Platform and Price
Free: Apple, Android and Kindle Fire
RDN Score
4 out of 5
Synopsis of the App
With creative and enticing recipes, Look & Cook is an interactive digital cookbook that leads you through each step of a recipe with pictures and detailed instructions. The app teaches professional cooking tips along the way and provides an in-app purchase option to buy kitchen gadgets used in the recipe.
Pros
- Bright, beautiful photos display each recipe step from the mise en place to the finished dish.
- "LOOK" through images of recipes to decide what to cook versus clicking through blind titles.
- Recipes are categorized by occasion including everyday, barbeque, dinner party, romantic, vegan pleasures, and picnic which includes a Campfire-Roasted Squash Salad recipe, for example.
- Tabbed recipe steps make it easy to check for accuracy or review steps and images.
- Recipes have an international flair but are not intimidating.
- Provides a fun and easy way to increase your culinary know-how by experimenting with Chef Meir Adoni's new Israeli inspired kitchen dishes.
- Unfamiliar, less common ingredients are explained.
- "SHOP" section provides a convenient way to purchase gadgets used in the recipes and is a clever way to use advertisements without being intrusive.
- Recipe collection provides 51 total recipes including 7 vegan recipes.
- Introduces you to new foods and cooking techniques.
Cons
- Many recipes teeter towards gourmet and may challenge the novice home cook.
- Likely due to the metric to imperial conversion, some ingredient measures are awkward such as 0.8 cup water.
Bottom Line
Look & Cook delivers on its name. The app guides the cooking process with enticing and accurate photos and useful cooking tips along the way. View on a tablet or smartphone with a larger screen for the best experience.
Marisa Moore, MBA, RDN, LD, is a nutrition consultant based in Atlanta and adjunct faculty at Georgia State University. Follow her at MarisaMoore.com, on Twitter or Instagram.
