Buzz
The market is brimming with solutions to help individuals master cooking independently. Services like “Hello Fresh” and “Blue Apron” deliver meal kits with detailed instructions, enabling anyone to prepare a delicious meal. But if you’d rather not spend a significant amount on pre-packaged ingredients, there’s a simpler alternative: Zest. Think of it as the Duolingo equivalent for culinary skills.
What Does Zest Offer?
Duolingo, as many are aware, is an app that simplifies language learning with its intuitive, user-friendly interface. It offers structured lessons for both free and premium users. Zest follows a similar approach, but instead of languages, it focuses on teaching you everything about cooking and food.
Upon creating your account, you’re welcomed by an inviting tiled interface. The first tile features a prominent “Recommended Lesson” (mine was a “Cooking Foundations” lesson titled “Tastes”). Beneath that, you’ll find “Next Up” lessons, covering topics such as “Fat & Acid,” “Pans and Skillets,” “Ovens,” and “Extracting & Infusing.”
Selecting a lesson provides a detailed overview, showing your current progress (starting at 0% for new lessons), an Instagram-style highlights section for quick navigation, the number of recipes included, and a comprehensive summary of the lesson’s content.
Every lesson includes a video tutorial. While the videos have a homemade feel, this adds charm rather than detracting from their value. They remain packed with useful insights and practical tips on the subject.
Is Zest Effective for Learning to Cook?
You can explore recipes tied to your lessons anytime. For example, the “Tastes” lesson features dishes such as “Pasta with fresh tomato sauce & capers,” “aloo gobi with raita and naan,” and “spiced cod with sweet peppers & lemon.” If a recipe appeals to you, it can be saved to your account’s “Menu” for easy access later. Zest claims these recipes are crafted by two expert chefs, ensuring they are both reliable and high-quality.
Recipes are presented in a user-friendly format, allowing you to adjust serving sizes, which automatically updates ingredient quantities. At first glance, the layout resembles a standard recipe, but with a unique feature: Whenever a complex step arises, such as finely chopping shallots, you can access a video tutorial for guidance.
This feature, in my view, elevates the entire experience. There’s no need to pause and search YouTube for techniques like chopping basil mid-recipe. Handy video demonstrations are integrated seamlessly into the process. Additionally, recipes are designed thoughtfully, often sharing ingredients to minimize waste—no need to buy a large tub of sour cream for just one dish.
I also appreciate the small touches, such as optional sauce recipes. These creatively rename popular condiments, like Lowering Cane’s sauce or Not McDonald’s Special sauce, while guiding you through making them from scratch—something you might not have attempted otherwise.
Zest is clearly a labor of love. The app boasts a polished design and helpful videos, reflecting its creators’ genuine desire to teach cooking. While the free version has some limitations, the $9.99/month subscription unlocks all lessons, recipes, and weekly new meals. Currently, the app is iOS-only, but Android users can still access free recipes and videos by signing up on Zest’s website.
