Holiday Gifts: TasteBook

By JULIETTE ROSSANT TasteBook wants you to put away your old recipes scribbled on index cards and ripped out of magazine articles. The TasteBook website allows customers to select from among 25,000 recipes on Epicurious.com and save favorites in a personalized binder. You skip the cookbook writer, compiler, illustrator and publisher, and create the book – through the website – yourself. Starting in 2008, you'll be able to access recipes from any recipe site (even Super Chef) and add them to your recipe book. You can also add your own family recipes to the your TasteBook - so don't throw away those recipe cards yet. Sounds like a great gift idea? The binders can be personalized for Christmas, birthday, or wedding gift or your own Fast & Easy Dinner Ideas for your college-bound kids. What about a school fundraiser? The books come with photographs of the dishes, cover art, and title. They are easy to organize and handy since the ring binder pops open easily so you can take a recipe to the store or add more later. The books are simple to put together on the website and easy to preview. TasteBooks look a bit like the magazines that make up epicurious.com. The binder is much like the kind used by Better Homes and Garden Cookbook, without all checkerboards. It is no surprise since one of the investors is CondeNet, the internet unit of Conde Nast publications, like Gourmet and Bon Appetit, along with a partnership with epicurious.com. Publishing is turning to the "almost home-made catagory" which stretches from supermarket meals you finish at home to pottery projects that only need paint (see Forbes magazine for Somewhat Individual on the almost home-made trend). Will TasteBooks replace cookbook authors? No, since many unusual or outstanding recipes are not on the web. But TasteBook means that book publishing is speeding up and for some chefs, like a Rachael Ray, it might be possible to put together a Rachael Ray cookbook without turning to Rach. Still, at $34.95 what would be the point? Previous articles: Holiday Gifts: Preserve Cutting Boards Holiday Gifts: Foodie Clothing 2006 Holiday Gift Guide Christmas Remembered: Tomie dePaola Christmas Coffee: Tyler Florence and Senseo Christmas Breakfast: Bacon and Sausage Christmas Desserts: iSi Whip and Recipes Jack Turner's Spice for Christmas The Sex in Chrismukkah Merry Christmas Michael Mina [Products & Endorsements - complete] [Cookbook Reviews - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, TasteBook --> back to Super Chef