A Gourmet app
An electronic version of the once-popular magazine is coming. Will foodies eat it up?
Devra First: Gourmet is back, in electronic form. Gourmet Live, an app for iPads and other devices, will launch in the fourth quarter of 2010. Will you use it? Are you interested? Did you read Gourmet? Do you care?
Glen Gracia: I really don’t understand Conde Nast’s moving toward a Gourmet app that basically just has archived materials and options for people to share their own content. Reminds me of using deceased celebs to sell vacuums on TV.
D.F.: It feels very corporate. An online promo says there will be new stories. Calling something Gourmet doesn’t make it Gourmet-like, of course. I wonder if it will be largely new users, or if their old readers will use it too.
SplisnDC: I loved Gourmet and I am curious to see what the app will look like. I wonder if it will be easy to use and I will be able to access all of my favorite recipes from over the years.
SueC: I don’t have an iPad and don’t think I’ll be getting one for a while. I have to say that I enjoy Epicurious.com for recipes. Also use BBCGoodFood.com for some interesting things, and occasionally Recipezaar.com. All good in locating recipes with a specific ingredient. Can’t see me going to a handheld for recipes.
Ora M: To me, online recipe/cooking websites are for reference/guidelines only, as most cookbooks are too. I like Cookingforengineers.com.
Guy: I can see using a handheld for recipes — I don’t want to lug the Mac downstairs and into the kitchen!
D.F.: If I had an iPad, I would definitely use it for that, though my laptop doesn’t take up too much room on the counter. I do think recipes and the Internet go together like peanut butter and jelly, Fred and Ginger, foie gras and Sauternes. . . . I’m beginning to tire of everything having to be about social connection, though. I don’t need to be hooked up to a community of Gourmet readers. That’s not what Gourmet was about for me.
Marc H: Gourmet Live sounds like overkill to me. Games? Location-based social interaction? No thanks — I barely have enough time between Facebook, Twitter, and Chowhound.
D.F.: Right. At a certain point it’s just overstimulation. It’s like eating: After many multicourse meals of rich food, you just want a simple bowl of soup sometimes. And sometimes you just want to look at a magazine by yourself. At least I do.
Glen Gracia: I’m interested in the Gourmet app, but my expectations are not very high. Sounds like all the functionality is what could have been on a website. Just because it is now available on a small screen doesn’t really sound too appealing.
Guy: I picked up the (free) Epicurious app for an iPod Touch — it is a quick way to get access to Bon Appetit, and other recipes. I’m not sure if I would pay for an app like that, though. Maybe if there were an absolute promise there would be no advertising.
Ora M: To me apps are something you eat, not waste time on.
Marc H: I love Grumpy’s on Route 6A in East Dennis. Excellent breakfast plates and terrific sandwiches at lunchtime. Whenever I bring people down there, they always ask later when we can head back. It’s a real local favorite.
Glen Gracia: I love Seafood Sam’s in Sandwich on the canal. I grew up there, and it was always an institution. Nothing fancy — just great fried seafood and summer, casual fun.
SueC: I always like fried clams. The Hingham Lobster Pound, on 3A, is great. I think their fried clams are among the best.
Marc H: I’m a big fan of the Docksider Restaurant in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Great seafood and such a nice location between the village center and the harbor.
MC: Hope I can get back to Nantucket this summer, though it seems awfully pricey for these lean times. Favorites there include Straight Wharf, the Pearl, Black-Eyed Susan’s (breakfast), and 21 Federal.
D.F.: Prices are high, for sure, but apparently lower than in some past years. Folks I talked to said all the Madoff goings-on hit a segment of people hard. Last year prices got lower.
Excerpted from Devra First’s weekly chat. Go to Boston.com today at 11 a.m. to chat live about your favorite dishes, recipes, and restaurants. Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com. 
