Martha"s Everyday Food Recipe App Review
About.com Rating
The Good
The Bad
Purchase at iTunes
Martha Stewart is one of many celebrity chefs with her own iPhone recipe app (others include Jamie Oliver and Mark Bittman). Martha Stewart’s app ($0.99) includes “thousands” of recipes from her magazine, Everyday Food, along with some standout features. Unfortunately, it also crashes easily.
Read More:Top 14 Recipe Apps for the iPhone and iPad
What's for dinner tonight?
If you hate coming up with dinner ideas (I know I do!), Martha's Everyday Food app will make your life a little easier by recommending a new dinner recipe each day. No searching or scrolling required -- just launch the app.
Under the main search tab, you can search only quick dinner recipes or all recipes by keyword or category. Search results load quickly over a WiFi connection, and each recipe is illustrated with a photo. Some recipe apps (including the Whole Foods Recipe app) put the ingredient amounts and directions on separate pages, which is a pet peeve of mine. I hate having to switch between pages when following a recipe. Martha’s Everyday Food, on the other hand, puts all that information on one page, which makes it easy to follow.
Martha’s Everyday Food also includes a ton of sharing options, including the ability to send recipes via email, Facebook, or Twitter. The integrated shopping list is also very well done, especially since you can add ingredients individually or all at once.
The shopping list is broken down by category, such as produce, meats, or snacks. You can also email your shopping list to view it outside the app.
Push notifications
Martha’s Everyday Food is one of the few recipe apps that support push notifications. If you elect to receive notifications, you’ll automatically receive the dinner recommendation each day. Another nifty feature is its integrated store finder, which uses your current location to find the nearest supermarkets near you (liquor and convenience stores, too). This is a nice feature, especially for frequent travelers.
The app includes ads, most of which are geared towards getting you to subscribe to the magazine. They’re not overly obtrusive -- they mainly show up as an entry in the search results -- but this is a paid app. There’s also no way to easily identify vegetarian or gluten-free recipes, which is a downside for those with special diets. In addition, the app crashed on me three times while I was testing it, usually when navigating to a new tab.
The Bottom Line
There is so much to like about Martha’s Everyday Food, but the app faces some stiff competition. It has to really excel to beat out excellent recipe apps like Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals or How to Cook Everything. For the most part, Everyday Food holds its own with these apps, especially when it comes to its easy-to-use interface and layout. However, Martha’s Everyday Food needs to improve its stability before it can earn a similarly high rating. Overall rating: 3.5 stars out of 5.
What You’ll Need
Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food app requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later, and it is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Purchase at iTunes
The Good
- Easy-to-use interface
- Facebook and Twitter integration
- Integrated store finder
The Bad
- Includes ads
- Crashes often
Purchase at iTunes
Martha Stewart is one of many celebrity chefs with her own iPhone recipe app (others include Jamie Oliver and Mark Bittman). Martha Stewart’s app ($0.99) includes “thousands” of recipes from her magazine, Everyday Food, along with some standout features. Unfortunately, it also crashes easily.
Read More:Top 14 Recipe Apps for the iPhone and iPad
What's for dinner tonight?
If you hate coming up with dinner ideas (I know I do!), Martha's Everyday Food app will make your life a little easier by recommending a new dinner recipe each day. No searching or scrolling required -- just launch the app.
Under the main search tab, you can search only quick dinner recipes or all recipes by keyword or category. Search results load quickly over a WiFi connection, and each recipe is illustrated with a photo. Some recipe apps (including the Whole Foods Recipe app) put the ingredient amounts and directions on separate pages, which is a pet peeve of mine. I hate having to switch between pages when following a recipe. Martha’s Everyday Food, on the other hand, puts all that information on one page, which makes it easy to follow.
Martha’s Everyday Food also includes a ton of sharing options, including the ability to send recipes via email, Facebook, or Twitter. The integrated shopping list is also very well done, especially since you can add ingredients individually or all at once.
The shopping list is broken down by category, such as produce, meats, or snacks. You can also email your shopping list to view it outside the app.
Push notifications
Martha’s Everyday Food is one of the few recipe apps that support push notifications. If you elect to receive notifications, you’ll automatically receive the dinner recommendation each day. Another nifty feature is its integrated store finder, which uses your current location to find the nearest supermarkets near you (liquor and convenience stores, too). This is a nice feature, especially for frequent travelers.
The app includes ads, most of which are geared towards getting you to subscribe to the magazine. They’re not overly obtrusive -- they mainly show up as an entry in the search results -- but this is a paid app. There’s also no way to easily identify vegetarian or gluten-free recipes, which is a downside for those with special diets. In addition, the app crashed on me three times while I was testing it, usually when navigating to a new tab.
The Bottom Line
There is so much to like about Martha’s Everyday Food, but the app faces some stiff competition. It has to really excel to beat out excellent recipe apps like Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals or How to Cook Everything. For the most part, Everyday Food holds its own with these apps, especially when it comes to its easy-to-use interface and layout. However, Martha’s Everyday Food needs to improve its stability before it can earn a similarly high rating. Overall rating: 3.5 stars out of 5.
What You’ll Need
Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food app requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later, and it is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Purchase at iTunes
