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Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

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Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#181

Post by klodolph »

asoneth wrote: post #171
EddySchauHai wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd like to see a cooking teaching app that allows users to work through a recipe in varying levels of detail. For example, consider a Lasagna. A lower level recipe may use ricotta for a quick and easy version, a higher level might explain step by step how to make a bechamel, and the "hardest" level may just say "make a bechamel". Can you hear that noise? That's the noise of a million Italians crying. Because of yo…

Not only do I not know how to make a bechamel, this is the first time I've heard this word or the expression "mother sauces". (Maybe because I'm only a quarter Italian?) If we're going to gatekeep cooking behind a lot of prior knowledge perhaps it would be even more efficient to reduce the lasagna recipe to a single sentence: "Make a lasagna."

You can write programs and never know what an algorithm is. That’s roughly the equivalent. Someone with formal training in cooking will know the mother sauces, almost certainly, just like someone with formal training in CS will almost certainly know big-O notation.

If you want to learn this stuff, there textbooks on cooking. Not quite the same thing as a cookbook!

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#182

Post by nscalf »

EddySchauHai wrote: post #96
danpalmer wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To perhaps be a bit more constructive, and to suggest a way forward... I'd like to see a cooking teaching app that allows users to work through a recipe in varying levels of detail. For example, consider a Lasagna. A lower level recipe may use ricotta for a quick and easy version, a higher level might explain step by step how to make a bechamel, and the "hardest" level may just say "make a bechamel". As a user, being…

> I'd like to see a cooking teaching app that allows users to work through a recipe in varying levels of detail. For example, consider a Lasagna. A lower level recipe may use ricotta for a quick and easy version, a higher level might explain step by step how to make a bechamel, and the "hardest" level may just say "make a bechamel". Can you hear that noise? That's the noise of a million Italians crying. Because of yo…

Since this topic is learning how to cook, let me plug my favorite Youtube chef, Alex (FrenchGuyCooking). He has a whole series on mother sauces (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLURsDaOr8hWX1T2WSXhPw...), which is how I learned about them. He does a great job of making deep dives interesting and approachable.

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#183

Post by pessimizer »

asdajksah2123 wrote: post #159
pessimizer wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are endless resources for the second type of person; it's the person who wants to make nacho cheese sauce that is underserved. Once you've got them to make that, you got somebody who can also make gravies and bechamel, and you can suggest other things they they might want to try to cook after they're pretty good at nachos.

There are far more resources available for those who don't know how to cook and are just looking for a bunch of shortcuts than for those who want recipes where they may be willing to spend a little more time for a better product. Almost all the afternoon Food Network cooking shows are about shortcuts and easy ways out (Ina Garten, maybe, used to be the exception but even she's now only focusing on her simpler meals o…

I energetically disagree about the Food Network, which seems like a lot of long cooking times using a lot of fresh ingredients making insta-ready meals. It's food porn, and 99% of the people watching it never attempt it. The marketing might be about "shortcuts" and "simple ways," but that's to attract viewers who hold on to the hope of seeing a recipe they might actually try.

I'm suggesting (as Parsnip seems to agree) that they target people who want to cook food to eat, not just people who want to cook food to demonstrate. People who get delivery 80% of the time and cook on lazy Sundays and for dates are what most food media appeals to. It'd be easier to learn to cook with unedited video of an operating church kitchen over two days than with 48 hours of Food Network programming.

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#184

Post by throwaway675309 »

danpalmer wrote: post #84

I've done a few quizzes on the app now, and I don't get it. The questions feel very contrived, like someone had a quota to fill so just put whatever looked plausible together. They are also _very_ culturally specific. Questions about eggs barely made sense to me being from the UK, with incorrect pack sizes, animal welfare terms, and completely missed our great standards body that makes it easy to know which eggs have…

"what sort of pan should you cook eggs in"... "no not a wok, people don't have those at home". Ouch. At best that's incredibly sheltered for a food writer, and at worst it's practically racist.

FALSE. Even the most irrationally minded human being who deliberately tries to intepret things in the worst possible manner would have gotten racism out of a declarative sentence like "most people don't have woks at home", which is likely an accurate assessment given the North American demographic they seem to be targeting. Unbelievable

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#185

Post by admax88qqq »

EddySchauHai wrote: post #152
FalconSensei wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can you hear that noise? That's the noise of a million Italians crying. I'm not Italian, so I don't care as much... Also, as the original comment mentioned, this is supposed to have different degrees of how easy/flexible/practical it is

If you take a beginner cooking course you'd normally learn bechamel very early on - it's the base of so many great meals. I mean, it's a white roux and milk. While I was half joking in my previous comment I'd expect the way an app would work is to start with easier meals (maybe a mac & cheese, as this uses a bechamel as the base of the cheese sauce) rather than adapt more difficult meals for simplicity. I thought I'd…

A beginner cooking course of a specific cuisine.

Believe it or not there are tons more cuisines out there besides French all their their own prior knowledge, staples, customs, sauces etc.

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#187

Post by EddySchauHai »

asoneth wrote: post #171
EddySchauHai wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd like to see a cooking teaching app that allows users to work through a recipe in varying levels of detail. For example, consider a Lasagna. A lower level recipe may use ricotta for a quick and easy version, a higher level might explain step by step how to make a bechamel, and the "hardest" level may just say "make a bechamel". Can you hear that noise? That's the noise of a million Italians crying. Because of yo…

Not only do I not know how to make a bechamel, this is the first time I've heard this word or the expression "mother sauces". (Maybe because I'm only a quarter Italian?) If we're going to gatekeep cooking behind a lot of prior knowledge perhaps it would be even more efficient to reduce the lasagna recipe to a single sentence: "Make a lasagna."

This really isn't gatekeeping! But if you're learning to cook there are fundamental things you need to learn. This is like the simplest sentences of learning a new language on Duolingo here, it's not some crazy term. Literally week 1 in many cooking schools, maybe week 2 after stocks. If you're trying to teach people cooking, you want to be taught the fundamental key steps to follow recipes no? How many start with butter, thicken with flour, loosen with milk? That's bechamel :)

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#188

Post by EddySchauHai »

nscalf wrote: post #182
EddySchauHai wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd like to see a cooking teaching app that allows users to work through a recipe in varying levels of detail. For example, consider a Lasagna. A lower level recipe may use ricotta for a quick and easy version, a higher level might explain step by step how to make a bechamel, and the "hardest" level may just say "make a bechamel". Can you hear that noise? That's the noise of a million Italians crying. Because of yo…

Since this topic is learning how to cook, let me plug my favorite Youtube chef, Alex (FrenchGuyCooking). He has a whole series on mother sauces ( https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLURsDaOr8hWX1T2WSXhPw... ), which is how I learned about them. He does a great job of making deep dives interesting and approachable.

He's amazing!

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#189

Post by cole-k »

mattknightlewis wrote: post #27

What I really need is a browser extension that recognizes I'm on a recipe website and automatically scrolls past the recipe writer's whole autobiography to the section with the ingredients and instructions.

I've found that a lot of the recipe sites I use have a button that takes you directly to the recipe (after all I'm told that the life story is for SEO purposes). I just am so used to skipping over the cruft that I skip the button as well.

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#190

Post by romellem »

FYI, when I sign up with the form at the bottom, the "Thank you! Your submission has been received!" message appears under the white parsnip SVG (`.footer-snippy`) and obscures some of the text. Observed on Firefox v102.

Otherwise, this looks really cool!

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