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Breville/Chefsteps will disable access to Premium lifetime subscribers of their recipe service

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Background

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Founded in 2012 by Modernist Cuisine veterans Chris Young, Grant Crilly, and Ryan Matthew Smith, ChefSteps is an educational cooking website focused on food science and sous vide cooking [1]. Between 2014 and 2016, the company sold "ChefSteps Premium" as a one-time purchase ($24–$39, or bundled with early Joule hardware) promising lifetime access to all existing and future premium content [2][6]. In July 2019, ChefSteps was acquired by Breville Group [1]. Later that year, ChefSteps introduced "Studio Pass," an annual $69 subscription [3][4]. The company announced that legacy Premium members would no longer receive newly developed content, but claimed existing paid content would remain accessible [3][4].

Revocation of "Lifetime Premium Access"

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Email informing about the recovaction of lifetime access
Email informing about the recovaction of lifetime access

On September 16, 2026, ChefSteps Executive Director Grant Crilly emailed lifetime members stating that ChefSteps Premium would be retired on October 16, 2026 [5][2]. Under the new terms, lifetime members lose access to all previously purchased classes and premium guides unless they purchase an ongoing Studio Pass subscription [5]. Concurrently, previous Premium recipes on the site were rebranded under the Studio Pass paywall [2].

ChefSteps's response

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ChefSteps framed the change as part of a platform redesign and feature upgrade [5]. The company did not offer refunds or grandfathered access, instructing members to either contact customer support or subscribe to Studio Pass to retain their content [5]. They have sent out promo codes for a "free" year when you subscribe to studio pass.

Lawsuit

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No formal lawsuits have been filed as of October 2026.

Consumer response

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Reaction across culinary forums and Reddit communities (r/sousvide, r/Cooking) has been uniformly negative [5][2][4]:

  • Accusations of "Rugpulling": Users cited a two-step breach of trust: withholding new content in 2019, followed by stripping access to originally purchased classes in 2026 [2].
  • Digital Ownership Concerns: Commentators highlighted the move as an example of digital obsolescence, where perpetual licenses are unilaterally converted into subscriptions [2].
  • Archiving Efforts: Users organized efforts to back up, scrape, and export recipe files and reference guides before the October 16 cutoff [2].
  • Boycott of Breville: Many customers pledged to avoid purchasing connected Joule hardware and other Breville appliances due to the change [2][4].

References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bencic, Emily (2026-10-04). "Breville acquires US food tech start-up".
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 "Email - Chefsteps Premium to be shut down". Reddit.com/r/sousvide. 2026-10-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Twisting the knife just a little more". Chefsteps Community Forum. 2026-10-04.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "/r/cooking - ChefSteps Studio Pass". reddit.com/r/cooking. 2019-10-01. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Crilly, Grany (2026-10-04). "No more Premium subscriptions". ChefSteps.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)


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