Food Network Magazine US

Review by eFreeware

Food Network Magazine US is the Android edition of the magazine published by Hearst Communications, the company behind the print title of the same name. The app carries the magazine's mix of chef profiles, recipes and entertainment coverage onto a phone or tablet, and it is free to download. What makes it interesting is the combination: a magazine you read issue by issue, plus a clipping tool that turns pages into images you can pass around.

The title is presented as the only epicurean magazine with access to America's favorite TV chefs, which is the kind of positioning a publisher is entitled to claim. What matters more for a reader is the shape of the thing: each issue is built around the network's on-screen talent, with a look at their shows and kitchens alongside the recipes. If that pairing is what you want from a food magazine, this is the version of it that lives on your phone.

Who the magazine is put together for

The clearest audience here is someone who already watches the network and wants more of the same people in written form. The behind-the-scenes material on shows and kitchens is the part that distinguishes it from a general recipe collection, and it is the reason a fan would follow the magazine rather than simply search for dishes online.

The second audience is the home cook who wants volume rather than depth. Each issue is described as carrying hundreds of recipes along with tips for entertaining, so the appeal is breadth: plenty of ideas for feeding people, presented in the familiar magazine fashion. Someone planning a dinner party or looking for a weekend cooking project will find more to work with here than someone hunting for a single technique.

It is also a reasonable fit for readers who like to save and share what they find. The clipping feature is unusual enough to be a genuine reason to choose the app over a stack of paper issues, particularly for anyone who swaps recipe ideas with friends or family on social platforms.

Recipes, chefs and the magazine itself

Inside you get the magazine's editorial mix: the network's talent, coverage of their programs and kitchens, recipes, and advice on hosting. The recipe count runs into the hundreds per issue, which is the sort of figure that makes an issue feel like a reference you return to rather than something you skim once.

Because the app is tied to a magazine, the rhythm is periodic rather than continuous. You read an issue, and then you wait for the next one. That suits readers who like a defined package with a beginning and an end, and it is a different experience from an endless feed of dishes. The trade-off is that the app is only as useful as the issues you have access to.

The material is aimed at a general audience and carries an Everyone content rating, which fits the network's broad, playful tone. The recipes are not pitched at professionals; the emphasis is on dishes and tips that are accessible to ordinary cooks.

Clipping pages with a two-finger tap

The feature I find most distinctive is the clipping tool. A two-finger tap captures an actual image of the content on screen, and from there you can send it onward.

Those clips can go to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Pinterest, be sent by email, or be saved to your photo roll. That covers most of the ways people pass recipes around, and saving to the photo roll is the practical option for anyone who wants a personal collection without leaving the app open. A recipe you clipped last month is still in your camera roll when you need it.

I would treat this as the app's strongest argument for existing on a phone rather than in print. Sharing a page from a print magazine means photographing it badly or tearing it out. Here the image is taken from the content itself, which should make the results cleaner and the whole exchange quicker.

What it costs, and the ads

The download is free, and the app carries advertising. It also offers in-app purchases. The purchase side is direct: you can select a single issue to buy, or sign up for a subscription and save. So the model is familiar magazine publishing, where the app is the shelf and the issues are the goods.

That structure shapes how you should think about the free download. It gets you the app, not the library. If you only want one issue to see whether the format suits you, buying that issue on its own is the route the publisher describes. If you expect to read regularly, the subscription is presented as the cheaper way to do it.

I would keep the two costs separate in my head. The app itself costs nothing and shows ads; the reading material is what you pay for. Anyone deciding whether to commit should look at the subscription price against what a single issue costs, since the savings on offer are the whole point of subscribing.

How it compares with other ways to read

The obvious alternative is the print magazine, which gives you the same editorial package without a screen. What print cannot do is the clipping trick, and it cannot travel in your pocket alongside everything else on your phone. If you already subscribe in print, the app is a question of convenience rather than content.

A second comparison is a general recipe app or a cooking website. Those tend to be searchable and enormous, built for finding a specific dish on a specific evening. This app is not organized that way; it is organized by issue, around particular chefs and their shows. The two approaches answer different questions, and a reader who wants to browse a curated package will prefer the magazine shape.

A third option is a dedicated magazine service that bundles many titles for one fee. That gives you range, but not the specific mix of network chefs, show coverage and kitchen access this title is built on. The choice comes down to whether you want this magazine in particular or magazines in general.

A magazine for viewers who cook

The app has been available since December 2018 and was last updated in October 2024, with the most recent release described as bug fixes and general stability improvements. It has been installed more than 10,000 times and holds a 3.9 average from 110 ratings. Those numbers describe a modest but established audience rather than a breakout hit.

My recommendation is straightforward. If you watch the network's chefs and want their shows, kitchens and recipes collected in one periodic package, with a neat way to clip and share pages, this is a sensible thing to install and try with a single issue. If you want a searchable database of dishes, the issue-by-issue model and the paid issues will not give you that.

The free download makes the first step cheap, and the single-issue purchase lets you judge the format before committing to a subscription. That is a fair way to decide, and it is how I would approach it.

What's new in version 19.0

This release includes bug fixes and general stability improvements.