Whether you’re a professional chef, a mom cooking for her family, or a single person looking to impress your date, Windows Phone with its Live Tile-enabled food apps can make home cooking fun and easy. I first realized this one evening when my son ate all of his dinner and I promised him a special dessert.
Rather than doing the microwave popcorn thing (again), I found a recipe for haystack cookies in the All Recipes app on my Windows Phone. By pinning the instructions to my Start screen, it was really easy to know what to do and my son and I had a great time making the cookies together.
I shared the experience with my co-workers and we agreed that just about anyone could cook using Windows Phone. We found a kindred spirit in John Sundstrom, head chef and owner of Lark Restaurant in Seattle, and together we put that theory to the test. Last week, we invited food bloggers from around the country to Lark for hands-on Windows Phone cooking class where technology met food.
A Windows Phone user who’s been featured on Food Network shows like “Best Of” and ”Food Nation,” John showed attendees how to prepare some of his favorite recipes from apps like All Recipes, Betty Crocker, and Epicurious.
The evening’s menu was slightly more sophisticated than my haystack cookies: Asparagus with Parmesan, Caramelized Chile Shrimp, Maple-glazed Wild Salmon, Portuguese Pork and Clams, and even Chocolate Mint Brownie Cookies (is your mouth watering yet?). Recipes were pinned as Live Tiles to the Start screens of each cooking team’s Windows Phone and they were given one hour to prepare a different dish for the meal – from appetizer to dessert.
John also treated attendees to “French 75” cocktails, which he found using Cocktail Flow, and created wine pairings for the prepared meals using Mobile Sommelier. (See what one of the bloggers thought about the event.)
Have you used your Windows Phone to cook? Tell us how in the comments section below and you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win a Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone preloaded with Chef John’s favorite cooking apps and the recipes mentioned above. (U.S. customers only)
The winning entry will be chosen by random selection and notified via this blog post on or before June 30, 2012. To claim the prize, the winner will need to email [email protected] with your full name, preferred email address, and Windows Phone Blog screen name on or before July 10 and we’ll send you all the details. Make sure to put “Cooking with Windows Phone” in the subject line. Check out the official rules for complete details.