Zest Cooking 9+

Genuinely excited

Having just cooked my first meal with this app, I feel I can say I’m very excited for where I’ll go with it! I’ve long been looking for something this accessible to help me learn and feel more comfortable with cooking. I think I can say that I’ve found that with Zest. The wealth of knowledge available in each recipe really makes you feel at ease with each recipe, with bite-sized tips and tricks through videos within the steps. I love the broad range of recipes even separated by your skill level, with more complex dishes and simple single-digit ingredient dishes all available even at my introductory skill level. This move was genius, I think, because having that rush of being able to make something delicious and quick but also learning as I go will definitely help keep me engaged! I honestly can’t wait to explore more recipes and learn more, I already have a dozen recipes saved!

Addition to my previous review after using it for a while longer:
I love this app for how it has helped me cook for my family a lot more than I used to in my pre-Zest days! One gripe and suggestion for a clarification to add for equipment: I have many times not used the right sized bowl or pan or pot. Saying “small” or “large” is not always specific enough. A suggested volume of size would be immensely helpful! In fact, I would love to see a View Details option for the Equipment section in the future.

Developer Response ,

❤️❤️❤️

Great app so far!!

I’ve used the app a bit and so far I really like it. The videos are interesting and informative and it has been a great place for me to learn more and get more cooking experience under my belt.
I saw that some ppl say you have to pay for the app in the future? If that’s the case then that would deter me from using it. I could maybe do a short ad once in a while but I wouldn’t want to pay in the future.
Really cute app and illustration design. Pretty user friendly. The simplicity makes for good UX/UI design. I would recommend a subtitle option for the videos that you could turn on or off.
I think you should add the option to take a picture of your meal after you finish a recipe that would be added to a scrapbook of sorts so you can see all of your progress and past meals!!! (Or even if the picture was just connected to the meal after you added it to your cookbook or something.) I love being able to store pictures of my work!

Used to be better

A new update just dropped that got rid of the “menu” and now there is a “plan” instead. So now you cannot add recipes to your menu (which included a shopping list and a section to toggle which meals you want to shop for), you have to start a “plan” for the week. It is unbelievably annoying because I liked to add a bunch of stuff to my menu in advance and then toggle which meals I’ll prepare for the week. I also liked being able to delete meals and add meals whenever I want. I can’t plan for the week ahead now because you have one set plan and if you create a new one, it deletes the current one.

I hope that makes sense, but it’s irritating to have to start a new plan every time I decide that I want to shop for something other than what I have added to my plan.

I hope they change the app back to what it was before this update or at least include the menu idea along with the plan. Plus the new UI is so annoying to look at. I just miss the old app. If it doesn’t change, I might have to cancel my subscription tbh. This app has changed my life for the better, but the new update is just terrible.