Monday, August 27, 2007

Food Network


(http://www.foodnetwork.com/)
If you're a true foody (an internet food fan) then you probably know all about the Food Network on TV. Names like Emeril Lagasse, Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay and Alton Brown are probably common around your house. Just as the Food Network is the dominant resource for food information on TV, Foodnetwork.com is the dominant resource for food information on the Internet.
The website sections include holidays & parties, quick & easy and healthy eating. There is TV information on the site allowing you to get biographies, schedules, and show specific recipes. Additionally, it has a recipe box feature which will allow you to save your favorite recipes once you register as a member (which is free).

All Recipes


(http://www.allrecipes.com/)
The very best recipe book on the internet is allrecipes.com. Founded in 1997 and owned by Reader’s Digest, Allrecipes.com is a proven leader in the online food space.
They have more than 40,000 recipes available in every conceivable category. Search specific categories or search by ingredient; the ingredient search lets you name specific ingredients you want included as well as ingredients you want excluded.
The site has areas for recipes, menus and tips & advice. Perhaps the greatest feature of allrecipes.com is the community. Every recipe has an area for comments and reviews. People are eager to praise good recipes and offer suggestions on others. Again, you can register and put together your own recipe box, then go and offer your own input on the recipes that you have tried.

Epicurious


(http://www.epicurious.com/)
For a slightly higher level of sophistication there is Epicurious. It has "more than 35,000 professionally tested recipes from the premier brands in food journalism, Gourmet and Bon Appétit magazines, as well as web-exclusive original recipes from top chefs and cookbook authors around the world."
The recipes are accompanied by truly striking photographs. They have articles & guides on many subjects, recipes & menus and a brand new community feature. Epicurious has a recipe box feature as well, but my favorite feature is the random recipe sent to my personal Yahoo! desktop.

CHOW


(http://www.chow.com/)
Chow is a slightly different kind of food site. More of an online magazine in format, it has all of the standard features one would expect in a good website as well as regular articles and columns and even videos. One of my favorite features is the regular Gear column that reviews gadgets for the kitchen. They have a ton of different message boards, regional and topical.

Yahoo! Food


(food.yahoo.com)
A very comprehensive guide to all things food on the Internet: "Recipes, restaurants, wine, entertaining and cooks." All of the functionality you would expect from Yahoo! Is present, including videos and blogs. There are spotlight areas for cooking with kids, mixing drinks, and the latest from Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray. There is so much that it can actually be a bit overwhelming when you first visit.

Cooking for Engineers


(http://www.cookingforengineers.com/)
Nominated for a Blogger's Choice Award as Best Food Blog, Cooking for Engineers is a truly fun site for the technically minded foody. Michael Chu started CfE as a place to store and share the recipes that he likes to use as well as some kitchen notes.
Today the blog has great recipes with step-by-step instructions accompanied by pictures, as well as restaurant reviews, kitchen gear reviews and more. Michael likes to test food myths, too, and he breaks down everything that he does in very explicit terms. The blog has reference help like an ingredient dictionary, a metric conversion tool and a suggested reading list. One of my favorites.

101 Cookbooks


(http://www.101cookbooks.com/)
The first thing you will find upon logging onto this blog is a large gorgeous picture. The description of the blog is pretty straightforward: "This site chronicles a cookbook collection, one recipe at a time…"
This is a great blog for exploring recipes along with commentary and history. 101 Cookbooks has been featured in several newspaper articles and is a winner of numerous awards including the 2005 people's choice Webby Award for best personal web site.