Food Network Kitchen Reviews

by Hare90

First I experienced confusion, anger, and finally just disappointment. We downloaded the Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad versions of FoodNetworkKitchen and paid $40 for the premium pass, expecting to be able to watch full episodes of Food Network shows on our Apple TV. This was a Christmas gift for my wife. There is no tab for shows on the Apple TV app. Actually, there is a tab labeled shows, but the contents inside that tab are not full shows, they are short clips of individual recipes, some are barely over a minute long. It is possible to open FoodNetworkKitchen on the iPad, find a full length show, and then hit Airplay icon in the corner to get content to the TV, but after about 9 minutes the audio and video are badly out of sync. Mouths stop and speech continues. The only way to correct this is to pause, disconnect Airplay, reconnect Airplay, and unpause. This must be done every 9-10 minutes. This happened for three different episodes of three different shows. We are using a brand new Apple TV, and 6 month old iPad Pro, and both have the most recent OS on them. Summary: the content is not organized well, the interface is wildly different across platforms, and the delivery of the content is sketchy unless you’re interested in watching the full-length shows on an iPhone or iPad. Disappointed.

by InaFanGirl

Recent Updates in app format = negative user experience. One example: You used to be able to not only “see what’s on TV now”, but also, what was recently played, and those recipes as well without being driven to a locked/paid page. I don’t want to rewatch the show, I just want to be able to see and save some of the recipes from the episode. New format forces me to try and find the recipe in general search, but if I don’t know the exact name of the recipe, it’s an exhaustive search which usually results in me abandoning the search and moving on. I don’t always have the luxury of watching the show live as I expect is true for most— Eventually this experience will lead to loss of readership/followers/users.
I understand trying to monetize premium new features (taking a how to class, for example) but making previous feature/ functions now paid, or super inconvenient to access will ultimately drive people away, even your long term users.

by Cegs8

I’ve read all the recent reviews available since the 6.0.0 update. They are not favorable. The majority have one star ratings. My rating is one star as of the 6.0.0 update and I would have given no star if that option had been available. I would list all of my issues with the new update but the reviews that I have read have them all. I am now using the Food Network website again for show information, cooking tips, recipes, etc., things I would have used FoodNetworkKitchen for before 6.0.0. I started using FoodNetworkKitchen when the Food Network first made it available on their website. I gave it a five star rating. I have continued to use it after all of the updates, format changes, and glitches, since. However, as of the 6.0.0 update, the smart thing to do is restore FoodNetworkKitchen to it’s pre-6.0.0 format update. If your developer response to this is “thank you for your feedback. If there is anything we can help you with please let us know...”, my answer is “offer your current version as a new altogether separate app”, with it’s new features, the cooking classes, etc. I’m sure there are some users that will use it and like it. cc: The Food Network, Corporate

by EiffelElysee

The organization of videos, recipes, and chefs needs to be improved! Search results logic uses every single word, instead of the string of words, resulting in hundreds to thousands of results. What’s worse, there’s no sorting or way to filter the search results. Way too many terrible recipes. Some “chefs” are really scraping the bottom of the barrel just to put something on there. The reminders for live videos is horrible. They either don’t work, only work within 24 hours of the broadcast, or an email is sent over 24 hours beforehand. What good does the email do?! If the email was sent, there’s no reminder when it starts! Once it’s been scheduled, there is no way to undo it. No way to see all the upcoming videos I scheduled or finished viewing in my own personal list. Should work much better for a paid app!!!
Developers responded and only addressed one item. Again, what good does receiving an email reminder 24 hours before the class starts without a reminder when it actually starts?! What about seeing our own personal list of classes we’ve scheduled, missed, and viewed?

by SB1141

I’ve had so many problems since my last review it’s even worse than before. Every time I log in i have to change my password to get in or I can’t find my saved recipes. I contact them and they send me to the help center which isnt helpful at all. I contact them and they tell me to do different things. Sometimes they work,but usually not. FoodNetworkKitchen used to be my favorite go to for recipes but they keep making it worse and worse. This is my last time trying. I am deleting it

