Pick-E-Recipe: Making Picky Eating Easier One App at a Time

Executive Summary:
Are you a picky eater looking to broaden your culinary experiences but don’t know where to start? Pick-E-Recipe is the tool for you. Designed with adventurous picky eaters in mind, Pick-E-Recipe is an interactive search app whose main feature is a weekly video blog (vlog) that showcases holistic recipes requested by other subscribers.

Type in the natural food or foods that you like or would like to try and Pick-E-Recipe will provide you with a list of recipes that include those items. You can also save these recipes for later use. For more visual learners, the built-in vlog will feature a new recipe each week – either from a professional chef or users’ own home videos. Or, if you’re shopping and something new piques your interest, you can look it up and compare it to other items allowing you to decide whether or not it’s worth the purchase. Consider Pick-E-Recipe as a free and easy way to become more adventurous in eating and cooking.

Problem Statement:
Currently, there are sites around the internet that provide users with recipes and healthy options. Some also provide directions on how to prepare these dishes – foodnetwork.com or cookingtutorials.com to name a couple. Recipes are often offered in written step-by-step format. But it seems that there is a shortage of video tutorials. While more experienced cooks may know what a “pinch of salt” looks like, beginning cooks (like me) like to have that visual aid for reference. While you can find almost anything on YouTube, wouldn’t it be great to have an experienced chef showing you the ropes with just the touch of a button?

There are apps that help you count calories and manage your weight. There are apps that compare nutritional value of different foods and apps that compare prices. But what about picky eaters that want to try more at their own pace with ingredients they know they like? Pick-E-Recipe is the one-stop answer without the embarrassment of having to ask or explain yourself to others. This app isn’t here to replace those pre-exisiting apps, but to target a different group of people and aim to help their needs where the other apps do not.

Project Description:
Pick-E-Recipe is free to download and can be installed on your smartphone, tablet or computer. Subscribers use their email as a username and can access their account through any device that has the app installed.
There are three tabs: recipe search, compare and recipe vlog.

Recipe Search:

For picky eaters looking for more experience in the kitchen, the recipe tab will allow you to type in a list of food items you want to cook with and will provide you with a list of recipes. These recipes can vary in expertise levels (beginner to difficult) and will be available to the user at the all at once – giving them the option to choose based on their own comfort level. Within this tab users can save their favorite recipes in their personalized “recipe boxes.”

Compare:

This feature is geared towards the picky shopper who’s looking to try something new. Use this tab as a food thesaurus. Look up specific food(s) and find out its food group, taste, texture and best preparation methods. You can also find out what other foods it is similar to.

This will be exceptionally handy in the fruits and vegetables department where many leafy greens may look the same but differ greatly in taste and texture once cooked i.e. kale versus lettuce or basil versus baby spinach.

Because this tool gives a side by side comparison, it could reduce unnecessary buying or increase someone’s willingness to try something new because they know that it is close enough to something they already like.

Vlog:

This is the most highlighted feature of Pick-E-Recipe.

Here the subscriber can watch video tutorials on some of the most requested recipes and other kitchen “how-to.” A new recipe will be featured each week and older videos will be kept in an archive so users can go back and search at any time. The app will present tutorials hosted by a myriad of culinary professionals. Or, users can have the option of uploading their own home videos to show first-person accounts of successes and/or failures.

Subscribers will also have an opportunity to write to the featured chefs and request recipes or other culinary how-to’s for future videos. Beginner cooks need a reference when learning proper technique of using kitchen tools and preparing foods. This app will provide that.

Pick-E-Recipe will work with farmers, butchers and professional chefs that specialize in holistic and all natural foods in order to provide subscribers with top information on the best fruits and vegetables, prime cuts of meat and how to best prepare it all. Pick-E-Recipe will also work with the top technology professionals to put it all together so it can be accessible to you any time, any place with ust the touch of a button.

About PickyFoodLover:
The name says it all. I am a food lover and novice cook with a palate that is hard to satisfy. I know firsthand how difficult it can be to find recipes worth making; since most of the time I only like one or two of the ingredients. I often ask “what is it similar to that I actually eat?” Most of the time the person I ask – who almost always has more of a diverse palate than I do – couldn’t give me a solid or satisfactory answer. However, I am willing to try (almost) anything once – as long as I know ahead of time what I can expect.

I don’t consider myself a real cook. I know a couple of recipes that I use quite often. I am forcing myself to become braver in the kitchen by slowly branching out and trying foods similar to those I already enjoy. Through my own experiences, I want to show other picky eaters that they aren’t alone and that it is OK to learn at your own pace.