I had some time off events and tours this past month. That had me cooking a lot more for my family. And so, I was looking for some new and interesting ways to use my pantry items and odd frozen collection of stuff.
If you’ve been to my kitchen-studio, you’ve instantly seen my collection of cooking books which I absolutely love. Usually, I use these cooking books to get inspiration for new dishes, but in times that it’s a more of a practical search for a recipe, I’ve found myself more often searching google instead. Why is that?
Well, you see my point and probably many of you had the same problem yourselves. And this is why I result many times to Googling a dish/ingredient instead.
I just wished my whole library was indexed, and that I can search it as easily as I used google.
Before going through the whole process of indexing the whole thing by myself, I decided to pause and look for a hack online. It seemed like this might be a problem many have faced before me.
I did my research and found a pretty cool option. It’s not perfect (and I’ll tell you why in a bit), but it was by far the quickest way to get access to as much information for a very fair price. (Took about 30 minutes of work):
All this was pretty impressive in first sight. I wonder how handy it will come to be in the next few months. I especially like being able to see other people’s notes on a specific recipe. It looks like there’re many more features to discover still: bookmarking books I want, monthly new books recommendations, adding your own recipes and follow cooking blogs.
I’ve also found this platform very convenient combined with copymethat.com – I use this great website to keep all my recipes. But this is a topic for another post!
All in all I am pretty happy with this solution, hoping it would get better with time and a growing community. I decided to share this discovery with everyone I know because I think it’s so simple but gives a lot of value and can possibly help many others cookbook nerds like me out there.
I feel like now I am a lot more excited about using my cookbooks, and expending my collection, because I know I would be able to use it better when I need them. Hopefully this guide helped you too to get your cookbooks bookshelf used a lot more!
Inspired by International and Asian cuisine and her bringing up in Tel Aviv, Mashav Shelef leads the team of Le Couloir, tailoring private events, creating new and inspiring menus and making sure every event is one to remember. A graduate from Ferrandi - Paris and experienced in several Michelin starred restaurants. In 2013 created a Pop-up Secret Kitchen in Tel Aviv and now starting her way as a Personal Chef in San Francisco. She brings dedication, creativity and her undeniable passion for food together with a fresh approach to cooking derived from her scientific background.