FoodNetworkKitchen is so unreliable. Sometimes I can bring up the season and recipe I want, sometimes not. Mostly not. Today I keep losing it totally. I tap what I want. It hesitates then the whole app goes away and I start over. After several tries I gave up. Go back to the old version!!!! Still love the show. It’s my number 1 This is the best cooking show on tv. It’s fun to watch, very helpful and the crafts are great. I love to cook and try new things but don’t always have a happy ending. this answers a lot of questions. The chefs explain things and are a good combination that seems to enjoy themselves. Keep it up. I love it!!!!

by Ms-chick

Even after following these steps from your website FoodNetworkKitchen will not launch!
App Won’t Launch - Try a hard restart on your device. On the iPhone or iPad, hold down the top Lock Button and the Home button until you see the Apple logo. This will take a few seconds. In the meantime, ignore the "slide to power off" prompt – just keep holding those buttons down until you see the Apple logo. Once the device has restarted, try launching FoodNetworkKitchen again (make certain you are connected to WiFi or 3G) to see if you still receive the error message. If the restart doesn't work, try to reinstall FoodNetworkKitchen . Make certain that you are connected to WiFi, LTE, or 3G as FoodNetworkKitchen will not work otherwise. Touch and hold any application icon on the Home screen until the icons start to wiggle. Tap the "x" in the corner of the application you want to remove. You may be prompted to rate the application. Tap Delete to remove the application and all of its data from your device. Press the Home button to cancel or stop deleting apps. Open FoodNetworkKitchen Store on your device and locate the application to reinstall. Tap the price and then "Buy." If prompted, enter your iTunes Store account information. If you previously bought the application, you are prompted to download it again for free. Tap “OK” and FoodNetworkKitchen will download and install the application. After the application is installed, your issue should be resolved.

by Novangelus70

I love Food Network and I use FoodNetworkKitchen in conjunction with watching a show to look at and save recipes. But now FoodNetworkKitchen has been “upgraded” and has become much more user “UNFRIENDLY!”
For instance, you USED to be able to just click the show and find your recipe in the show section. Now the show section is only for paid members to watch videos. If you want a specific recipe from a show you have to search in a general search area which brings up EVERY recipe in the Food Network stable which can be considerable.
This may seem like a minor inconvenience but if you want to just get to the one recipe from the show your watching, it’s a complete pain and harder than just searching in google. The purpose of FoodNetworkKitchen app is for convenience. This “upgrade” is actually a major downgrade from the way it used to be.
This is a app designer making FoodNetworkKitchen “better” for paid members, but making it much worse for the the rest of us.

by Dragonessa

Very disappointed that I can’t bookmark within FoodNetworkKitchen without signing up for an account using personal info. Been years since I wrote this and it’s the same. Please let us bookmark without an external service.

This received a developer response but it just told me to ask any questions. Last time I made this exact request to them they send a response about not being able to answer all messages. So again I’m saying: please allow us to bookmark/save recipes in app without signing up or filling out personal information.

Dear developer who keeps offering to “explain” it to me: I know you’re doing your job, but there’s nothing to explain. I should not have to give personal information in order to use a bookmark feature within FoodNetworkKitchen . Period. It’s invasive and in this day and age, I want to cut down on how much of my info is in databanks that can be breached. It is a bad feature and really should be removed. Food Network does not need my email or any other info.

by MadamsOrgan

I have to edit my review from below, FoodNetworkKitchen now gets two stars because I literally can't even access my collections anymore because FoodNetworkKitchen crashes every time I do. You guys keep adding new features without actually addressing the crashing issues. It's such a great app, but it's too frustrating to use at this point. I really don't understand what the developers are doing that's making them not realize how severe the crashing issue is for those of us who regularly use FoodNetworkKitchen and try to take advantage of all the great features.

