Friday, February 5, 2010

Day 36: Cooking with James The Skinny Chef -- an interactive Social/Mobile game towards healthier living through fine dining.

Recognizing that I’m a bit adrift, it’s sometimes difficult to separate our work and home life and as mine blurs, I will share it with you. If nothing else, it should be clear that I have a pretty cool day job.

Here is the high concept – I’d like to know your thoughts… You are cooking with James the Skinny Chef and together you must choose from a list of ingredients to cook a meal. You are awarded scores in three categories that deliver you combined overall score. James will offer suggestions, teaching you through the process as you create your meal.

Scoring categories:
1) Taste (adding salt increasing this score but lowers the Healthiness)
2) Healthiness (using water to deglaze over wine lowers calorie count but lowers Taste)
3) Timing and Presentation (if you let veggies cook too long they wilt and lose their color, letting meat cook too long makes it tough and burnt)

Advanced scoring categories:
1) Food you pick also changes the point spread (brown rice is higher Health than mashed potatoes, but lower Taste)
2) Cooking is seasonal and cooking with fresh Kale in winter delivers more anti-oxidants, choosing the right foods seasonally gives higher overall score
3) Cooking is chemistry and mixing taste is like mixing colors on a color wheel, creating unique creations awards points (sweet & sour is yummy)

Social component
1) Turn your actual menus in the game into menus you actually cook and eat
2) Submit the menus on your Facebook page, email to friends, tweet, etc…
3) Submit your best dishes for a virtual cooking contest (or real one at a Sur La table location)

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