Gluttons, foodies and gourmands have taken to the iPad with utter relish. Perhaps it's because hundreds of great interactive cookbooks, shopping lists and food review apps are now available for the tablet device, or maybe it's the fact you can wipe down the iPad's screen. Either way, here are five great ways to whip up a feast with your iPad.
One category of apps that has moved iOS into the mainstream is cooking, trail storming your iPad or iPhone into a virtual cookbook and kitchen. It's not just famous chefs who have rushed to claim a slice of the Apple pie by packaging up their recipes in pretty, easy-to-use apps. Regular everyday chefs have also taken a crack at designing and hiring developers to create what they think are useful digital tools for chefs.
The range of cooking apps now available on the App Store is so large that I'm surprised Apple hasn't created a separate category for cooking apps. My advice when trying to find a particular app to satisfy your need is to start with a Google search.
Say, for instance, you are looking for an app about Italian cooking. Vou might search for 'Italian cooking iPad app' and come across the 'Italian Cooking
app9 that includes 93 Italian recipes and 190 Italian restaurant terms for $4.99 or the Gino D'Acampo - Eating Italian app for $5.99. You can also consult Apple's list of Apps for Foodies that's often listed as a special part of the App Store. Or, you could go totally 1.0 and simply ask your friends what their favourite cooking apps are.
But the apps you find aren't all just full of recipes. Some actually help you cook, like the iGril. Essentially, the iGrill is a Bluetooth enabled meat thermometer that, when paired with an app, lets you remotely monitor the temperature of meat you're cooking on the BBQ or in the oven.
The iGrill sounds like the sort of product straight out of a Star Trek movie but it's real and available for purchase today. The iGrill can read temperatures ranging from zero to 204 degrees Celsius and the probe is connected to a 25cm heat resistant cable. You set the iGrill on the barbie, pair it with your iPhone and the companion app, and when your meat is done you'll get a notification while you're sipping your beer on the patio. What else could be better?
Billed as the 'ultimate meat cooking application for professionals and aspiring home master chefs', Ask the Butcher will help turn you into a BBQ wizard with 'exclusive, mouth-watering recipes from one of the world's leading Charcuterie Chefs'.
As a vegetarian I wasn't in a position to test the recipes but it's certainly easy to appreciate the stunning graphics and intuitive user interface.
Ask the Butcher lets you choose a cut of meat from a butcher's blackboard or a more formal list of common cuts, with specific information provided for each cut.
As well as recipes, the timer allows you to select the type of meat you're cooking, specify how 'well done' your steak should be, providing time and temperature estimates.
An essential for any iP hone-wielding meat lover.
Part of the series of Good Food apps, Good Food for Friends is the perfect app if you're looking to plan a dinner party and want to know which food goes well together.
The app is packed with 150 recipes, arranged into starters, mains and deserts, including an additional 30 drinks and canape recipes too.
To use the app, you can select a themed recipe, like 'family-friendly' or 'curry night' and Good Food for Friends will present you with the perfect meal and put all the ingredients you need in to a shopping list.
The app also makes it easy to connect to friends via email and Facebook and let them know the menu and what time the meal begins.
Lastly, the app contains tips on entertaining, like 'how to feed a crowd' and 'best ways to clear up once your guests have left'.
Along with the recipes, the app includes 40 minutes of video content including cooking tutorials and full-length videos of Nigella cooking dishes such as chocolate pear pudding or sesame peanut noodles.
Like other apps, Nigella Quick Collection lets you organise your recipe into favourite groups for quick access and provides shopping-list functionality for use in the supermarket.
From a technical perspective the thing I love about the app is the ability to manipulate the recipes using your voice. That's right, find the recipe you want to cook, start cooking, and then use your voice to move backwards and forwards through the recipe steps. 1 love the technology. My wife says it's great because it lets her keep her grubby hands off the IPhone.
Jamie Oliver followed up his super successful 20 Minute Meals app with a new and improved version simply called Jamie's Recipes. To begin with, the app is free so put Jamie's name and free together and you'll get a hit regardless what the app does. But Jamie delivers ail exceptional app again with Recipes.
The app comes with 13 free recipes to get you started and then lets you add to your collection by buying extra recipe packs. Each recipe pack has 10 recipes based around various themes. Each pack also includes additional video instructions.
As with the 20 Minute Meals app, cooking with the app is easy, with attractive layouts and easy-to-follow methods. My only complaint with Recipes is that it hasn't been customised for the iPad yet, but I'd expect that any day.
Backed by the more than 30,000 recipes from epicurious.com, the Epicurious app makes it easy to find and display nearly any recipe you can dream up.
Standard fare includes a favourites list and shopping list. A new feature, called Recipe Box Sync, lets you keep shopping lists in sync over multiple devices. For instance, you can add items to your recipe box on your iPhone and they will also be available on your IPad.
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