Marks & Spencer launches shoppable celebrity recipes on website and app

M&S has begun providing shoppable recipes from celebrity chef Tom Kerridge and ITV’s Cooking with the Stars on its website and app.

Shoppers can click a link to find the ingredients listed in full on Ocado, where they can then add them to a trolley with a single click. They can also save them to a digital shopping list on M&S’s app to refer to in store.

The new feature is powered by SideChef, M&S’s tech partner for online recipes. M&S is the first European retailer to partner with the US-based business, which also has its own recipe app.

“It’s an exciting milestone to kick off our UK expansion with Marks & Spencer and to launch Cooking with the Stars recipe content,” said SideChef CEO and founder Kevin Yu.

“We are pleased to give users the ability to make what they see on the show, with all of SideChef’s end-to-end recipe guidance, meal planning and shopping capabilities.”

Promoting its credentials as a supplier of ingredients for scratch cooking is part M&S’s strategy for improving returns from its Ocado tie-up – which racked up a £29.5m loss for the retailer in the year to 1 April – as well as appealing to more family shoppers in stores.

Kerridge is currently featuring in an M&S TV ad campaign showcasing recipes made with its ingredients. The retailer also sponsors Cooking with the Stars, in which celebrities team up with professional chefs.