Great British Chefs

Great British Chefs is a recipe book with a difference.  Well it’s not a book at all – it’s an iPad App.

With the new Great British Chefs app foriPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, 12 of Britain’s most celebrated chefs have come together to connect food lovers with stunning recipes. Putting 180 dishes in the palm of your hand, the app gives users access to three customisable five-course menus from each chef, which they can either follow in full or use to make a bespoke menu of their own. The app is bursting with tips, videos, wine pairings, and a shopping list tailored to whichever dishes users want to make.

From the perfect beignets to quail mulligatawny to bubblegum panna cotta – when you make them, they’ll leave any guest begging for the recipe. We believe that people should share the recipes they love, so if you have the app you can just email them to your guests.

As a piece of design this App is simply stunning, very well constructed.  It’s easy to navigate and looks fantastic – the photography is gorgeous and there is so much more information than you’d get in a book.

The premise of the “book” is to bring together recipes ideal for entertaining from some of Britain’s best chefs… it’s about getting Michelin starred food from your own kitchen.

The App very visual. You work your way through by tapping and swiping through various screens.  Take this Mussels Mouclade with Spinach Mousse recipe by Simon Hulstone, for example:

Extras in this App you just wouldn’t get in a book include the ability to create a shopping list based on what recipes you want to cook, as well as a built in timer.

The recipes have built in voice control so you can tell the app when you are ready to move onto the next step rather than having to touch the screen with hands covered in flour or chicken or whatever else.  I found the voice control did actually work, although it was a little slow to respond – just be patient and it’s a really useful tool.  You simply say “next” and it highlights the next instruction so you know exactly where you are and what you need to do.

It’s really easy to find recipes based on course, ingredient or complexity from the drop down menu and it’ll display just recipes in that category, or you can search specifically for an ingredient too.

I particularly like this “easy” category, although I must say these are quite amazing dishes, none of them seem particularly “easy” to me!!

And of course it’s not just recipes – this App also provides information about the chefs and their suggested menus. This is a really nice added touch – and again the photography is really brilliant.

Looking through the App there are a few recipes that catch my attention, although I’ve been way too chicken to try them so far… I will give it a go when I’m feeling more confident in my new kitchen (yes that is an excuse!).

The App is available from iTunes for both iPhone and iPad currently priced just £2.49 (a special offer).  If you know something about cooking and really want to impress your friends with some amazing recipes then you should definitely get this.  Alternatively if you’re no good at cooking like me but love nice looking recipe books and have a thing for great Apps, then you should also get this.  Oh and if you’re an App designer then you should absolutely download this now – it really does make the most of the iPad screen and functionality, and is simply beautiful.