"ipad app" news and stories

Airline food is dead. Long live airport food, which is taking off so fast you wonder if the dining scene at LAX and O'Hare will soon resemble Vegas without the slot machines. Total hype? Sure, but today does mark a milestone with the opening of a new kind of "restaurant" at JFK's two Delta terminals.

Some 200 iPads have been mounted at coffee shop-style booths right by the gates, where passengers can now grab a seat and order a meal, checking stock quotes and playing games as they wait for food to be delivered. What kind of food? Maybe a Cobb salad or spinach quiche at Croque Madame (Gates 21 and 22), from Andrew Carmellini, the chef at Manhattan's downtown hotspot, Locanda Verde, or a panini from Bar Brace (Gate 15), from Jason Denton of New York's 'Inoteca and Lupa.

Next up: Crust, at Delta's LaGuardia terminal, where Jim Lahey, of Soho's Sullivan Street Bakery, will lend his baking prowess to pizza.) Big-name chefs, like Wolfgang Puck and Todd English, have had restaurant franchises at airports for some time now, but this whole park-me-by-the gate-and-hand-me-an-iPad expansion is a step in a new direction. And if you miss having a live server taking your order, you can always stare soulfully into your Apple screen and mumble, "you must be iPaddy, and you'll be my waiter today."

Food & Wine released its new iPad app last week (YumSugar had the scoop on release day, October 7) and, aside from a few complaints about download time, it's been well received, including by those of us here at Slashfood and KitchenDaily who've had a chance to play with it. The free app includes redesigned features from the magazine, recipes (with gorgeous photos for each) and videos with celebrity chefs such as Mario Batali.

Easy to navigate, with multiple ways to delve into each topic, the app makes it fun to flit around the issue. I especially like the Buying & Pairing Guide, which has various ways to explore 100 bottles of wine, with photos of each bottle, info about the region, grape and producer, and a recipe suggestion for each bottle (a $9 Merlot to drink with Easy Short Ribs Braised in Red Wine).