Cuisine Canada Scene

In a recent episode of Modern Family, Phil blows out virtual birthday candles via his brand new iPad. This party trick is not the imagination of a TV writer. The application, Birthday a la Carte, exists.The screen’s sensor is so advanced it allows users to extinguish candles with their breath. And the app costs $0.99 — about the price of a package of real birthday candles you use once.

While the black-and-white, non-illuminated Kindle hasn’t made much of a dent in the cookbook market, the shiny bright iPad might. It rivals print with crystal clear, full-colour graphics, video capabilities and a display large enough to allow two-page layouts.

Whether or not this attractive and user-friendly gadget is a real threat to the printed cookbook is anyone’s guess. But some web-based companies are embracing the technology. Rouxbe On-line Cooking School has ensured all their videos are iPad compatible and are geared to launch an iPad app in the near future.

The good news is, if the iPad revolutionizes how we read the way the iPod changed the way we listen to music, demand for written content will rise. But as the touch screen continues to evolve what form will readers expect that content to take? Will interactive step-by-step recipe instructions be the norm? With a culinary joystick in hand, will future readers be able to stir virtual batter? Flip a pancake? Learn to whisk egg whites?

With visuals and interactive features becoming as important as text, are you learning new technical skills as part of your food writing professional development? If so, what? Or do you think this trend will pass due to high development costs and users’ voracious appetites for ever-changing features? Or is simple text just too practical to go out of style?