Previous review:
I really love FoodNetworkKitchen, but it literally crashes at least three times every time I use it. When I'm watching videos or trying to write reviews it crashes even more often than that. I really have never used an app that crashes as much as this one does. It's really frustrating and I don't understand how the developers have not found a solution. But I really do love how easy it makes accessing recipes that are on the shows.

by Daphne65

If they thought they were making it better they are gravely mistaken. I absolutely hate this new version. I have given it time and tried to navigate around and it is so poorly designed. I used to be able to watch all my favorite cooking shows every Saturday and Sunday morning and as I would find a recipe that I liked that the chef was cooking at the time, I could open FoodNetworkKitchen and the apps home page would automatically display what show was on air. I simply tapped the show and it automatically displayed what dishes the chefs were cooking at that time which then I simply saved the recipe to the appropriate board I created in my saves. Now, I have to search around for what is on air and even when I find it, there’s a huge lag. FoodNetworkKitchen is showing the show that aired previously and it’s impossible to find the new show with what they are cooking. If this is the way, FoodNetworkKitchen is going to stay, I won’t be using it all and go back to other recipe/cooking websites and apps. Please bring back the old version😩 Also, you have to “search” for the freaking search engine on FoodNetworkKitchen....Who designed FoodNetworkKitchen? You definitely didn’t make it better. If it’s not broken, DON’T fix it!

by JZCONNOLLY

There is no doubt that the Food Network is the best recipe app that I have used this far. The serving sizes are always accurate, and there is no shortage of new and fun dishes to make. With that being said, I have a few minor complaints / suggestions. One thing that FoodNetworkKitchen doesn’t do that other recipe apps do is tell you all the cookware / utensils you need before starting. It would be helpful to know all the cookware I would need before starting the whole cooking process. The other feature that I would say needs improvement is the baking instructions. Often times there are multiple steps included in one step making it very easy to forget to do or overlook some important part of the cooking process. It would be helpful if the steps were actually step by step instead of in paragraph form. These are very minor improvements that would make a world of difference when cooking. Please don’t let my small suggestions deter you from downloading FoodNetworkKitchen, as I have had a very good experience and I know you will too!

by Lin's Recipes

When I tried the Apple Buckle recipe on this site, I was sorely disappointed, so when I registered a 1 star review and some significant criticism on the Food Network website, I got the following message:” Whoops! There’s a little trouble with our server right now. Please try again later.” I left that review up to re-enter again and again “later”, including the next day, and I kept getting exactly the same message. So, I can only deduce that the site does not really want negative reviews. Then, how representative are their “reviews” if they don’t allow negative ones? By the way, when I tried to access the same recipe again today, it was only accessible if I subscribed to their premium account. Huh? It was available yesterday, and I have printed out the recipe from earlier on. This all seems rather suspicious to me. I am uninstalling FoodNetworkKitchen.

by Dawne013

I’ve been a Food Network addict for years! I watch my favorite shows every weekend when I wake up and I’ve gotten tons of great new recipes and party ideas. We all get sick of eating the same old stuff and all of the shows featured will give you fantastic recipes often using the same ingredients you already have in your pantry. FoodNetworkKitchen is a fabulous bonus! I can look up and save recipes I’ve seen on tv or search for new ones online. If you want to pay the really cheap price, you can also watch live videos of your favorite chefs/cooks show you how to prepare food. You can watch episodes of your favorite Food Network shows. This is by far one of my favorite apps! If you’re a foodie like me, you totally NEED FoodNetworkKitchen!!! 😋

by Mfjs22

This went from my favorite app to my most annoying app. They’re really pushing premium and completely redesigned FoodNetworkKitchen in the most inconvenient way. They’re pushing premium so hard that getting to my personal boards took forever trying to see through the pop up premium. I look up a recipe I see premium first. I wish they made a separate app or kept the old design and made the premium section a different column. Now I have to be a rebel and wait to buy premium because of how annoyed I am by seeing it EVERYWHERE!!!! I get it you want me to buy but it feel like one of those people in Walmart attacking me to sign up for cable services that I already have. Please push it a little less and make navigating on FoodNetworkKitchen easy again pleaseeeeeeeee!

by JoyBetrice

My dad who is 80 came to live with me the summer of 2019 because he was no longer able to take care of himself. When it comes to his tastebuds he is simple and has never experienced different types of foods. He is very old school and a creature of habit. He loves to eat but he is a basic meat and potatoes type of guy because that’s how he was raised. Well I wanted to introduce him to a different way of eating and open up his tastebuds. I prepare different meals weekly from the Food Network App on my phone. My Dad is absolutely loving it. He literally is excited for dinner every night and asks me first thing in the morning, what are you cooking for dinner daughter. When I tell him he throws his hands up and says “oh boy I can’t wait to taste it” lol. He thinks I’m a genius in the kitchen and the best cooker in the world. He doesn’t understand technology, computers and apps so he doesn’t understand it’s the Food Network thats turned me into a Chef 😉. So thank you Food Network for all of your amazing recipes and the tips and tricks I’ve learned in cooking. You’ve truly made an old man happy 😊 ❤️

