TAKEAWAY: Cooking and iPad apps: the way we follow a recipe may be changing ALSO: Ciao to bunga bunga time AND: Ads that sparkle
What’s cooking on the iPad
Admission #1: I like cookbooks and I find myself buying them, especially when visiting a foreign country where I like the local food.
Admision #2: I am not much of a cook.
Admision #3: I am always hoping that I will devote time to learning how to cook—-especially Thai and Indian specialties—-when I lead a more sedentary life. Yes, I know, hard to imagine that it would be anytime soon.
Admision #4: It is almost Thanksgiving holiday in the US, and it is the time of the year that I get in my kitchen to make one favorite dish: a Waldorf salad, which I then take to wherever our family is gathering to celebrate this grand American feast and say thanks for the many blessings we have. (This year my daughter Ana and her husband Dan host the festivities and the entire Garcia clan, all 20 us, plus in laws, will sit down to a dinner of turkey and dozens of other dishes. You guessed right, my Waldorf salad must be big enough to satisfy this group!)
So, if you are wondering why these admissions from me on a Monday morning as we start another week: These are thoughts prompted by a piece in The New York Times provocatively titled: Are Cookbooks obsolete?
I admit that when I see images of iPad screens and a headline that reads obsolete, I immediately jump, as I know that the subject will deal, to a degree, with how we consume information, how we process it and the specific effect it has for those of us in this industry.
Alas, the author of this piece, Julia Moskin, writes that “with the boom in tablet technology, recipes have begun to travel with their users from home to the office to the market and, most important, into the kitchen. With features like embedded links, built-in timers, infographics and voice prompts, the richness of some new apps — like Baking With Dorie, from the baking expert Dorie Greenspan; Jamie Oliver’s 20-Minute Meals; and Professional Chef, the vast app released last month by the Culinary Institute of America — hint that books as kitchen tools are on the way out.“
Or are they?
I keep all of mine standing between book ends right on my kitchen counter, for easy access, but I also know that I enjoy looking at those great recipes and pop up moments in Martha Stewart Living, the app (great if you wish to get every great cookie making recipe0 , not to mention Epi, to which I refer to often in search of a quick, healthy lunches, or breakfasts.
As for my Waldorf salad, I still have a yellow sticky to mark the page in my old cookbook, and it is a yearly ritual to turn there the morning of Thanksgiving as I watch Macy’s parade on TV.
But this article makes me think. Why not put my iPad on the kitchen counter, look up Waldorf salad in one of those apps mentioned in the NY Times piece, and let the sounds and the video provide me with a new twist on an old ritual.
As for cookbooks becoming obsolete? Not so quickly, not yet, and not for my favorite Cuban recipes, which come directly from a very very used book that my mother used and passed on to me.
Arrivederci, Silvio
Bild’s goodbye to Silvio Berlusconi
Italy has a new Prime Minister, and the bunga bunga times are over—-for now.
Bild (of Germany) handled it in its usual, irreverent (but fun) way.
I am hoping to add more Ciao Silvio pages as I get them later in the day.
Ads that sparkle
And in the category of “advertising is everywhere”…..
Dining in Luxembourg last night. my dining companion, Frank Deville (the blog correspondent) and I noticed that the bottle of San Pellegrino brought to our table looked different. Indeed, the sparkling water favorite teamed up with the sparkling jeweler Bulgari to help it celebrate 125 years of fabulous jewels. The result: the label on the San Pellegrino bottle wears some colorful and shiny stones from the Bulgari collection.
If calling attention to the jewels was the intention, then the San Pellegrino-Bulgari alliance works. It was the subject of our conversation for at least two minutes over pasta.
I believe that we are more likely to see this marriage of subtle advertising messages inflitrating through various non traditional means. We will see this especially as news apps develop further.