You mean we haven’t always had Yelp?
The How We Love Food series celebrates the iPad launch of How We Love Food, an annual collection of recipes from Yvonne Tocquigny, founder and CEO of Tocquigny, and focuses on the convergence of food, marketing, and technology. Download the app now for just $1.99, and all proceeds will be donated to nonprofit Urban Roots.
It would be much easier to write about how technology hasn’t changed food – nearly everything has felt the impact of mobile apps, social, and the deluge of data. Whether it’s start-ups turning data from something mysterious to something fun (Gojee, Food Genius, Punchfork), food bloggers whose style and recipies I love (Homesick Texan, What Katie Ate, Cannelle et Vanille), online communities creating new local experiences (Grubly, Housefed, Dinevore), or apps that recommend jumping off I-10 in Jennings, LA to have lunch at Boudin King - technology’s impact on how and what we eat can’t be understated.
Our biggest challenge? Cutting through the noise! More than 5500 iPhone apps pop up when you search for “food” in the App Store. Searching “food blog” on Google returns about 728,000,000 results. It’s like drinking from a fire hose - and the information will just keep on coming. Once you hook up nutrition info with FourSquare and Nike+ I’ll know exactly how far I have to run to work off last night’s burger. Or when you connect a smart fridge to the geo-location on a phone, I won’t forget to drop in and get cornichons when I’m near Central Market.
If you’re interested in food and technology, I love foodandtechconnect.com. For geeks like me it’s a great way to find out what’s new - from the latest start-up to new ways to think about all this data. New voices and new technologies will continue to teach us more about food and help us enjoy it. There are great fun problems to solve and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
But even as I think about all this innovation, the most important thing about food is what what tech hasn’t changed - it’s still all about coming together to enjoy a good meal with great people.
