Cookpad Inc., Shirokanedai クックパッド、白金台
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 2:04PM | Dave Tokyoeater and I recently attended a cook-up at the HQ of Cookpad Inc., to celebrate and give feedback on their recently launched international site.
Although most Japanese are aware of Cookpad, for my foreign reader (hi mum) the Cookpad site is a place where Joe Public can upload his recipes – complete with hastily snapped photos – and share cooking techniques with all who care to listen.
The beauty of site is that it's not always beautiful. Or rather, the content is not. It’s real, raw and often unpolished. The quality of cooking, culinary creativity and photographic proficiency can at times leave much to be desired. As such Cookpad offers a real taste of everyday cooking by everyday people.
To date the new international site is a little bare, but will blossom and perhaps even become as popular as the Japanese iteration.
Anyway, back to the cook-up!
A diverse group of strangers were invited to share an evening of wine and cooking in Cookpad’s spacious multi-user kitchen. Each had been asked to bring a “secret” ingredient, and yet had no idea what they’d be cooking on the night.
As it turned out, after being put into teams, we were supplied with the basic ingredients (and instructions) for gyōza (Chinese dumplings). Each team was to create a batch of standard dumplings and another batch incorporating the secret ingredients brought be participating “chefs.”
Fun was had and a mess made. Although the quality of cooking varied widely, overall it was a good effort. My team’s “Italian gyōza,” however, were far too soggy.
When all were done in the kitchen the gyōza were sampled and a winner decided upon. The glory went to none other than our own Tokyoeater for his ketchup and curry powder infused dumplings. Bravo!
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