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.