Every day when using social media you’re likely to come across at least 10 examples of people sharing what they are eating or drinking. To many it sums up the trivial nature of social media and it’s not uncommon to here people saying “why would I care what somebody had for breakfast?”. Well it seems like lots of people do care and we wanted to share some of the best apps, websites and services that can help you engage with other foodies as well as sharing the amazing food you are making or eating.
As you can see the list is heavily influenced by mobile apps which makes sense when you think about the amount of time we spend out and about in cities with our mobiles in our pockets. The fact that the cameras, video players and 3G connections have all improved means that sharing that amazing dinner with your social network is now easier than ever. So here is you essential guide to social media for foodies…
Rouxbe
So many people want to learn how to cook properly but don’t have the time or the money to do so. Rouxbe is a professional cookery school that allows you to learn from the comfort of your own home. They have a huge bank of professionally produced content, a team of chefs to answer your questions and interactive tests to make sure you are learning as you go along. For a small monthly fee you too could become professional chef in no time!
Foodspotting
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This app has been around for a couple of years and has been sweeping across America but still not massive globally. The idea is simple in that you take photos using your mobile phone and upload them based on your physical location along with any reviews of the food that you might have. As a user you can then come along and browse a city based on food that is near you in a very visual way by scrolling through the photos. An incredible tool to help you find amazing food in cities you have never been to before and always sure to make you hungry when you open this app!
Don’t Eat At
You have to be using Foursquare to log in with this app but it’s one that could potentially save you from getting some nasty food. The idea is that if you check in to a restaurant using Foursquare that has been reported in the past for poor food hygiene the app will automatically send you a text warning you. It uses public information and the Foursquare API and is a super smart way of avoiding restaurants that look good on the outside but might not be the cleanest behind the scenes.
Foodzy
Foodzy.com launched in private beta at The Next Web Conference, calling itself the Foursquare of food. The app helps keep track of what you eat during the day and rewards certain healthy or fun eating habits with badges. There’s also a social element to Foodzy, allowing users to discover new products that others you know like as well as which of them have eating habits that are similar. Foodzy translates calories to “bits,” with the equation being that 20 calories equals 1 bit. This system makes for easy calculations for users — they can figure out how much they eat, as well as how much they should eat depending on their goals (to maintain, lose or gain weight).
Gordon Ramsay iPad App
If you are lucky enough to have an iPad you can now have one of the world’s best chefs in the kitchen helping you out. His app features video recipes, shopping lists, interactive guides and much more and is a fantastic visual aid to help you out in the kitchen. Set your iPad up in the kitchen on a stand and you can follow the recipes in real time and will be cooking up your own delicious Michelin Star meals within minutes.
Instagram has been flying in recent months and one of the main reasons for that is the huge amount of food photos that people are sharing on there. Every single time you log in you are bound to see a steady stream of stunning photos that people have taken when they are out and about. You can search by tags on Instagram and delving in to any of the food tags will give you a huge amount of inspiration by just flicking through the 1000s of photos in there.
Food Gawker
Food Gawker is a truly beautiful site. Food bloggers from around the world submit their photos with an editor choosing the best ones to display. The result is a constantly changing selection of stunning photos most of which have recipes once you click through. There are a few of these sites in the food space but this one gets the vote because it also has an iPhone app that replicates the experience on your mobile.
Food Buzz
There are tens of thousands of food blogs around the web and Food Buzz essentially curates the best information. As they say…”We aggregate and curate 4.2 Million posts from 19292 food blogs to bring quality content into the spotlight.” It’s a great place to stop off and get some inspiration and recipes for the kitchen and you can also interact and follow brands as well if you want.
Love Fresh
Love Fresh is a UK startup aiming to connect you with local produce in your area and the people behind it. The app allows users to create and share points of interest in their local area that sell or deliver fresh fruit, vegetables or serve great homecooked food in local restaurants.
You don’t need to be signed up to use the service, simply downloading the iPhone app or visiting the HTML5 web app will allow you to view and learn more about the businesses and fresh food providers in the area. If you want to submit your own location, the sign-up process within the Lovefre.sh application is incredibly easy; simply enter your name, email address and enter the details of the place you wish to list.
Google Recipe Search
With so many food bloggers, professional chefs, home cooks and other sharing their recipes online it can be hard to find the best content but Google recently stepped in with their new recipe search engine that helps you drill down in to the millions of recipes online in a much better way. Searching can now be carried out based on the amount of people, ingredients and other categories and it then searches the entire web for recipes.
Noms.In
You are in a new city and you have no idea where to eat. Rather than turning to Yelp and Trip Advisor and wading through 1000s of reviews why not turn to Noms.in and get the advice of the professional curators. The site is still new and only has a limited amount of cities but the fact that the design is so clean and beautiful and that it is built around you spending 48 hours in a city makes it incredibly powerful.
Dishtip
This is an interesting search engine that uses semantic signals to help you search for particular dishes that you are after. So instead of looking for restaurants by cuisine you can actually search for things like “french toast” or “Chicken Curry” and it throws back results based on the city you are searching in with photos of the dishes and user votes.
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