Spoon Produces a Christmas Cook Book for the iPad

Spoon's editorial manager and food editor Maud Onnermark is multi-talented: She is also a TV chef and has published several cook books. And now with Christmas approaching, her latest cookbook, Lättlagad julmat och julgodis (easy-to-prepare Christmas food and treats) – has been launched both in hardcover and as an iPad app. The cookbook includes some 80 recipes for everything from accompaniments for mulled wine to Christmas sweets. The book is published by Semic, which together with Spoon has developed the iPad version using the Mag+ platform.

Henrik Lundberg and Melker Forssén, colleagues of Onnermark at Spoon, came up with the idea for an app. Lundberg says they wanted to test Mag+ and Onnermark's book was an easy choice.

"Everyone was worried about how it would work with the iPad, everything from the best way to produce applications to how to get paid for it," says Lundberg, who was project manager for the app. "But in Mag+ there are so many different technical possibilities, so you're limited pretty much only by your creativity. We presented the idea for Semic and when they agreed it was just a matter of getting going."

The idea is that browsing the iPad cook book should provide inspiration rather than being a recipe database. Spoon also had the iPad in mind in the development of the concept.

"The layout of the recipes looks like a recipe card collection, and by sweeping the screen with two fingers you can pull the card up and down over the photo of the food," says Lundberg. "The app also includes video clips of Maud on how to use it, which is a way for us to market Spoon and show that we can take on this kind of project."

Onnermark was also happy with the end result. "It worked well with Mag+ and Peter Nyström, art director for the app, did a fantastic job," she says. "It's easy to browse and with a single click you get to the chapters, photos and recipes you're looking for. The picture quality is also great, it's like looking at photos on a light board."

You can download the app here (in Swedish).