Ask HN: Do you see value in a social cooking product? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do you see value in a social cooking product?

1 pointhmontazeri4 comments

I was checking my notes (project ideas) and saw this one:

Social cooking like cooking with friends and family by trying new recipes while video chatting etc. step by steps like a guided experience.

Have you ever encountered the need for cooking with someone while FaceTiming?

What have you used for this?

Was there any pain in doing so?

Thanks in advance y’all

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Here’s a story from work, but which I think matches your idea closely. Some people were pitching a remote inspection app idea. One person is on-site completing the inspection and the subject matter expert guides them through the process. Somebody said, “you mean like whatsapp? We’re also doing that with Whatsapp.”

I think there’s a point where a technology like videocalling is so flexible that it cancels out the need for simple addons. If someone says “Mom, can you show me how to make your chocolate chip recipe?” the lowest friction way isn’t going to be to download an app and sign up.

However, on the social aspect, maybe there’s room for your idea as a asynchronous recipe site where friends all make the same recipe each day and compare their dishes and discuss how it tasted? Think book-clubs and wordle?

Thanks for sharing. I totally get it those days making someone download an app is a huge ask .

However the asynchronous part you mentioned is interesting and maybe something to think about, I always imagined it as a live thing where you discuss and learn together real time…

I don't do this and likely would never do this not because in itself it sounds like a bad idea but it's a personal preference of really disliking the ideas of FaceTime video chatting things.

Now on the other hand socialized cooking is something that I actually do but in person. Prior to covid it was actually a weekly thing friends and family would get together and we would cook together. Sometimes it would just be cooking together various dishes to form a meal but sometimes it would be what we call cooking challenges. And in that respect we would all make the same or a very similar dish or the core idea was the same and then we will try it and decide which we liked best.

So overall I don't think this would be a bad idea and a lot of people would probably enjoy it.

Thanks for sharing. Funny enough before Covid we did something similar, I think that’s how the idea ended up on my list.

I remember also having “date nights” with my gf (now wife) when we lived on different continents.

We would cook the same meal and walk through the steps while chat about it. Like I just did this, r u ready etc.

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