In a world of generic dime-a-dozen commodity recipes, CHOW.com separates the men from the boys with information-rich recipes loaded with high-impact visuals and detailed info that reads more like a 5-star cookbook than a recipe website.
Each Chow recipe includes a brief intro about the recipe with a colorful photo, direct links to highlighted ingredients, and cooking techniques with informative tips. There’s also a what-to-buy section for easy prep (and sometimes even a direct link for purchasing a specialty item online).
Each recipe also includes helpful comments from others who have already prepared the recipe. Pretty much everything you need to get it right!
CHOW.com’s recipe repertoire is small, but the site also takes users outside their own site to link up with the vast ocean of recipes on the web.
Glossy photos
The site features lots of big glossy magazine-style visuals, the latest food news articles, recipes and cooking technique videos–updated daily to keep things fresh.
Chow offers lots of bells & whistles/interactive features that connect me with other foodies looking for the next great culinary experience.
A new “Recipe Hack” feature allows viewers a new way to interact with a recipe. They can make it their own, post it onsite, view other “hacked” recipes for ideas, and upload photos of new “hacks.”
Moving Pictures
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a 60-second video is priceless. CHOW.com videos tackle everything from “How to Butterfly a Chicken” (fast, informative cooking technique-rich video) to “How to Eat a Crawfish” (messy good fun) in a series of informative videos.
Then they shake it up with pure entertainment videos like “Man on the Street,” who asks the tough questions like the ever-popular, “What’s for Dinner?”
Regular feature “Supertaster” tells it like it is with all the skinny on what’s new from the supermarket aisles and fast food menus. This ongoing feature rates everything from the new Breakfast Burrito from Hardee’s to Wish-Bone’s new Salad Spritzer, complete with ratings for taste and marketing appeal all done with lots of wit and articulate comments.
Entertaining articles include the expected special occasion and seasonal menus, but also step out of the box with a world of entertaining sidebars such as “How to Keep Guests Out of the Kitchen.” Chow.com even includes a seasonal gift guide loaded with Chow-approved kitchenware, cookbooks, edibles and an on-trend renewable/sustainable gift section for guilt free shopping!
CHOW.com offers up a fresh & contemporary food web site with lots of hip on-trend attitude that is sure to delight.
The Food Channel offers unbiased commentary and opinions on “all things food”—everything from cookbooks, to food products, to prep tools, to restaurants, to…yes, even other food websites.
