Steve Jobs leaves lasting legacy in food world

As the world continues to contemplate Steve Jobs‘ legacy, the food world has also been weighing in on how his visionary technology has set off a new trajectory in the way people eat, cook and dine.

From bloggers baking up apple treats in his honor to food writers pontificating about Jobs’ wide-reaching impact in our daily eating lives, Jobs’ technological contribution to the food world is being examined for its scope just as it is in the worlds of communication, technology, retail, work, photography and music. In a word, it’s inescapable.

For starters, Jobs’ own relationship with food was a tenuous one. He alternated between a vegan lifestyle, a raw-food diet, and in his youth had an obsession with apples which, famously, led to the naming of his company.

Today, the enterprise he brought back from the brink of bankruptcy is also poised to have a long-term impact on people’s accessibility, perspectives and relationship with food.

Avant-garde restaurants are replacing menus with iPads and home cooks are using tablets and laptops in place of old-fashioned cookbooks.

“I frequently use my iPhone to find recipes while at the grocery store and use my MacBook all the time in the kitchen (there is flour in the keyboard),” wrote a reader on popular food blog Seriouseats.com. “I was actually grocery shopping last night and looking for recipes on the iPhone when I heard about his passing.”

Food-related apps like Yelp, Zagat, OpenTable and Epicurious deliver instantaneous information about the nearest restaurant, best burger joint, and help plan users’ dinner menu or book a reservation.

And food photography apps like Foodspotting have turned diners into shutterbugs as meals are captured on iPhones so people can relive gastronomic experiences.

Added another Seriouseats reader: “I also have many great cooking/recipe apps that I use all the time on my iPad…Thank you Steve Jobs!”

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