Step-by-Step Recipe Videos on Rouxbe for the Aspiring Cook
Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t cook a lot and when I do it’s mainly prepackaged food that is cooked in the microwave. I do own a rice cooker (I love it), a George Forman grill and a slow cooker that are used from time to time. Sometimes I watch the Food Network and I love Top Chef on Bravo. So, there is a part of me that would like to cook more, especially with fresh ingredients rather than preprocessed food.
There are many sites on the web with recipes, even videos that bring you through the process of making that perfect meal. But I am taken with Rouxbe which contains a selected group of recipes that are presented in a professional video format. The videos make cooking look so very easy that it is inspiring me to try a few recipes. There is a recipe Chicken Cashew recipe that I am definitely going to try…I just need a volunteer to try it with me :)
There are not a lot of recipes but the ones on the site are top notch. Each recipe has the text version containing the list of ingredients as well as how to prepare in case you don’t want to watch the video — though you would be missing out if you skip it. As you go through each step you can get more information about ingredients and tips on how to prepare common items (called drill-downs).
There is a Drill-down section containing instructional videos that tell you what an ingredient is, how to buy and how to prepare items for a recipe. For this novice cook they are very helpful. Now I know how to dice an onion or shallot without having a mixture of very large and very small pieces!
Rouxbe also allows you to download videos for a fee either in HD format or for an iPod. This helps you bring the recipes into the kitchen if you don’t have a laptop handy. I have my laptop so it’s easy to follow along with the videos, stop at each step and make that perfect meal.
Starting in early 2008 Rouxbe will be offering online cooking courses which will follow a culinary curriculum just as if you were going to a professional cooking school. There will be over 200 instructional courses in all. You need to have a Rouxbe membership in order to participate.
That leads me to how membership works on Rouxbe. First off, you get a 30 day free trial. You then have 2 options. You can buy a membership which is $49/year or sign up for a lifetime membership for $149. If you don’t want to spend the money you can fill out a survey and Rouxbe will match you up with a sponsor that pays your way for 90 days. The sponsor puts their logo on the top of the page and provide links to their products though you don’t end up with intrusive banner ads like other sites. My sponsor is currently Epitourean and their logo sits in the upper right hand corner of each page. No big deal and I did check out their site which looks promising.
At this point I would suggest opting for the sponsorship way of gaining membership to the site until they add more content. I’m excited about the cooking school and hope that is included in the sponsorship membership as well as paid membership. If you do choose to pay for a membership 15% of your fee goes to Rouxbe for Life to feed children in developing countries.
I really like Rouxbe. The layout of the site is nice and clean, the videos are professional with a nice soundtrack playing in the background (very soothing) and they have great contributors with easy to follow recipes. There are a few things that I would like to see.
- Definitely more content. The amount of recipes is limited at this point though I am sure they plan on adding more, it looks like they are looking for more contributors.
- Tags are used on the site but they could increase the number of keywords. Right now the tags are for the different meal course. They could include recipe items like chicken, beef, potatoes, etc.
- There is a small community section that showcases contributors. I would love to see a forum where members can share their experiences, ideas for additional cooking videos and their own recipes.
Rouxbe is on the right path for becoming a player in a crowded market of food and recipe sites. What makes it stand out for me is the quality and ease of instruction contained in the videos. Check it out and let me know what you think.
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Thanks for the post.
Just wanted to let your readers know that:
a) yes… the cooking school will be included in sponsored memberships.
b) a basic forum (phase 1) will be implemented very soon to enhance the dialogue we have with our users regarding site developments
c) the community section is about to expand significantly. I’m going to keep you in suspence but I will tell you that like many other things on our site, it will not be like most other community sections. We are a content company that focusses on quality of learning - not quantity of recipes. While we will certainly be expanding our social networking and user-centric tools, this is not our focus.
d) tags will be expanded shortly as well… just trying to juggle priorities right now, but I promise we’ll get to this.
e) new content is released approximately every week - this is our commitment to our users. Last week we released 8 new recipes and our new “multi-task” player for thanskgiving ease.
Thanks again for the in-depth review and support.
Cheers
Joe Girard
CEO Rouxbe