I think the reason why Github is a better model than reddit is because of the developer-centric model of Github. I use Github because it's how I manage my own code-- it's first and foremost about me. The social aspect of it is what makes it go viral when a cool library is pushed, but that's a vitamin, not a painkiller.
With reddit, it's more of a nail-biting, "gosh I hope people like this" sort of model. Its focus is on the community and a link is a temporary (usually < 1 day) talking point for people.
I think chefs treasure their recipes and carry them around for life. They know what they like and they're happy to experiment/learn from others, but it's mostly about mastering their own skills and creating their own recipes.
I suppose if anyone's interested, I'd be willing to carry the idea further. I'm a technical guy, with experience in RoR and NodeJS and Android, although I'd love to explore the business side of things more.
Sadly, I don't have my website up yet since I had to make architectural decisions to accommodate massive data input for example.
You and me have the biggest problem: chicken and egg. :D
Tip: If you're going to use random recipes as frontpage, try not to show them without pictures as it makes your website looks incomplete/tacky.
Yeah, we do have the same problem pretty much. It's definitely a chicken and egg thing. That's why I demoted it from startup to side project and got a job. There's way too much competition and there's too much of a chicken and egg problem for one guy to make this fly.
For recipes that you don't have any pictures of yet, seeing the site logo is really confusing. Why don't you instead show a generic icon/clipart image for the class of food (a cup of soup for soups) or pull something in from google images or flickr?