Thursday, 06 December 2012
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Celebrity Chef Recipe Apps
Move over Hollywood starlets, this is the era of the celebrity chef and in the age of smartphones and tablets, many chefs have successfully branched out into the world of apps. Let’s take a look at 5 celebrity chef recipes apps and see which are as easy as apple pie to use, and which ones are a little half-baked.
1. Jamie Oliver “Jamie’s Recipes”
This app provides 10 free taster recipes and a further 17 recipe packs available for purchase from £1.49 (including “Date Night” and “Crowd Pleasers”). There are videos from knife skills to poaching eggs, suitable for beginner cooks. There is also a very handy shopping list function which allows you to select ingredients from the recipe to be added to your shopping list. Formatted as an old-school pen and paper list with items crossed through as you go down the supermarket aisles, this reflects the overall design of the app which is quirky, fun, and slightly childish, much like the man himself. While there is potential to accumulate an extensive recipe collection, the main drawback is the design of the app which can be a little confusing when viewed on a smartphone.
2. Nigella Lawson “Nigella Quick Collection”
The lovely Nigella offers 100 recipes and 10 videos in her app (£3.99). Each recipe is designed to be completed in six steps or less using a minimum of ingredients, making it the perfect mid-week cooking companion. The simple design of the app makes it easy to navigate and reflects the ultimate goal of the simple recipe collection. The addition of a voice control feature is a clever way to get around the problem of sticky fingers on your smartphone. There is less available content that in Jamie’s app, but certainly enough to keep you following in the footsteps of Britain’s favourite domestic goddess.
3. Gordon Ramsay “Cook With Me”
Gordon Ramsay may have made a name for himself as the bad boy of the food world, but he goes some way to redeeming himself with this well thought out app. At £4.99 it’s a little steeper than the rest, but all 56 recipes have accompanying videos of Ramsay cooking the dish. There is a compare feature allowing you to take a photo of your end result to compare to the picture of Gordon’s. Another useful feature is the wine pairing advice for each dish. This app is best for serious amateur cooks, for weekday follies stick with Jamie or Nigella.
4. Yotam Ottolenghi “Ottolenghi”
A relative newcomer to the world of celebrity chefs, Mr Ottolenghi’s app is bright and colourful like the vibrant dishes he is known for. Like the other apps there is the handy shopping list section- the main drawcard for recipe apps in general. The touch-free mode is also utilised here to keep those mucky hands at bay. The stunning food photography sets this apart from the others, but this app could be improved with the inclusion of video content instead of unnecessary behind-the-scenes photos. With only 50 recipes for the £4.99 price tag some users may feel a little cheated, but those wishing to recreate Ottolenghi’s trademark bold and flavoursome Mediterranean-inspired dishes won’t be disappointed.
Ok, so this is not quite a celebrity chef app, but the undeniable star power of the great baking duo, Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry, propels this delightful app into this category. There are over 60 recipes covering three seasons of the show- with auto updates adding to the recipe collection as the show progresses. Including the ubiquitous shopping list feature, and increasingly common touch-free function, this app is up there with the big guns, and competitively priced at £2.99. Recipes can be navigated by skill level so even beginner bakers can recreate Bake Off classics. So on your marks, get set, bake!
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