Last year, DVO launched an entirely new rewrite of their wildly popular Cook'n software. I've had this software through a LOT of versions and the rewrite and launch of Version 9 was very exciting... in fact, you can see what I had to say in my review of Version 9. Almost immediately after version 9 was released, DVO was already talking about the REALLY exciting aspects of what they envisioned for Version 10. They didn't disappoint.
If you're like me, I love poking around looking for recipes. I remember spending a weekend looking for a chocolate hand pie recipe... and I could bring it into Cook'n 9 by copying and pasting into the database. Now I don't have to.
When you launch Cook'n 10, it opens up the Cook'n browser where you can type keywords to look for a recipe throughout the Internet. So, if I'm looking for chocolate hand pies, I'll be presented with a list of sites, not too different from a Google or Bing search, where I can click and see what is at each site. If I like what I see, I click on the new Capture option in the Cook'n browser and before you know it, the recipe has been copied into the Cook'n software, including a mention of what site the recipe was obtained from and a picture (if the original site had one) of the recipe. It's incredibly easy and very fun!
Before too long, DVO will launch their mobile apps, allowing you to grab a recipe from your Cook'n at home and send to your iPhone, iPad, Android, etc. If you visit the DVO site (), you'll see a fun demo of a young Mom looking for a recipe for dinner using Cook'n 10 and then sending the recipe to her iPhone so she can have the ingredient list at the grocery store. At the end of the demo video, you see her putting together gifts of a family cookbook, which has been a standard feature of Cook'n in previous versions.
Menu planning, automating a grocery list based on a recipe or a month's worth of recipes. I've created cookbooks within Cook'n for recipes that we make specifically for Christmas and we find ourselves adding to the cookbook each year.
I've tried probably all of the other software (Mastercook through many versions, Living Cookbook, Now You're Cooking, Big Oven).. while each has a fan base and some great features, to my mind DVO's Cook'n blows the competition away and it's for one HUGE reason their customer service. Dan Oaks, who is the president and founder of DVO, has personally called or did a remote computer session to help folks who might be having problems with the software. I'm one of the people he's personally helped.
I can't say enough about this software. I thought Version 9 was amazing, and it was... 10, however, totally blows it out of the water! I'd really recommend visiting to watch the demo of Cook'n 10.
(I don't work for DVO but have been a VERY satisfied customer for several years)
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I purchased this software on December 13 based on the guarantee published on their web site:"Risk-Free 200% Guarantee Means You Can't Lose. If you are not completely satisfied with the quality of your Cook'n Software, I will refund your purchase! In fact, I will go one step further and buy you the recipe software product of your choice."
I evaluated the software for two weeks and on December 26, I send an email to the address provided in my order confirmation stating that I would like a refund. All the relevant order information was included. I know they received the email because I received an out-of-the-office message stating they would reply after the holidays. In that email, I provided three reasons for my decision which I've listed below and indicated that I would like them to purchase the software of my choice 'Living Cookbook'.
As of March 4, I had not received either a refund or the software product of my choice despite three additional emails to the company. One on January 22, one on February 10 and finally one on February 11.
On March 4, I filed a dispute with American Express and less than 24 hours later I received a refund, however, I was not provided with the "software product of my choice". So much for the 200% guarantee.
I am using 'Living Cookbook' and find it a far superior product at less than half the cost of Cook'N.
Here are the reasons I chose to return the product for a refund:
1) When I view a recipe in 'Living Cookbook', I am able to see both the recipe ingredients, directions and nutrition information all at the same time on the same page. With Cook'N I have to click to a different page and scroll over to see the report of the nutrition data. The report includes all nutrition not just the summary normally included. There is no way to view it all on the same page.
2) When I print a recipe with 'Living Cookbook', the format is clean and simple and the nutrition information is automatically included. With Cook'N I have to navigate to a special print configuration page and manually setup the configuration to include nutrition data each and every time I want to print a recipe. Clearly a lot more work.
3) I purchased the 'Living Cookbook' import add-on for Cook'N and it failed to correctly import my recipe database. Specifically, it failed to import the folder hierarchy and lumped all the recipes together in general categories, nearly useless.
'Living Cookbook' is a far better engineered product and they have taken into consideration user friendliness and efficiency. Cook'N appears to have a lot more bells and whistles, but that about all they are bells and whistles NOT substance.
Four e-mails to the company failed to obtain a refund, but one call to American Express worked like a charm. Ask yourself whether you'll have to call American Express to get tech support if something goes wrong?.
UPDATE April 15
It's been a month and a half since I initially posted this review. The owner has responded twice, one of which is a rather lengthy reply. To date, there has been no attempt to provide me with the software product of my choice, the 200% guarantee they make on their web site. If you read his replies, they both appear to be attempts to discredit me rather than fully resolve the issue.
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I purchased this product to organize the many recipes I have on my computer and also in hard copy recipe files. I wanted to be able to import files saved on my computer and also scan recipes into the software. When I received it I found that neither of these options are possible with the software. I ordered the product because they advertise (on the package) a 200% guarantee...they state that, if you are not satisfied, they will not only refund the purchase price but will provide a recipe software of your choice. They did return the purchase price but did not honor the part of the guarantee to provide free software. I also asked if they would refund any of the postage ($10 to receive and $15 to return) since they were not going to provide software. They advised it is against their policy to reimburse any postage. The guarantee does state the "quality" of the software. That may be their argument for not standing by the guarantee. The quality is only good for me if the software does what I need it to do. The bottom line is that I am out $25.00 for software that I could not use. I'm sure the product is great if you want to use the recipes they provide or if you are willing to retype all your existing recipes into their program. This was not something that was feasible for me.Honest reviews on Cook'n Recipe Organizer Version 10
I purchased this from a "one day" discounter for half the price several months ago so I have to say that, given what I paid, I'm not entirely unhappy with the purchase. . . BUT. . . I purchased it because the description said it synced with iPad and iPhone. It doesn't. I contacted support several months ago and their response was an apology and "I don't have a date to give you as to when Sync and the mobile apps will be ready." I'm betting they have had more than a few customers really upset because they aren't being honest about what their product actually DOES. So if what you want is a organizer that syncs with iPad or iPhone, don't buy this one. At least not yet.It does have some nice features. I used to use several websites to search for recipes and now I just search once inside of the program. When I find what I want, I can save it to the database so I don't have to look for it again. I like that. I've also added a couple of my own recipes and had it calculate nutrition information for me which I never had before.
In short, IF they ever get iPhone and iPad syncronization, it will be very useful. Until then, it is a functional recipe database.
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Cook'n, Version 10, is the greatest kitchen innovation since sliced bread. It is an electronic cookbook organizer that does so many things to make being in the kitchen much easier.New Version 10 has the ability to capture recipes from web sites and place the ingredients, directions, and even a picture if available in appropriate recipe forms. It is tremendous! Cook'n also creates menus, shopping lists, and can review nutritional values. It is capable of nearly everything except the actual cooking of your foods and washing the dishes.
If you collect recipes like I do, then this is a perfect product for you, too.
Thank you, DVO, for such a wonderful program!!!
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