Kochfreunde.com

Kochfreunde.com is the culinary magazine of Oliver Wagner. Here, everything revolves around the almost most beautiful thing in the world: good food. The focus ranges from reports on exciting restaurants to recipes from his own kitchen, cookbooks and culinary gadgets.

Kochfreunde.com

Kochfreunde.com ist das kulinarisches Magazin von Oliver Wagner. Hier dreht sich alles rund um die beinahe schönste Sache der Welt: Gutes Essen. Dabei reicht der Fokus von Berichten über spannende Restaurants bis hin zu Rezepten aus der eigenen Küche, Kochbücher und kulinarische Gadgets.

Where Chefs Eat as iOS App

The concept of the book Where Chefs Eat is simple but straightforward: 400 of the world’s most famous chefs make a total of 2,000 recommendations for restaurants they like to visit. Based on this information, Phaidon worked with Joe Warwick, food columnist and co-founder of The World’s 50 Best Restaurant, to develop an extremely visually appealing product(Amazon, EUR 16.95).

where-chefs-eat-book-01

The layout of the book is obviously based on the typical look and feel of old Yellow Pages, plays skillfully, sometimes boldly, with typography, graphics (mostly maps) and surfaces and does completely without photographs – a great exception for books about food, restaurants and eating.

where-chefs-eat-book-02

An iOS app has also been available for a few days now:
Where Chefs Eat as iOS App – currently for 13,99 EUR

where-chefs-eat-app2

The price is anything but inviting at first. But since I had actually wanted to buy the book for a while already, I went for it, primarily with two questions in mind: Is it possible to transfer the layout concept of the book to an app without losing it? And: How relevant might the tips of the 400 “world-famous chefs” be for me?

Of course, it makes sense for a reference work to be available in a digital form. Both because you can view confectionery recommendations nearby (Hamburg: 0), but also because the many references linked between restaurants, chefs and regions is much easier to follow.

where-chefs-eat-app4

In fact, I find the usability and the overall visual appearance quite successful, but it has little in common with the book, on the one hand certainly due to the medium, but on the other hand probably also the mandatory standardization of the page layout, which is certainly a cost and budget issue.

Still, it’s fun to browse, follow different leads and discover a new restaurant or two.

Then, however, the book and app lose abruptly, because this is a typical result for a location, for example:

where-chefs-eat-app5

More information can not be found. Few of the 2,000 restaurants in the book or app have a more detailed description, and even fewer have comments from the recommending chef. That’s meager. Especially for the digital version, which could play out its advantages right here and close this gap: What about current images from Instagram? Why not show recent checkins on Foursquare? Reviews on Tripadvisor? There would be so much content that could be aggregated to make a virtue out of necessity. Unfortunately, than does not happen and it remains: A digital version of yellow pages. Nice to look at, but then actually rather as a printed copy, since better suited for coffee table display.

If at all. Too bad.

Total
0
Shares
Prev
Tim Raue, Berlin (2013)

Tim Raue, Berlin (2013)

Next
Long March Canteen, Berlin

Long March Canteen, Berlin

You May Also Like