SideChef

SideChef is a guided cooking app that walks users through recipes in real time, with AI features for personalization, meal planning, and smart appliance integration. It positions itself as a "sous chef" for home cooks — reducing the cognitive load of cooking by handling timing, instruction sequencing, and adaptation.

## Step-by-Step Guided Cooking

SideChef's recipe format breaks each dish into granular steps with timers, technique videos, and real-time progress tracking. Instead of reading a recipe and figuring out when to do what, SideChef orchestrates the cooking session: "Start the water boiling now. While it heats, you have 4 minutes to chop the onions."

## Smart Kitchen Integration

SideChef integrates with connected kitchen appliances: smart ovens (June, BRAVA), Instant Pot, and other IoT-enabled devices. When a recipe reaches a step requiring a specific appliance, SideChef can send the cooking settings directly to the device — no manual temperature dialing required.

## Recipe Library

Over 20,000 recipes curated from professional chefs, home cooks, and food publications. Filters include cuisine, cook time, serving size, difficulty level, dietary restrictions, and available appliances.

## Meal Prep Planning

SideChef's meal prep feature groups multiple recipes for parallel cooking: it identifies what can be prepared simultaneously and sequences steps across dishes to minimize total cook time.

## Pricing

Free tier with access to core recipes. SideChef Premium at approximately $2.99/month or $19.99/year unlocks the full library, offline access, and smart appliance integration.