Cookshow.com - Visual Recipes

If you've ever picked up a copy of Julia Child's an attempted to demystify one of her recipes, you'll understand the need for sites like Cookshow. That is to say, sometimes, the recipe just isn't enough for an amateur chef to be able to produce a succulent finished product, and a visual aid would be helpful. Cookshow goes beyond simple photos and brings you video recipes, so you can see exactly what you're supposed to do, which ingredients you're supposed to add, and when. It's essentially a video-cooking social network for all ranges of abilities, however; anyone can join and upload videos. You can search for recipes and tips by category (for example, you can search for a recipe in French for a second-course Asian fusion dish), and you can also join groups and meet other chefs. If you like a recipe, tell the uploader by commenting on it and add them to your "Favorite chefs". The site operates in English, French, and German currently.

"Cookshow is a community site built on sharing free video recipes that are based on the single theme of cooking and everything that goes with it. You will discover:
• short recipes filmed by users
• filmed or written tips and tricks
• some thematic articles
• a blog
• and most importantly, in our view, a humanitarian programme"

Cookshow is a great resource for anyone who wants to create great dishes with minimal confusion; seeing the recipes executed right in front of you on your computer screen definitely decreases the potential for disastrous culinary exploits. The search features are really good too; there are a lot of recipe and tip categories to browse through.

Cookshow is a fledgling site still, so its success depends heavily on expansion, and since it's a user-generated content site, expansion in turn depends on participation from the community. There are only about 64 recipes at this point in time; how many does the site plan on acquiring? How will it spread the word about its service, and then use its popularity to turn a profit?