The Internet isn't all kitten videos and saucy stuff, you know. In Japan, food and cooking makes up a large part of the Net — and recipe-sharing site Cookpad is its biggest juggernaut. With 20 million users — including an astonishing 80 to 90 percent of all Japanese women in their 20s and 30s — and more than 1.5 million registered recipes, it's the go-to source for Japanese home cooks.
Earlier this month it launched an English-language website (en.cookpad.com), a pared-down version with around 1,600 recipes initially translated from the mother site; this number is promised to grow to at least 30,000. I've been involved in working on several of the translations myself.
While the site's primary objective, according to project and product manager Jun Kaneko, is to share Japanese recipes with the world, I think the people who will get the most out of the site are English-speakers living in Japan who want to cook at home using local ingredients and methods. Almost all the recipes on Cookpad are contributed by regular people, not cooking professionals.
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