Existing users, 
 SousChef - 1.2.3Helps you cook, start to finish. |
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Feedback Summary:
| This Version: | |||||
| Overall Rating: | Not rated (0.0) | Features: | Not rated (0.0) | Support: | Not rated (0.0) |
| Ease of Use: | Not rated (0.0) | Quality / Stability: | Not rated (0.0) | Price: | Not rated (0.0) |
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Featured Reviews
Difficult to use, buggy and unfinished product 
- Version: 1.2.2, 10/29/2009 07:05PM PST
(1 of 1 users found this comment useful)
The Cockroach of Del Mont
There is a plenty to want to like about SousChef, but it gets all the basics wrong.
Entering recipes is not easy. Word autocompletion aggressively kicks in inappropriately and frequently injects unintended words, and there is no way to turn it off. Pressing the return/enter key when typing up ingredients often won't register if the autocompletion is stuck on the last word you typed, or it behaves erratically, forcing you mouse click the "add another" button to go to the next ingredient, which has it's own problems. In fact, entering recipes is so rife with issues that I emailed the developer, suggesting that it is easier to enter the recipe in a text editor and then import it, which the developer agreed was the best strategy until an update is available. Well, we're still waiting for the update.
There is an somewhat smart means of importing recipes that allows you to wrangle sections of the import (title, ingredients, directions) into their appropriate areas. Unfortunately the import process has issues as well. I often find when performing multiple consecutive imports that the application hangs and has to be quit and relaunched.
There is a generate shopping lists feature, but after trying a couple of times to use it, I find it completely unusable. The basic problem is that there is no meaningful distinction between "quantity" and "type" of ingredient. Frequently you have a recipe that lists "1 cup minced ITEM" which ends up making a mess of a shopping list.
What is good about this application? Well search sort of works, but it's funky. There is an option to "play" the recipe through like a slideshow as a sort of cooking assistant, if you the ability to place a computer in your kitchen. You can also search a number of recipes from online sources, although the formatting of these recipes is often horrid.
I realize this is not a comprehensive review of the product, but the first thing a recipe program should do well is allow you to enter in or import your recipes, and this is a miserable struggle of a process and a hinderance to a proper review. To be fair, it is somewhat useable, and after paying for this and entering all my recipes, I feel locked in, which I why I continue to use it.
Entering recipes is not easy. Word autocompletion aggressively kicks in inappropriately and frequently injects unintended words, and there is no way to turn it off. Pressing the return/enter key when typing up ingredients often won't register if the autocompletion is stuck on the last word you typed, or it behaves erratically, forcing you mouse click the "add another" button to go to the next ingredient, which has it's own problems. In fact, entering recipes is so rife with issues that I emailed the developer, suggesting that it is easier to enter the recipe in a text editor and then import it, which the developer agreed was the best strategy until an update is available. Well, we're still waiting for the update.
There is an somewhat smart means of importing recipes that allows you to wrangle sections of the import (title, ingredients, directions) into their appropriate areas. Unfortunately the import process has issues as well. I often find when performing multiple consecutive imports that the application hangs and has to be quit and relaunched.
There is a generate shopping lists feature, but after trying a couple of times to use it, I find it completely unusable. The basic problem is that there is no meaningful distinction between "quantity" and "type" of ingredient. Frequently you have a recipe that lists "1 cup minced ITEM" which ends up making a mess of a shopping list.
What is good about this application? Well search sort of works, but it's funky. There is an option to "play" the recipe through like a slideshow as a sort of cooking assistant, if you the ability to place a computer in your kitchen. You can also search a number of recipes from online sources, although the formatting of these recipes is often horrid.
I realize this is not a comprehensive review of the product, but the first thing a recipe program should do well is allow you to enter in or import your recipes, and this is a miserable struggle of a process and a hinderance to a proper review. To be fair, it is somewhat useable, and after paying for this and entering all my recipes, I feel locked in, which I why I continue to use it.
Nice, But Old School - Version: 1.0, 10/7/2008 11:35AM PST
(2 of 3 users found this comment useful)
alajuela
Three years ago, I might have given this app five stars. It is very nicely done, and has some "cook friendly" features, such as the recipe/instruction display. In some ways, it is much nicer than the other cooking/recipe apps I have paid for. But this is almost 2009; I shop with my iPhone now. I want a recipe manager that integrates with IQGrocer or Shopping List, or has its own iPhone app to drive/integrate the shopping list. I'd rather have its features on my iPhone, so that in my kitchen, I could listen on speakerphone, over my headset, or in my iHome clock radio. If all you want is a good recipe manager, and this has the features you want [especially the blogging, sharing, and display features], it is nicely done, and its price is on a par with the market. Still, I do like its recipe/instruction display.
Restarting the program doesn't help. Deleting the recipe can cause the corruption of the preceding recipe. I really wanted to like this program, but after months of struggling with these issues, I've decided to give up and move on. A poorly-functional or buggy recipe editor is a non-starter in a recipe management program.