Trufflehead is a finalist in 4 categories (more than any other app) for Toquemag.com’s Best Food App Awards. It’s a contender for the following awards: Best Value, Best Cooking, Best Cookbook/Recipe, and Best Health Food. Fingers crossed.

Our friends at Mobile Skillet are going rogue by sponsoring a truly revolutionary recipe contest. In fact, it’s the world’s first recipe contest whose prize is an iPhone/iPad app ($15,000 value) which the winner can sell on iTunes for all revenues less Apple’s commission. Anyone with original recipes can enter. Just submit your very best recipe via the entry form on the Mobile Skillet contest page. You may be the next Cooking App Star.

In a piece in today’s NY Times, food writer Julia Moskin gives Mobile Skillet’s Trufflehead app some love. The piece focuses on new interactive technologies, and Trufflehead gets the nod for its photo-upload functionality. Read the full article here.

After making every conceivable mistake (and suffering mightily for them), I did learn how to get a cooking app done. I’m writing this post in the hope of saving you aggravation, time, and money. And, naturally, I’d love to produce an app for you. That said, I’ll try to present the options as objectively as possible.

Paths to the App Store

The mobile marketplace beckons. An app can help you grow your brand, share and showcase your recipes, and generate incremental revenue. If you’re thinking about doing one, know this: Route is destiny. It will influence your app’s look and feel, what it can do, how hard you work, the help you get, how long it takes, how much you pay, and how much you earn. Here’s a brief guide to the choices.

Walled-Garden Platform App Creation

Cookbook Café/BakeSpace is a DIY publishing company that offers free iPad app production on a no-frills open platform. App design is pre-fab, which saves time and money, but results in visually indistinguishable, cloned apps. To access them, buyers must download the Cookbook Café/BakeSpace app.

• Advantages: Free. No upfront costs, maintenance fees, or revenue share. User- and recipe-friendly dashboard.

• Disadvantages: Cookie-cutter appearance. Minimal functionality (1-video limit, no shopping list, timer, emailing, social media, scaling, metric conversion). You upload your content. Low visibility (not searchable, no unique icon/page on iTunes). Limited accessibility to consumers. iPad only.

Platform App Creation
Sutro Media is widely known as a publisher of travel apps, but they have also produced a few cooking apps, including one for Monica Bhide. They know what they’re doing and clients regard them highly. Their app design is pre-fab.
• Advantages: No upfront cost or maintenance fees. Apps searchable on iTunes (unique icons/pages). Experienced, responsive team. Package includes formatting of author-supplied icon image. User-friendly portal. Professional project management.

• Disadvantages: Cookie-cutter appearance. Interface design not recipe-specific. Minimal functionality (no shopping list, timer, emailing, social media, scaling, metric conversion). No copy editing or content upload services. They receive 40% of sales revenues; you get 30% (Apple takes the remaining 30%). iOS apps only; universal design, not optimized specifically for iPhone and iPad.

Semi-Custom Platform App Creation

My own Mobile Skillet is one of the few digital media companies devoted exclusively to developing cooking apps. We combine the best of traditional publishing with the cost-saving efficiencies of automated systems. We offer both custom development and high-quality, high-functioning, personality-branded, affordable platform apps. Our recipe-centric designs are semi-customized via an array of layouts, palettes, backgrounds, and fonts (600+ combinations). In January 2012, our Trufflehead app was featured on Apple’s New & Noteworthy, Top 25 Lifestyle, and What’s Hot iPhone app lists.

• Advantages: Team has specific expertise in cooking app creation and recipe-writing. Multiple design options (apps not cloned). iPhone- and iPad-specific designs and layouts. Multi-functionality with smart shopping list, timer, email, social media, scaling, metric, and video. Apps searchable on iTunes (unique icons/pages). State-of-the-art, user-friendly portal. Original icon design and editing/upload of 50 recipes provided. (Additional editing/upload services available.) Professional project management.

• Disadvantages: Upfront cost starting at $5,000; 10% revenue share. Small monthly maintenance fee covers server and bug fixes. iOS apps only.

Semi-Custom Self-Build Platform App Creation
Mobile Roadie is the gold standard in this category, which also includes App Builder and App Guppy. They count major institutions (Harvard) and corporations (Random House) among their clients. Their sophisticated platform requires the user to conceive the app’s organization and assemble components using dashboard “tools” (analogous to “plug-ins”). A free trial option allows you to test-drive the system.
• Advantages: Multiple design options, so apps don’t look cloned. Functionalities include video and social media. State-of-the-art portal. Apps searchable on iTunes (unique icons/pages). Apps for both iOS and Android.

• Disadvantages: Upfront cost (iPhone/Android app $1200/year; iPad app $6000/year) plus 10% revenue share. Designing app is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and technically challenging. No project management. Online support with slow response times (days). No copy editing, data entry, or graphic design services. You upload content. Templates not recipe-friendly. Photos must be vertical or square (not horizontal). No cooking-specific functionalities such as shopping list, timer, scaling, or metric.

