App Review: Epicurious

Epicurious: Recipes, Menus, Cooking Articles, and Food Guides

History

Epicurious is produced by Condé Nast Digital.

About Condé Nast Digital "Condé Nast Digital is the leading creator and developer of upscale lifestyle brands online, providing enjoyable, useful services that tie in to and build upon the heritage of the world's most prestigious magazines. Today, Condé Nast Digital owns the deepest online brands in the vertical categories of food (Epicurious.com), travel (Concierge.com), and fashion (Style.com). Based in New York, Condé Nast Digital is owned by Advance Publications, Inc., a privately-held media company."

According to a January 21 press release, "Epicurious, the most award-winning digital food brand... introduced the all-new Epicurious Recipe & Shopping List mobile app with a highly visual and advanced design built for iPhone and iPad. The first Epicurious mobile app, introduced in 2009, has been downloaded over 7.5 million times on the App Store..."

Epicurious has 11 editors, who produce content alongside food journalists, cookbook authors, and member submissions. Carolyn Kremins is the senior vice president and general manager of Epicurious, since June 2013.

Awards
The most recent awards listed on Epicurious are from 2012 and include:

2008 Webby Awards: Winner Social Networking 
2009 The Daily Telegraph: 101 Most Useful Websites
2010 ASME: Winner Mobile Media
2011 Time: 50 Best Phone Apps

Pros

• easy to function
• visually appealing
• colors
• grid-like pattern
• can search for what you want or search categories

     

• can add recipes to a recipe box
• can access recipe box on mobile phone while at store
• lists ingredients needed for a recipe
• can add ingredients to a shopping list
• check and uncheck items if you need to buy them

• voice activation
• can command your phone to scroll up and down or to go to "ingredients" or "preparation"
• can see others' ratings and reviews

• gives serving sizes
• can sort searches by relevance, rating, photo, A-Z, or  ingredients
• can share on Facebook, Pinterest, email and text message

Cons

• takes you to top of Homepage anytime you press the back arrow, instead of taking you to where you last were
• advertisements are always at the bottom of the app
• "Help" is only a list of FAQs
• no where to search for help
• must email if your question isn't on the FAQ list
• I personally couldn't get the voice activation to work