Finding Your Own Cooking Apps

Learn to build your own kitchen strategy with these handy apps.

Every day, millions of aspiring cooks open their re­frigerator doors with every intention of whipping up an amazing meal; instead, they freeze at the overwhelming sight of food-stocked shelves and close the door. I call this a symptom of "refrigerator angst," and unfortunately it doesn't end there. The next common symptom, which involves the iPhone, consists of looking up the nearest restaurant that offers takeout, usu­ally with the help of an app like Eat24 Order Food Delivery and Takeout (free, app2.me/5352) or GrubHub (free, app2. me/4306), and hungrily placing a call.

Finding your own cooking apps

Luckily, there are thousands of cooking apps that can help ease you into the kitchen, but sometimes it's hard to find the ones that mesh with your lifestyle. This is where I might be able to help. As a passionate home cook and host of a food and cooking radio show called Great Taste, I have a few recommendations to help you pick your go-to cooking apps. In addition, I have a few friends and family members - whom I've vetted as great cooks themselves - that can offer varying perspectives on what works for them.

I'll begin by letting you know that Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything ($9.99, app2.me/3650), and Vegetarian How to Cook Everything ($9.99, app2.me/4963) have become es­sential resources in my virtual kitchen. Perhaps they'll become important tools in your kitchen as well.

My Top Picks

Gojee - Fashion and Food

Price: Free

Website: www.app2.me/5353

Gojee - Fashion and Food

Gojee features content from several hundred food and fashion bloggers, and while much of the content focuses on fashion, the food and drink sections are very robust. Many of the food bloggers are not professional cooks, but they are young pro­fessionals who enjoy cooking at home. Michael LaValle, co-­developer of the app, told me he was looking for bloggers “who had cool sites with great photos and content that was a bit different.”

"Young people use the site because it's fun, and they have a high tolerance for error. I think they respect the effort put out by the amateur-cook bloggers who make up our network," said LaValle. "I believe that 80% of the decision-making involv­ing food is visual and emo­tional, so those are two key elements built into the app.”

At the top of the Gojee app interface is a space where you can complete the phrase "I crave..." For example, if you type "I crave chicken,” you may see a gorgeous photo of Viet­namese Chicken Pho Ga fill the screen. You can also get de­tailed information on the ingre­dients, along with a link to the original post with the recipe.

Green Kitchen

Price: $3.99

Website: www.app2.me/5354

Green Kitchen

The Green Kitchen app was developed by a Stockholm, Sweden-based company called Amazing Applications. It includes the most popular recipes from the vegetarian blog Green Kitchen Stories (www.greenkitchenstories.com), plus recipes developed exclusively for the app. Featuring a variety of healthy main dish, juice, and dessert recipes, Green Kitchen includes step-by-step instructions, estimated cooking times, and shopping lists that can be sent using email or SMS.

The creators of the app, Martjin Freij and Jimmy Poopuu, concluded that most cook­ing apps were like recipe da­tabases, and the quality of the recipes and photos was lacking. Based on their analy­sis, they decided to build an app that resembled a coffee table book - something differ­ent and inspiring. Since they weren't cooks, they had to find someone to put together the recipes. Jimmy's girlfriend was a follower of the Green Kitchen Stories blog, so he contacted the blog's creators, David and Luise.

Though Martjin and Jimmy had thought that David and Lu­ise were from California, they found out that not only were they Swedish, but by coinci­dence, they, too, were based in Stockholm. That auspicious start led to the creation of an app that boasts simple navigation and a beautiful design. Once you open the app, simply pick a photo, tap, and all the informa­tion you need to create the dish is at your fingertips.

Top picks from Friends & Family

Rebecca's organized system

After choosing my top cooking apps, I polled my family mem­bers. My daughter, Rebecca, has developed an organized sys­tem that increases fun and efficiency in the kitchen. You can easily adapt this procedure for your own use. “I utilize two apps regularly," she says, “and feel that the result is exposure to a myriad of ideas that have made me a more knowledgeable and better cook."

My Daughter Rebecca uses Bloglovin' and Pinterest to follow interesting vegan food bloggers

She subscribes to a number of food blogs on Bloglovin' (free, app2.me/5355), like OhSheGlows, Smitten Kitchen, David Lebovitz, and Chocolate and Zucchini. Every time she opens the app, it automatically shows her those bloggers who have updated their sites with a new post. When she sees something that resonates with her inner cook, she clicks on it to review the original post. If the dish piques her interest, she pins it to one of her many food boards on Pinterest (free, app2.me/4377), an app she uses to organize her recipes, follow people who post creative recipes, and repin the ideas or recipes she likes.

Rebecca recently changed her diet from vegetarian to mostly vegan. "At the beginning, I really didn't have any idea what to make, because I was a cheeseaholic. But I started searching for vegan food bloggers through Bloglovin', and began following people who posted interesting vegan recipes on Pinterest. Us­ing these two apps has increased my creativity in the kitchen," she concluded.

Alene's Healthy Food Choices

My sister, Alene, is a fitness fanatic who also helps her hus­band and daughters make healthy food choices. "The nature of our lives results in eating out several times a week," she explained. “Knowing the nutritional value of the items on the menu is important. I can pull out my iPhone and check the calo­ries, number of carbs, amount of sodium, and more. All of these important elements are easily accessible." For people with seri­ous health issues, these apps are an essential tool to have at their disposal.

My sister Alene uses Restaurant Nutrition and Fast Food Calories to help make healthy food choices for her family.

Alene uses Restaurant Nutrition (free, app2.me/2458) and Fast Food Calories (free, app2.me/5356) to look up nutritional informa­tion. Another app to check out in the App Store's Nutrition and Health section is the popular Fooducate (free, app2.me/4294).

Kathy's Top Pick

My co-host on Great Taste, Kathy DuBois, is an extraordinary home cook. She's a big fan of Mario Batali's app Mario Batali Cooks! ($4.99, app2.me/4248). "Fie cooks using great, simple, fresh ingredients, and his instructional technique is simple, fo­cused, passionate, and fast," said Kathy. Each of the 63 recipes in the app includes a short instructional video in which Mario actually makes the dish. In addition, there are 25 videos cover­ing basic kitchen techniques. All in all, the app features over five hours of video.

My friend Kathy likes the Mario Batali Cooks! app because Batali's instructional technique is focused and passionate.

When we made marinara sauce and meatballs on the air, Kathy went to the app and reviewed two relevant videos. "I used several of his techniques. For example, to prepare one of the meatballs' ingredients, he soaks bread in milk. Also, he simmers his meatballs in the sauce rather than frying them, just like my Sicilian Grandma Gulla did. That was fun to see."

Averting Refrigerator Angst

I hope these apps help to avert any potential bouts of refrigera­tor angst, and that the ideas inspire you to compile your own cooking-app arsenal. Next time you find yourself reaching for your iPhone to make a hungry call for delivery, open a few apps instead - you'll uncover a world of cooking delights.