Custom App Development

Custom development can be extremely expensive. Good designers and developers charge $100 to $150 an hour. A typical project takes 350 to 450 hours or more. Do the math. If my Trufflehead project had gone well, development would have cost around $50,000. I’m too ashamed to tell you what I actually paid, but I’ll share some cost data I compiled on other apps and developers:

*The App Company (Eco Chef 10-Minute Meals with Bryan Au): $18,000
*Green Kitchen: $39,000; client uploaded most of the content
*Blue Bamboo Apps (MasterChef Academy U.S.): $30,000 to $80,000
*Culinate (How to Cook Everything): quoted $150,000 for a robust app comparable to Trufflehead

To find a developer, check out the iTunes pages of your favorite apps. (A link to each developer’s website appears below the app description.) Visit They Make Apps and Get Apps Done (CraigsLists for app developers), where you can search “cooking” and “recipes” or post your project and invite bids. Before moving forward, read Chapter 4 in Ken Yarmosh’s App Savvy for valuable tips. Avoid non-US developers! And make sure you have a good lawyer with experience in this area.

• Advantages: You own the IP and receive sales revenues directly from Apple. It’s your vision—aesthetically, structurally, and functionally. Operating system of your choice. Graphic design and data entry services negotiable.

• Disadvantages: Significant up-front cost. High risk. Complex contracts, difficult to enforce, can result in huge legal bills. (App contracts deserve an entire blog post!) Long production time; delays are common. Higher frequency of bugs. Ongoing maintenance at $100 to $150/hour. Copy editing not available.

If you had told me 3 years ago that I’d write a blog post on this topic I would have questioned your sanity. But there it is. I hope you find it helpful.

I need your help.

I’ve entered my cooking app startup, Mobile Skillet, in the Mass Challenge startup funding competition. There’s a public component, and I wonder if you would vote for me here http://masschallenge.org/profile/mobile-skillet-llc. To do so, they require that you register as an “observer” https://masschallenge.org/user/register, but you just enter your email address and click the “observer” button. The whole thing takes about a minute.

I really appreciate your support.

Deborah, Trufflehead founder

A couple of years ago, after teaching my 20-something son to cook, I became obsessed with the idea of writing a cookbook for young adults. I wanted to get them hooked on home cooking because it’s healthier for their waistlines, their wallets, and the planet. To size up my prospects, I ran the idea by a pal of mine who knew culinary publishing from the inside.

My friend said that mobile computing was changing the world and that I should do the project as an iPhone app. (Android didn’t exist yet.) At the time, I didn’t own a smart phone, and I had never seen an app. But—as soon as he said it–I knew he was right. I assembled a powerhouse team and started working on Trufflehead, a cooking app for iPhone and iPad.

When Trufflehead launched last summer, it entered a market dominated by big-name chefs with big money. I was flying solo—without a corporate machine behind me and without a safety net. As the development costs for Trufflehead grew, I began to appreciate why so few people like me had ventured into app creation: They simply couldn’t afford it. If that barrier could be overcome, many more members of the culinary arts community could launch their own cooking apps and reach a growing audience of young cooks who lived on mobile devices.

My team and I began to envision a Trufflehead-based program that could be used to produce cooking apps more efficiently and cost-effectively than ever before. We called it Mobile Skillet, and it’s now a reality. Our website, www.MobileSkillet.com , launched last week.

Mobile Skillet offers a personalizeable “blank slate” format that can be licensed to talented chefs, cookbook authors, and food bloggers for a fraction of the cost of doing an app from scratch. Instead of $50,000 to $100,000, Mobile Skillet apps run $5,000 to $15,000. That roughly equals the cost of a self-published book—without the additional hassles and expense of shipping, warehousing, and distribution.

The Mobile Skillet platform channels Trufflehead’s user-friendly structure and value-added functionality. We know it’s a good model because its features (including a smart shopping list and photo upload capability) landed it on Apple’s New and Noteworthy, Top 25 Lifestyle, and What’s Hot iPhone app lists in January 2012.

Unlike the existing competition, Mobile Skillet isn’t a “walled garden” system that stamps out bland, look-alike, do-nothing apps. Our apps are individualized via an array of lay-outs and palettes. They offer shopping lists, hyperlinked glossaries, and the capacity for community-building and email. Every single one has an independent, searchable identity on iTunes, with a unique icon and a distinctive page celebrating the author’s contribution.

Trufflehead took 2 years to complete, and—as those who monitored my progress know—they were frought with perils. Unscrupulous, incompetent developers were everywhere. It was a miracle that I ended up in good hands and that Trufflehead was successful. Now I’m using my experience to help others achieve the same outcome without the hard knocks.

