Top 10 food apps

iPhone appsfood apps you can't miss

For many, an iPhone and iPad are way more than just a tool to check email, Facebook or make a call. They're a lifeline filled with apps to help us when there's an emergency, disaster or, worse, dinner party in 20 minutes without a hint as to what to make. Whether you're a chef, home cook extraordinaire or someone learning the basics, these 10 apps will become your new best friend in the kitchen or on those days you feel like ordering takeout.

As Bon Appetit says "cooking apps are to the kitchen as the utility belt is to Batman." In today's technology driven culture, people are looking to cookbooks and television shows less and to their phones more for cooking tips, hot new ingredients, recipes and more. These top 10 apps do everything from show you how to bone a duck to where to order food directly from your iPhone to how to find that name for that fancy cheese you love. So get to downloading!

10Speakeasy cocktails

If mixing new cocktails is something you love doing, Speakeasy Cocktails is one app you can't go without. Created by the bartenders behind NYC's biggest bars, this app comes loaded with hundreds of innovative and unique drink recipes to liven up any of your parties. In addition to recipes, the app offers tips for creating the best bar and what tools and ingredients you need to stock up on. As of now, this app is only available for the iPad and can be downloaded for $9.99.

9Seafood watch

This one-of-a-kind seafood-only app, created by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, helps you find the best seafood restaurants where you live and helps you find the best local catch at your grocery store. Seafood Watch also allows you to easily search by the common fish names and find out all you need to know about a certain kind of fish, like when it's best to eat it and where you should buy it. It's also a great resource on sushi, so you never have to ask what's in that roll again! This app is free and can be used on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

8Fromage

Do you a wanna be cheese connoisseur but don't know the first thing about this delicacy? Download the top-rated app Fromage, which has hundreds of cheeses cataloged by region where they were made, milk type and texture! You can also add favorites and bookmark certain cheeses so you're never left digging through old notes or emails trying to find that distinct flavor you loved. You can download this app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch for $1.99.

7Chef's feed

Are you curious about where your favorite celebrity chefs dine when out on the town? Download Chef's Feed, which features live Twitter and Facebook feeds from your favorite chefs as they dine. You can also view your city's list of the best chefs and restaurants so you can learn more about good eats in your town. Some of the big name chefs participating are Wolfgang Puck, Thomas Keller and Mario Batali. The app is free to dowload on the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone so find out what your favorite chefs love to eat!

6Harvest

Are you a farmers market fiend whose fridge is bursting with fresh produce? Download Harvest so you never waste a piece of it! This app will help you determine when fruit is ripe, how to store your favorite vegetables and when to toss a sketchy looking pepper. In addition, Harvest will give you the inside scoop on your favorite fruits and veggies, like the best time to buy them and when they are in peak season. Plus, you can also learn about pesticide levels on your favorites. The app is $1.99 and can be downloaded on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

5Urbanspoon

Urbanspoon has been around for years and is one of the most popular food apps in the Apple Store. Why? It's a fun and innovative way to find a new place to grab a bite to eat or a drink in your city! If you're indecisive, simply shake your phone, iPod Touch or iPad, and it will spin and land on a place for you to try! You can also browse restaurants by neighborhood, type of cuisine and price as well as share reviews and ratings with other diners. You can also read reviews from some of the top newspapers and magazines in your area. This app is free to download so don't miss out on a new dining experience!

4Locavore

If you are lover of local produce, farmers markets and sustainable living, Locavore will be your new best friend. This app uses your location and then tells you what foods are in season where you are, provides addresses to local farmers and farmers markets and even gives you recipes using your city's best produce! You can also share and upload recipes you create. Plus, this app will also tell you, politely, just how many weeks you have left to buy an in-season item! This handy app is free for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, so never miss out on seasonal grub again!

3GrubHub delivery
and takeout

Feeling like vegging out on the couch this Friday night and don't want to have to surf the web to find what restaurants deliver in your neighborhood? Download GrubHub, which takes the guesswork out of finding delivery and takeout options near you! Based on your location and what kind of food you like, this app will find all the restaurants within a certain radius that offer takeout and delivery options! That's not all, though! You can also place orders and leave reviews right from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Now that's an app we can get on board with. Plus, it's free to download! Now, if only it could clean up our takeout boxes after we are done with them.

2Foodgawker

Do you love staring endlessly at gorgeous, mouthwatering photos of food? Are you a blossoming food blogger trying to learn how to photograph? Or do you just love photo-driven websites with easy access to unique and delicious recipes? If you said yes to any of these (and even if you didn't), you need to download Foodgawker. This photo-driven app is based on the popular website and features thousands of stunning food photographs of every food group you can think of. If your dish du jour doesn't pop up while you're scrolling, you can search by food group. To get the recipes, simply tap the photo of choice, and you'll be taken to the blog or website where it came from. This app is free to download on iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone! Just watch out, you could find yourself getting lost for hours drooling at photos.

1How to cook everything

So what is our favorite food app of all time? Well, this one was easy. How to Cook Everything, the brainchild of the incredibly talented New York Times food writer, Mark Bittman. This app is based on his delicious cookbook and website, also named How to Cook Everything. This app is super user friendly and all recipes are categorized by ingredient. You can make (and email) grocery lists to yourself or others and all of the recipes have how-to steps and photographs to guide you along the cooking process. Oh, that's not all though! Each recipe has a built-in timer so you never burn a muffin or overcook a steak again. The app is  $9.99 for the iPad and $4.99 for the iPhone. Plus, there's a free app, How to Cook Everything Essentials!

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