SideChef has gone premium.
The recipe app and smart kitchen platform startup announced last week they were launching a new premium subscription tier to go along with the company’s free app.
The new subscription offering is $49.99/year or $4.99/month. SideChef Premium includes 750 enhanced recipes that feature instructional guidance from the partner chefs, cooking techniques and tips, and voice-guided cooking.
The voice guidance appears to be one of the primary differentiators with the free SideChef app. While SideChef has been working to integrate with voice assistants like Alexa and Bixby for some time, much of the focus of these efforts have been centered around their smart kitchen integrations with bigger appliance brands.
In some ways, SideChef Premium is reminiscent of the Food Network Kitchen app, which made a big splash back when it launched last fall. At the time, the Food Network Kitchen app was positioned as something of a Peloton for the kitchen, but since launch it appears the company has dialed back the ambitions a bit on the live cooking classes and today primarily feature lots of archived video recipes and cooking how-to’s with Food Network cooking personalities.
For SideChef’s part, the company has assembled a group of partner chefs such as Chris Cosentino (a Bravo Top Chef Masters winner), Manon Lagrève (Great British Bake Off) and Logan Guleff, the wunderkid winner of the 2014 MasterChef Jr.
The company had previously worked with popular budget-focused chef Beth Moncel in creating a dedicated paid-app and, as of today, the app is still ranked in the top 10 for paid food and drink apps. Moncel is also one of the 11 launch chefs with the SideChef Premium app.
SideChef’s success at getting paid subscribers will likely depend heavily on prospective consumers wanting access to the more immersive content from collective of chefs the company has put together for the app. The success of the Budget Bytes app with Moncel could be an indication of how SideChef Premium could perform, especially if it gets its partner chefs to evangelize the app.
Today SideChef Premium is available through an app, but the company has indicated that this fall subscribers will be able to access through a browser on any computer at Sidechef.com.
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