If you are curious about the process, I hope you’ll visit www.MobileSkillet.com . If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at deborah@mobileskillet.com .

If you’re already wrinkling up your nose, know this: The soggy, stinky mess you were served in your school cafeteria isn’t the whole story. It’s just the story of overcooked cabbage. When this humble veggie is properly cooked (we prefer it crisp-tender), it’s sweet and not smelly at all.

Cabbage is a nutritional giant (broccoli family ties) and a caloric pygmy (17 calories per cup). And—if you’re watching carbs—you’ll be happy to hear that it’s 50% fiber. If you’re feeling lazy, you can eat it raw (try our Cole Slaw with Peppers), but if you’re willing give it a few minutes in a skillet, you can step up to Pan-Seared Honey Dijon Cabbage.

When you’re shopping for green cabbage, choose firm, tight heads, heavy for size, with pale greenish-white leaves. Avoid heads with limp, withered, or yellowed leaves with worm holes or brown spots.

You can store it for up to 1 week wrapped in plastic wrap or in a plastic bag in refrigerator crisper. After cutting it, you can store the remainder in the same way.

Chard is the queen of greens—with looks to match its nutritional pedigree (rich in vitamins A, K, and C as well as minerals and fiber). It’s one of our faves because it’s easy, delicious, and compatible with almost every conceivable kind of protein. The leaves are silky, the stems are crisp, and the combination is pretty interesting.

Our go-to chard recipes are Chard with Raisins (Simple) and (Not-so-Simple). They both employ our signature 2-step method. The steps (blanching and sautéing) are easy and you don’t have to do them on the same day. Dividing the work makes these recipes entertaining-friendly.

Here’s how it works: Blanch the chard right after you buy it—when it’s at the peak of freshness. Then refrigerate it in a covered container for a couple of days. When you’re ready to finish it, all you have to do is throw it into a hot skillet with a little oil and some flavorings. Toss, heat it through, and serve.

When shopping for chard, go for red or rainbow varieties if possible. (They’re the most beautiful.) Select bunches with fresh-looking, firm, bright, deep green leaves and broad stems. Avoid chard with wilted or yellowed leaves or stems with brown spots, nicks, bruises or insect holes.

To store: Refrigerate in a sealed plastic bag large enough to hold the entire leaf for 2 to 3 days.

You’ll find broccoli rabe hiding behind many names: broccoli raap, broccoli rabe, rapini, broccoletti, broccoli di rabe, cime di rapa, and friarielli. But it can’t hide its assertive, peppery flavor. In what we consider a never-ending paradox, it pairs well with plain proteins such as beef and lamb as well as mild ones such as fish. It also goes extremely well with un-plain dishes, such as anything marinara (calamari, shrimp, or meatballs). Go figure…

Like other members of the mustard family (e.g. broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and turnips), it’s packed with nutrients. And, true to the family profile, it’s tastier when cooked less rather than more. We blanch it first to take out some of the bitterness (and also to make it cook-able in less oil.) Then we throw it into a hot skillet with olive oil, garlic, and hot pepper. (Check out our Broccoli Rabe with Peppers.) Yummy!

When you buy broccoli rabe, choose fresh-smelling, bright green bunches with thin stalks, closed florets, and no more than a few open yellow flowers. Avoid any that appears limp, wet, yellow, or dry.

When you get home, remove the band or twist from the bunch, wrap the rabe in a damp paper towel, and place it in a perforated plastic bag. Store in the refrigerator up to 2 days.

Our featured recipe this week calls for dried porcini, so we thought we’d say a few words about them. First, we know they’re not cheap ($2 to $5 per ounce), but they’re worth every penny. We think of them as poor man’s truffles because they’re in the same genre and they add a similar dark, aromatic earthiness to food. Luckily, they’re not in the same price range. (Truffles cost $35 to $125 per ounce.)

Once they’re rehydrated, they can be used in all sorts of things, including soups, stews, and sauces. They’re powerful, so you don’t need much (by weight) to make a big impression. For example, we only use ¼ ounce per person in our steak recipe.

You can usually find dried porcini in packages near other dried mushrooms or near the canned tomatoes and pasta. Occasionally you’ll see them in the produce department. Go for packages containing more big pieces and fewer small ones because big pieces are easier to clean. (And it’s important to clean them well so you don’t get a mouth full of grit.) You can store them at room temperature or in the fridge.

To rehydrate porcini:

Place in a heat-proof bowl or measuring cup and cover with boiling water. Soak 20 minutes. Drain and rinse well under cold running water, rubbing them as you rinse. Lightly pat dry on paper towels to remove excess moisture.

The soaking liquid can be used in soups and stews also if you strain it first. To do so, wet a paper towel, squeeze out the excess water, and then line your strainer with it. Set it over a heat-proof bowl or measuring cup and pour the soaking liquid through the strainer.