The Cookbook Remixed Tastebook.com gives cooking junkies a better method for recipe madness.
By Kara Ohngren Prior •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The minds behind TasteBook.com have created a virtual space for discovering, organizing and sharing recipes--with an old-school option for printing the collection in a customized cookbook.
"I was shocked that there was no iTunes-style service for recipes out there," says Kamran Mohsenin, founder and CEO of TasteBook. With investment capital from Cond� Nast and Random House, Mohsenin and his team of "food-loving culinary junkies" were looking to target the 60 million online cooking enthusiasts when they launched in October 2007. Since then, more than 1.1 million user-generated recipes have been uploaded to the site, and unique monthly visitors have swelled to half a million.
TasteBook is free to users and monetized by deals with food brands that offer online services like branded, printed TasteBooks. Through partners such as Food Network and Bon App�tit, the site now offers 100,000 recipes for its members.
Create: Members can create My TasteBook accounts to add their own recipes and photos, along with any recipe from the site's library. They can also order a print copy of their TasteBook, complete with a customized cover photo.
Share: Members can share the recipes they put on TasteBook with friends via e-mail. When 10 friends set up accounts, users earn a free TasteBook, which retails for between $19.95 and $34.95.
Visitors can also build group TasteBooks by importing their e-mail address books.
Shop: Visitors can browse "starter TasteBooks," which contain 50 recipes. They can also shop for TasteBooks such as "For the Organic and Healthy" or "For the Dessert Maven"--then add their own recipes.
Video: Cookbook author and Food Network personality Tori Ritchie hosts video segments that explain how to use TasteBook.com.
