The Video Cookbook Review

Sometimes it's much easier to learn something through watching videos or looking at images, rather than reading text. This is particularly true when it comes to cookery as then you know exactly what kind of look you're meant to be achieving. As well as that, if you're trying to decide what to cook, looking at the pictures of the end result can give you some inspiration. The Video Cookbook taps into all this offering 124 recipes complete with HD video footage and some gorgeous photography.

The app is as easy to use as a cookbook. Upon loading, you get the choice of meal types such as snacks and appetisers, mains, sides, soups and desserts. Once you choose a meal type, an attractive list of options comes up providing you with a small photo to tantalise your taste buds as well as how difficult it is to prepare and how many people it serves. Annoyingly there aren't any filtering recipes so you can't arrange the recipes in anything other than alphabetical but this is a minor quibble, and it's still quite easy to browse.

Each recipe comes with a plentiful supply of photographs as well as a video explaining just how to make the meal. An internet connection is required for these videos so it does take a moment to download them, however once downloaded, the video works fine without any stuttering. Besides the visual information, there's also comprehensive ingredient lists for each recipe (plus the ever handy ability to add them to a shopping list) and text based step by step instructions. On a couple of occasions I found that the instructions were a little vague and assumed that the person reading is very comfortable in the kitchen, so this probably isn't ideal for the novice cook. A glossary function does ease these issues a little at least.

Overall, The Video Cookbook is a pretty nice app. It's lovely to look at and feels very professionally made. Developers Futura Group promises there'll be future in-app purchases in the form of new recipe packs which sounds like a great move if they're competitively priced. The Video Cookbook certainly feels like an app worth keeping on your iOS device for a while to come. There's some great inspiration here.