Subscribe to my RSS feed or follow me on Twitter.

Being a fatty and a geek I love when food and technology can come together to really raise the bar.  No one does technology better than Google and taking advantage of some of their free services can make you a much better cook. Or at the very least, a much more informed cook.

1. Google Search – If it’s on the web, you can find it with Google search which is still the leader when it comes to helping you find exactly the right page.  I use Google search to find recipes, techniques, restaurants and even new food blogs, the possibilities are endless. Not only that, but the standard search works as a simple conversion tool as well.

2. Google Reader – If you’re not using an RSS reader, you’re doing yourself a disservice.  You can read all of your favorite sites in one place, have your news delivered right to you.  You can subscribe to RSS feeds from across the web, whether it be your favorite food blog, the Plain Dealer’s restaurant reviews or the latest news on Cleveland restaurants.

3. Google Books – Google in their effort to digitize everything on the planet has one hell of a lot of books in digital format for you to peruse.  While some of the books are only previews, there are a ton of books that you can read from front to back if so desire as well as downloading a PDF. The great part is that most of these books are older books that you can’t find other places.  You can find recipes, techniques and few offer food anthropology.  Here’s a couple I found today: 99 Practical Methods for Using Boiled Beef, 365 Orange Recipes from 1909, Diet for Children and Every Recipe Tried and Proved.  

4. Google Docs – Google Docs is like Microsoft Office online and I use it all the time to help me in the kitchen.  I use it to take notes if I am working on a new recipe.  I also use it to save interesting recipes I find on the web.  It’s an excellent place to catalog your own recipes, so you can easily search and find them.  If you had the gusto, you could even use the spreadsheets to create some cool conversion tools to use in the kitchen. 

5. Google Video/YouTube – If there is a technique in the kitchen that you’ve been trying to master, but haven’t been able to, look no farther than Google Video/YouTube. I can’t think of anything they don’t have on here.  And it’s not some fancy pants chef showing you how to do it, it’s regular folks in kitchens like yours.  Let’s see what they have: How to Filet a Fish, What is a Bouquet Garni, How to Tie a Roast, and How to Make Pasta. 

• 3 Squares – Highlighting Cleveland Restaurants
• White House Cook Book
• Restaurant Coupons – 5 Ways to Find Them Online
• Twitter as a Tool for your Tummy
• Restaurantica – One In A Million