Cooking? There’s an app for that

The CookShelf app (details below) – which is getting better by the day – is far from the only food app available. NYT Cooking, The Guardian Feast, Delish, and others have introduced apps in recent years, and more are on the way. Why are so many recipe websites adding apps? Adweek’s Mark Stenberg has some theories about the trend.

I think the first and foremost reason, as Stenberg explains, is that people are visiting websites less and less often. Obviously in the case of recipe websites this doesn’t mean they have stopped cooking, so what can a publisher do to retain those users? Make an app, because using apps on your phone or tablet has, in large part, replaced pulling out a laptop or – heaven forfend – sitting down at a desktop computer to find answers to your questions, cooking or otherwise.

Another, perhaps less obvious, reason for this shift is that cooking apps are less prone to being disrupted by AI. We have all heard horror stories about people finding an AI recipe that had woefully inadequate cooking times or quantities that made no sense. Moreover, AI cannot test and fine tune a recipe in the same way as a recipe developer working for a major publication who has a reputation to uphold.

There is no denying that apps are convenient. I have used the CookShelf app when I’m at the grocery store to make sure I didn’t forget an ingredient. If you are a fan of a particular author who works for a major newspaper, having all of her recipes available literally at your fingertips through an app is worthwhile. Websites will probably stick around for a while, but I believe an app-only model is on the way. Other than CookShelf, what food-related apps do you find valuable?

For the CookShelf app – you can subscribe to EYB in the app, or access it as part of your Eat Your Books Premium membership. You can download the app on the Apple App Store here and on Google Play Store here. If you’re having issues linking your EYB account in CookShelf (maybe you’re seeing the paywall when you are already a Premium member, or your books aren’t syncing), here’s some info on how to resolve that.