by SrKennard

The amt of time to prep and cook was an easy flow of time and bragging rights at home or at a party. I added capers to give it an additional pop. You can’t go wrong with more garlic. Make sure you start off with 10 mins, you’ll need more time depending on the size of the shrimp. DO NOT overcook. That’s the other key to this wonderful recipe. It goes well over Angel Hair pasta or a bed of rice. Oh yeah, I used lime instead of lemons. (One lime equals two lemons) I’m telling you, stick with these instructions. You can flair out later to call it ur own. Enjoy, this is an easy meal to make but easier to eat. Since I wrote this, I’ve made it again. On the side I added mushrooms. My college bound kids love it. This dish has endless possibilities. Enjoy and don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.

by USA IPad User

I love FoodNetworkKitchen and it keeps getting better with every update. I love the courses, especially the ones that focus on a skill, like cake baking/decorating. I enjoy the step-by-step classes when making something I am totally unfamiliar with. It is so helpful to be able to save and categorize recipes. The meal planner and the grocery list is helpful for planning my week. It is laid out nicely and very user friendly. The one thing I’d like to see changed is to move my recently viewed recipes up to an option at the top of the Explore page. I have an older iPad and this slows things down a little. Other than that, it runs really well on my older device. I look forward to trying out the new recipe import!! Thank you Food Network Kitchen!!

by Not.CourtneyB.up.in.NYC

I eagerly installed FoodNetworkKitchen this morning and not two hours later I want to delete! I opened it up for first time 10 minutes ago, and all I get are feedback request! Quite literally every thirty seconds! I took three of the same survey within two minutes. Every time you click on recipe it pops up to give feedback. If you say no thanks or not right now it keeps popping up every thirty seconds! If you take survey/feedback, then it waits until you open new recipe. The question is “How likely are you to recommend FoodNetworkKitchen to a friend”...I don’t know if I would because I got thirty seconds into FoodNetworkKitchen before being hounded for feedback. I had no time to explore, to truly use FoodNetworkKitchen . I might have really liked FoodNetworkKitchen, as I find I tend to turn to Food Network for fresh new recipes ...but now I just feel bummed.

by Gabe254

I cook a lot, and have to say that FoodNetworkKitchen is my go-to.
I love the fact that there are so many similar recipes, since I love reading through a few to understand the concept, and then adapting it to my taste. This variety also means that there is a perfect dish for everyone! Definitely helps me with my picky eaters...=^\
My favorite part though, has to be the recipe box they have setup. I get to save all the dishes I like the most in, something like, folders. You can name and sort them how you choose. I've used the basic, breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides, dessert, and sauces, and the like, in addition to some more specific ones for me. Great way to always come back to a recipe that just won't stick into memory.
Now I've had this for years and wouldn't trade it. I honestly don't have another recipe app for food on my phone other than this and have recommended it to many.
Awesome!

by Lafree

Loving the FN Kitchen app. The classes, live and archived, are numerous and varied. I’ve enjoyed the live classes, and Q&A interaction is easy. Content is excellent and the chefs are obviously invested in communicating effectively, imparting great info and tips, and making us more confident in our own kitchens.

I am glad that all the recipes I had already saved on the Food Network web migrated seamlessly to FoodNetworkKitchen . I am stoked that I can add my own recipes. I am particularly enjoying the meal plan application; it helps me with shopping and preparation, even if I’m only cooking for myself. I also place “to try” recipes into the meal planning page so those recipes are prominent in the potential lineup, even if I haven’t assigned them to a specific date.

