NEWSROOM INDEX | NEXT2006.12.06STARTCOOKING.COM LAUNCHES REVOLUTIONARY COOKING SHOWcooking videos optimized for iPods and mobile phones make learning to cook fun, fast and portable (Boston, MA — December 2006) — Startcooking.com launches the startcooking.com videocast this month, a free series of on-demand video podcasts that revolutionize the concept of cooking shows. Startcooking.com's tech-savvy approach to cooking shows using cutting-edge video production and web2.0 distribution technologies makes it easy for busy people to learn the basics of cooking whenever and wherever they want. Kathy Maister, startcooking.com's Founder, Host, and Editorial Director, teaches the absolute basics of cooking in the startcooking.com videos to help beginners get started in the kitchen and up the learning curve quickly. Each 2-minute video presents step-by-step instructions on how to cook a tasty meal using basic cooking techniques, which viewers can get more free help with in the 'Tips & Techniques' section of the startcooking.com website. The startcooking.com blog also supplements the videos with a large collection of photo tutorial recipes. “There are already so many really good celebrity chefs, gourmet cookbooks and foodie websites out there: let them do the exotic food†said Kathy. “My mission is to help people learn the absolute basics of cooking.†Startcooking.com is the realization of Kathy Maister's personal dream to find a new way of getting people who live on packaged food and fast food back into their kitchens and cooking for themselves. Kathy's passion for food, cooking and teaching inspired her to major in Home Economics at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), and then teach Home Ec in Boston public schools. When budget cuts in the public school system wiped out Home Ec programs, Kathy thought her dream of teaching cooking was finished forever. But, years later, when she realized that Internet tools could help her reach out in a fresh new way to people who wanted learn how to cook, she rolled up her sleeves and tackled the world of blogs and online video as a 50-something woman web entrepreneur and startcooking.com was born. “I've always wanted to inspire people who have never cooked before to say ‘I can do that!†said Kathy. “I'm excited about the potential of the startcooking.com videos to reach out to people and help them learn to cook for themselves.†Startcooking.com designed the cooking videos specifically for portable media players like iPod's and mobile phones so you can learn “in-the-kitchen,†or take the videos with you to the store as your grocery list. The videos include a built-in list of ingredients available as a pdf, text, or html file. Startcooking.com creates the cooking videos with a combination of cutting-edge digital tools and retro animation techniques. Kathy Maister designs the recipes, records the voiceover and takes pictures for the videos with a digital camera, then a two-person editing team puts it all together with stop motion animation. The photographs are shot close-up to display cooking details clearly and look great on the small screens of hand-held media players. The cooking videos are distributed using the best of modern on-demand delivery channels. Every Monday startcooking.com publishes a new episode in a standard video format suitable for most podcast players and mobile phones, and also in a proprietary Apple® video format for iTunes® and iPod®s. Viewers can play the videos on the startcooking.com website, download the files in their format of choice, subscribe to the videos in iTunes® or subscribe to the startcooking.com syndicated video RSS feed. The newly launched startcooking.com cooking video series is already making a splash in the blog and online video world. iTunes® has featured the startcooking.com videocast as a New and Notable podcast, and the startcooking.com blog has been invited to the 9rules Network, a community of the world's best weblogs. The editorial group of cell phone manufacturer Nokia® has chosen to feature startcooking.com in their video podcast directory preloaded on the new N-series phones, alongside elite videocasts including Ricky Gervais, Rocketboom, and Ask a Ninja. Joel Johnson, Editor of Dethroner calls it “exactly the sort of content a fledgling cook needs†and Adam Byrd of Men in Aprons says of startcooking.com: "This is where the future lies in food publishing on the web."
Permalink: http://news.startcooking.com/149/ |
|
 |
