New startup TasteBook launches on Wednesday morning, with a lot of help from Condé Nast: an investment from their Internet unit (CondéNet) as well as a partnership with Epicurious, a Condé Nast property.
TasteBook is a service that lets users take their favorite recipes from partner sites (starting with Epicurious) and create printed cookbooks that are delivered to them and/or friends. Users can add their own recipes as well, and customize the book with their name and other information. Blurb, which was recently in the news, is somewhat similar but does not focus on recipes.
A book with 100 recipes costs $35.
TasteBook is based in Berkeley, California. It was founded in February 2007 by Kamran Mohsenin, the co-founder of Ofoto (now the Kodak Gallery), and Greg Schroeder, formerly the chief technical architect of Ofoto.
The size of the Condé Nast investment is not being disclosed. A year ago they acquired Reddit; however, to date they have not been known for making non-acquisition investments in startups.
Soon we will have eyebook, earboook, nosebook and nailbook
What the heck??!
This service/technology, albeit nice and even useful, is DEFINITELY an add-on to a recipe community site, like the nice and comprehensive vertical video-based social networking sites out there; iptvrecipes.com, cookshow.com…
C’mon guys, there are so many more worthwhile sites out there that deserve recognition.
Signed,
Sheeeeesh
Yeah, this could be an added feature to add to epicurious or foodnetworkbut they haven’t added it yet! This is a very cool idea, and though it will not be the next blockbuster, these guys will definitely make a nice chunk of change.
My girlfriend is going to LOVE this site.
Dan
http://www.ackermangreenberg.com
I really like this. And Steven’s comment is way off. This is a new revenue model, something much rarer than another social network, search engine, etc.
Competition for Google?? This new “food graph” is going to completely change the way we eat! This thing is going to have hundreds of millions of users with an estimated future value of approx 1-5 bil.
Having genuinely occasionally cooked with my laptop in the kitchen in the past, I have thoughts on this. It’s not a bad idea, and would be a service I’d use - if I could plug my own recipes into it too. What use is a custom cookbook if I can’t include my grandmother’s barbequed pork?
… And it turns out I can. Er, never mind.
I like using my laptop — well of course until I’m halfway through prep and my son runs off with the computer to watch transformer videos on youtube…..I think this concept will get traction.
It could be a nice peripheral compliment to a site. But as a stand alone it seems like a step backwards: Sure not everyone has a computer in their kitchen (expensive and messy for now), but the time will come … soon i imagine. It seems like manufacturing a material that contains the same thing as your computer is semi-wasteful. Smells like a dot.com boom idea.
books, books and again books
I like it, it could be useful for sharing recipes and tips. But, as was said already there are dozens of recipe sites out there already and do we really need a “taste” book? I think not.
The “book” bandwagon has already sailed I think.
The “book” bandwagon has already sailed I think.
Albeit over the course of 550 years or so.
Sounds like a neat idea! I run Chef Club and we have a huge recipe section but giving the users a way to easily save/store their favorite recipes isn’t a feature at the moment. This website to book concept is pretty cool.
If you like cooking come by our site… we’re having a $50 Cookie recipe contest at the moment!
Let the culinary misadventures begin.
Frankly, I am tired of splattering sauces on pages of dusty cookbooks when attempting to throw together a meal.
The name of the service is a winner, and the fresh and clean UI makes me want to actually try it. May learn to make a mean applesauce and porkchop dinner yet.
Sumptuous idea!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
I have to wonder where they got the idea for the name.
Ok, I was really excited about this when I read the post … as an amateur chef and food photographer, the idea of making a personal cookbook (for myself or as gifts) is appealing.
So, I made an account … and get this …
You CAN’T upload or use your own images. Not on the cover. Not on the inside. Is it that hard to allow image uploads? Integrate with Flickr streams? No.
C’mon, TasteBook … er … WasteBook
You lost me.
My wife will probably love this, but not allowing your own pictures is a big mistake. How will we ever know what grandmother’s barbequed pork is really supposed to look like?
$35 for a book of recipes that are already available free online??? Pssssh. For years I’ve been printing out recipes from Epicurious, putting the pages in clear plastic sheet protectors, and organizing them in a 3-ring binder. Much cheaper, you can add to it as you wish, AND it is splatter-proof!!
Hi, I work for SharedBook and I just want to let you know that we introduced Create-A-Cookbook with Allrecipes.com last week. You can upload your own photos and stories to the book if you like and it’s fully collaborative, meaning that anyone you invite into the book making space can create their own cookbook if they want. You can find more information at http://www.allrecipes.com if you’d like to take a look.