques, we’ll be showing you how to easily adapt these skills and techniques to effortlessly apply the exact same process to make hundreds of recipes around the web that use these skills, techniques and cooking processes.
If this doesn’t make sense, it will soon. Trust me. Trust Rouxbe. I promise we won’t let you or any of our students down.
Cheers, Joe.
I’m one of those that don’t see the functionality of this feature… Perhaps because I know the videos so well (even if not the techniques) that if I feel like I am not competent in a technique of a recipe, I know where to find it in Rouxbe so I can brush up. I guess that’s just me. Maybe it will seem more useful over time if I try to use it… Although I very rarely use online recipes now and usually just make things up as I go along, (which was precisely what I became a Rouxbe member for!) so that might take a long time :)
Also I agree with the suggestion about the app! I would love love love to have an iPad app for Rouxbe. Even if the website is optimized, it doesn’t cover the whole screen and the general experience is not as smooth as it would be on an app.
That is sooooo cool!
I’m late to the party with my comments, but I use the current site from my iPad all of the time and love it. Please do not change the default experience dramatically.
There are some minor features that would be nice for “on the go” such as having the recipe ingredients in a checklist form so I can check them off on my iPhone when at the store.
Great idea Damon. This feature is on the list of things to do. We’ll get to this as we move beyond the release of learning paths as optimization for all devices is a high strategic priority for all of us here at Rouxbe.
Thanks. joe.
This is great but my iPad didn’t let me drag the link and it took a little while to figure out how to add it to Safari on the iPad.
If you’d like to know how to add PCS to your iPad read on…
Oh yes before we start you need to have your Bookmarks Bar displayed. This is in the iPad settings app where you set a lot of the systems options.
1. Firstly I you need to get hold of the JavaScript which the guys at Rouxbe included in the link. I did this by dragging the bookmark as they suggest on my iMac. I then edited the bookmark and copied the code into an email which I then emailed to myself on the iPad.
(I was going to post the code here so you could copy without having to do Step 1 but thought Rouxbe might not be too happy about that).
2. In Safari create a bookmark as normal. For example I went to the BBC website then tapped the Bookmark button (it looks like a little box with an arrow coming out to the right). I called this Rouxbe PCS and made sure it was added to the Bookmarks Bar. Yes at the moment this just takes me to the BBC website.
3. If you haven’t already go to the email you sent yourself on your iPad and copy the JavaScript that you emailed to yourself. Make sure you copy all of it to the very last semicolon.
4. Now return to Safari and click on the Bookmarks Manager button (it’s the button that looks like a book) Find where the Rouxbe PCS bookmark you created in Step 3 is (it should be in the Bookmarks Bar section) and click on the Edit button at the top.
5. Click on the Rouxbe PCS bookmark (still the BBC) and you should see a new window with the detail of this bookmark. Highlight the “Location” and remove the link to the BBC and the press and hold to get the iPad’s edit menu should pop up. Now paste in the JavaScript you copied from you email and then back out of the Bookmark menus and Safari will save the JavaScript.
6. Enjoy PCS on your iPad!
As of writing this (1st Aug 2012) I am able to play the videos on the iPad.
6.
Sorry the last comment should read:
As of writing this (1st Aug 2012) I am not able to play the videos on the iPad.
Hi Chris,
Sorry to report, but at this time, the pocket cooking school works on flash only – meaning that the videos will not play on the iPad.
We will be working to upgrade our embed video player for the pocket cooking school in the months ahead.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Cheers,
Joe
No worries Joe it’s still really useful.