BBC GoodFood iPad launch

An evening at GoodFood HQ

I have a mild hangover and am presently hugging my third cup of tea and feeling very sorry for myself. I tell you this so you will not hate me quite so much when I gloat that I spent last night quaffing free bubbly and nibbling free nibbles at the launch event for BBC GoodFood iPad magazine. Please don't hate me. Even when I tell you that I also left with a goodie bag. I met some fascinating people, including fellow food blogger Nick Coffer of mydaddycooks.com who was very charming. I also got to have a poke around in the GoodFood kitchens (which though I expected to be a magical world somewhat like Santa’s workshop with eager little elves scuttling around, turned out to be very much like a normal kitchen!).

I suppose I should be a good blogger and actually talk about the product (and indeed stop gloating), thankfully it was actually very impressive and even my technology phobic fingers could successfully work it I won't have to tell any fibs. In some respects it is what you would expect – a iPad version of the printed magazine. However the team have definitely put a lot of thought into making it as user friendly as possible. For example select a recipe and it turns into a clearly laid out recipe card format, click on the instructions and they increase in size for ease of reading while you cook. The photography looks incredible on the screen.

For me the best bit was the instructional videos. I strongly believe the best cooks know the basics; better to be able to do something simple very well than fail at something complicated. So I was very pleased that techniques are demonstrated through video, I am very aware how hard it is to describe cookery techniques through text and a few photos so it definitely gets the thumbs up from me.

So back to the food! We had a knife skills demo from Barney Desmazery the Food editor, I felt very smug that while interesting to watch I do all my knife prep the same way. And to soak up the booze which I very happily had a few glasses of we had: prawn and chorizo skewers, stuffed prunes and figs wrapped in ham, mini sausages with utterly amazing ketchup and roasted mini potatoes in their skins with yummy garlicky mayo. For dessert rocky road/ tiffin call it what you will and mincemeat slices. I was cheeky enough to take an extra few rocky roads home to the lovely fiancé (thus allowing me to gloat at him a little bit too!).

Some techy info for you:

• The first 'issue' will be the February 2011 issue, which is available for download from the App store from late Decemeber
• It will be priced at an introductory rate of £1.79 rising to £2.99 after a trial period (therefore being cheaper than the printed version)