Streaming quality is exceptionally good. App is a terrific value. Well done!

by PKlinker

I’m surprised no one has mentioned that we will have to pay for FoodNetworkKitchen now? I’m so disappointed because this is my very favorite app! I have more than a hundred recipes saved from over the years and recently started categorizing them. I love to watch the shows and look up the recipe while watching. Also I just received an Echo so FoodNetworkKitchen is now linked to that which is super handy! Unfortunately I’m not going to pay the monthly fee for it. To me it’s not worth it just for the live classes. I’ve watched some but most often it doesn’t work with my schedule or the ones that do aren’t ones I’m interested in. Also has anyone noticed now not as many of the famous chefs are offering classes? It’s probably a great service don’t get me wrong, just not worth it to me. Currently moving all my recipes to Pinterest as that will be a lot easier to access for me. 😕

by Inpersuttofgoodfood

I love Food Network and FoodNetworkKitchen . It’s my go to for everything from weekday dinners, desserts, special occasions, or anytime I need ideas. But summer time is soooo redundant. The videos haven’t changed in months and the suggestions haven’t changed either. Honestly, you could do better. Summer associates can do research and there has to be someone on staff that can keep the website relevant. It’s 2019, the amazing social media natives that are excited about food should be able to keep up with the current trends. I’m an older viewer. Hate it but it’s true. I have been a Food Network for more years than Alton Brown can remember... time to bring FoodNetworkKitchen up to date and current ALL YEAR THROUGH. I will continue to hunt and peck this summer to find things I need. Can’t help it, I LOVE Food Network. But being current is important. You all need to make that happen all year long.

by 2MamaBear

While I love the recipes and the Food Network, FoodNetworkKitchen is very frustrating. It’s slow to load, crashes a lot, and returns too many irrelevant results. The filtering is too basic and needs more options such as method of cooking, ingredients, nutrition and diet concerns etc. For example, I don’t want to look for a pork tenderloin recipe and be given all the pork recipes with random desserts mixed in. Too time consuming to sort through when you add all the crashes too. You should also be able to exclude unwanted ingredients (allergies, aversion to tastes). While Yummly isn’t perfect in its search results, it still has better search options (user inputed, not suggestive which don’t elicit those results anyway) that FoodNetworkKitchen could learn from.

by Ahm91993

I have been using FoodNetworkKitchen for a little over a year and I really love it! Some recipes are absolute fails (Trisha Yearwood’s snickerdoodle recipe has many things wrong with it) and occasionally there are problems such as missing ingredients from the instructions or ingredient list, no cooking time, etc. I have made hundreds of recipes and there are very few with mistakes.
The one thing that really bothers me about FoodNetworkKitchen that is difficult to look past is the fact that it doesn’t list the nutrition information. It doesn’t specify how much a serving is or how many calories in a serving. This is a huge issue for people looking to watch weight or gain weight. Aside from that however, I am happy with FoodNetworkKitchen and can look past minor problems.

by Kristona

I’m not sure yet. Still trying to navigate it. One thing I wish I could do is look up recipes from recently aired episodes. Currently I am only able to do this on the browser site— or perhaps it’s just not easy to locate on FoodNetworkKitchen ? It would also be nice to search according to ratings which would take into consideration number of reviews. I like 5 star recipes that are rated by 100 reviewers or more. Anyway, those are my 2 wishlist items so far.

***Update****
Thank you to the Developer response I was able to look at recipes for “on air” shows by using the On Air Now tab. I didn’t realize this also meant recipes were included and could be saved from there.

by Smokediver68

FoodNetworkKitchen is great for everything from finding a quick meal to cook, to challenging yourself to eat healthier to expanding your skills.

The only thing I wish it would do is have a way to consolidate ingredients into a note if I save multiple recipes so that I can go to the store, pull up one list and go from there rather than scanning multiple recipes. An in-app grocery list where I could check-off items would be great. That way I could check off what I already have at home without trying to remember in the store. That would also help prevent getting home only to realize you forgot to pick something up from the store. I would pay for that feature.

by Shawtylatina

I love the Food TV network app. It reminds me of the shows I used to watch as a child that inspired me to go to culinary school and become a chef. They harken back to a time when Martin Yan, Jeff Smith, Jacques Pepin, Julia Child reigned supreme. When shows were about transferring knowledge and not on just being entertaining. They also remind me of when the Food TV Network was just born and shows like Emeril Lagasse’s How to Boil Water were there to cook alongside us. As of late, I had been disappointed in the network’s offerings and had been going to alternative media for food knowledge fix. Now I have FoodNetworkKitchen on almost 24/7. I love it!!!!