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Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

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Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#171

Post by asoneth »

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…

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."

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#172

Post by mizzao »

lief79 wrote: post #144
mizzao wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the knowledge graph gets bigger, we're definitely going to have to find better ways to present it. The challenge is that most people don't want to see the whole knowledge graph, they want an extremely simple experience. Do you think your perspective represents something that would appeal to the mass market? Here's the technical approach we're taking with the goal of taking a very hairy knowledge graph and turning…

People have different learning styles. If you can come up with a gentle introduction, while still allowing deep dives in the specific areas, you'll boost your potential customer/referral base. HN is going to tend to attract more of the individuals who prefer the deep dives. As always, the trick is finding that first customer base, and figuring out how you can grow with them to keep them, and get them to spread the wo…

Bingo! Here's some of that first customer base:

https://www.reddit.com/r/cookingforbeginners/comments/vbgqq6...

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#173

Post by mizzao »

ac29 wrote: post #125
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…

> 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. The picture of quizzes on their blog post was odd too. The idea of washing ground beef to make a hamburger is very weird. Sounds like the result of an algorithm that decided that washing {ingredient} was always the first step in any recipe.

I'm 99% percent that washing ground beef is a wrong answer -- what we teach NOT to do is just as important as teaching what to do. Same way how it's more important to know the ways a startup fails than to see what the successful ones did.

But if it isn't, mea culpa and I'll get that fixed.

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#174

Post by chki »

tdeck wrote: post #134
mizzao wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you're a pretty experienced chef and we're targeting beginners (that experience question was more to get a sense of who our users are). If you consider that we're trying to start with levels 1, 2, and 3 of cooking before moving on to the far more advanced topics, do you still think it's useless? Or does your perspective change? Thanks for the note about the questions that are potentially culturally ins…

I'm curious if you've actually interviewed users who can't identify a friend vs scrambled egg and how much of this demographic exists. That example seems like something you'd learn from simply ordering breakfast a couple of times.

Or by learning the meaning of the word "scrambled".

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#175

Post by kelseydh »

I went through the app, and I've answered like 30 questions now on food storage/safety and it feels like I'm taking a tedious course. Weird. Is that all it is, food preparation trivia?

Please don't lead with this stuff. Teach me how to make tasty things!

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#176

Post by vizzier »

traceroute66 wrote: post #157
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…

> Can you hear that noise? That's the noise of a million Italians crying. Because of you. Learn to make 'mother sauces' straight away guys! They're simple and flavorful. I'm not Italian, but I'm willing to give the OP the benefit of the doubt in the following way: Have you ever read a professional cookbook ? I (would like to) think that what the OP was saying is that "hardest" level would equate to professional cookb…

Your comment reminds me of this[1] video from sorted food where they make a recipe from an old professional cookbook. Instructions are very high level and without the context of 100 years ago it is difficult to know if they were successful in their creation. More detail recipes or at least pictures alongside might have given some of that context.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nWoI923LnY

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#178

Post by Ntrails »

ajb wrote: post #105

Please, please, please, avoid status cuisines . It's going to be hard to do, because they make good PR. But you will be helping your users a lot more of you hold them off with a ten foot pole. What do I mean by a status cuisine ? They are meals that are intended to show that the cook is a worthy person, rather than that the meal is practical, healthy, and good to eat. Here are some examples: The endurance cuisine: de…

> The endurance cuisine: designed to show that the cook has time to spare, the endurance cuisine requires that no ingredient is pre-processed in any way. Grind your own grain, bake your own breadcrumbs, chop your own veg. Using grapes? You should have peeled them!

This makes no sense to me at all. Where does it stop?

"You didn't use pre-peeled carrots, you're doing this for status" "You actually made shortcrust instead of using pre-made, you're doing this for status" "You made your own pesto, you're doing this for status"

Like, this is just some subjective line you're laying down and I do not see the point

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#179

Post by ziddoap »

blub wrote: post #146
EligibleSpatula wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apologies if the wok explanation came across as insensitive or racist. The wording used was 'a wok is unwieldy and uncommon in a lot of home kitchens'. As one of the two Asian writers who this got past, we believed that this statement was true enough for North American beginners looking to learn how to make scrambled eggs. I have changed the copy there and endeavour to make sure that we are more culturally sensitive…

How did we get to a point where somebody with an English sounding name is teaching lessons on racism against Asians to an Asian? You did nothing wrong. As a European I didn’t even have a clue what a wok might be for most of my life. Buying one would make no sense.

>English sounding name is teaching lessons on racism

They didn't "teach" a "lesson" on racism, they said an entire 15 words in an edit and gave a range of "sheltered" to "at worst, practically racist". A bit hyperbolic? Sure. A lesson? No.

Re: Show HN: Parsnip – Duolingo for Cooking

#180

Post by a-dub »

abruzzi wrote: post #135
anosidium wrote: post #8

This looks incredible! I would love a macOS app as I spend more time on the Mac than on my iPhone. Well done for not enforcing account registration and letting me actually try the app.

I’d much prefer a website—I don’t really download apps anymore, and an application for Mac seems overkill.

OT but same. jobs was right, it all belongs in the browser. apps pose too much of a privacy and security risk.
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