San Diego based RecipeMatcher is a user generated recipe site with a cool search concept: tell it what you have in your kitchen and it will suggest recipes. It will also suggest close matches and tell you what else you need for a complete meal. With a click you can add it to a printable grocery list.
The site is well designed and includes some Flash components, although there were some issues as well. There are obvious areas that would benefit from Ajax (like the rating feature for recipes) and I could not find a way to make a recipe a favorite even though there is a favorites section. I also get the feeling this thing is hosted on a server in someone’s garage. Nonetheless, like Extratasty for drinks, this can be a very useful site for people who like to cook.
If you’re into this, compare it to AllRecipes, FoodNetwork and Google Recipes (part of Google Base), all of which allow searching by ingredients. Only RecipeMaker, so far, seems to allow you to store the ingredients you have in your pantry, though, which many people will find useful.
I spoke to the founder, Mike Sasaki, for a few minutes this afternoon. Mike created the site with hired help for just a couple of thousand dollars, and kept his day job at a law firm.
Update: Snacksby (Arlington, VA) is a very similar site that just emailed me. It has a better interface and is more stable. Check it out as well if you are looking for this kind of service.
so-so - but who’s got a computer in the kitchen? Maybe some rich bastard that lives in Stamford or Manhattan.
Snacksby (http://www.snacksby.com/) does the same sort of thing… pretty useful, I’ve found.
I disagree. you have computers at work or you have laptop and just before going home you can search it. Or if someday you can;t decide what to cook than you can atleast see some options.
wifi + laptop = digital recipes in the kitchen
Nice concept. I love these sort of tools, they add a little convenience to life.
I actually had this exact idea about a month ago.
Dreamers vs. Doers..
Sherwin, you my friend are a dreamer and you’re losing.
Definitely prefer Snacksby. It quotes Hamlet on failed searches.
Good concept, but why should I sign up? If the site uses a unique user profile only to remember what they have in their pantry/refrigerator, why not use Google proxy authentication?
The required signup before doing anything turns me off…where’s the foreplay…huh?
I agree about the signup, but its a really nice tool over all. Well executed, useful, and simple. Those are the three things I look for in a product and it looks like they nailed those.
My wife has a computer in the kitchen. She made a great white cream sauce last night with grilled salmon… all from a recipe online. I’ll tell her about this recipe site…
It´s very nice to be able to store the ingredients I have in the pantry.
It´s a way to discover new recipes.
Who will actually take the time to store all the items he/she has in the pantry?
As an engineer I see much more in providing some tools (like a barcode scanner) which adds your food items (scan it when bought and scan it when being used) to a central database, and from there picks a selection of recipes.
Nice concept, this RecipeMatcher, Apart from the design of the website which - in my opinion - lacks userfriendliness…
Niels,
How about RFID tags on everything that our kitchen auto detects and keeps an inventory of at all times?
I actuallly like the design on the site.
Of course, this is a possibility (within 2 to 4 years each and every item in stores will be equipped with an RFID tag, at least in Europe). Just install a scanner in your front door and/or garage, and as you unpack your car, your items are scanned, and submitted to a central repository
Sounds like I’m going to work on this
Brilliant idea! The looks great — I’ll give it a try this weekend. And I love Michael’s idea about combining this with RFID…
anon-guy : Who said I ever wanted to do it? I have plenty of ideas, if I chased all of them I’d be wasting time. I stick to the ones that I know I can execute better.
entered all my pantry stuff, saved it, and it lost it!
grr
The log-in doesn’t seem to be working - each time I enter my log-in and password it just takes me back to the page I was at previously, and I cannot continue with the site. Frustrating.
Now that is actually useful!!! I am going to check it out now.
Site keeps losing my input info. This site stinks.
I just tried saving to my epantry and it worked fine. The login seems to be working correctly too.
I couldn’t log in using Firefox, but Safari seems to work.
This can go down as one example of ‘how not to start up’ a start up!!!
All that shows up on this site made of a good concept is:
“We are making changes to our website. Please come back later.”
Blyaaah!
Hi! Nice site!