Carmellini's iPad Cookbook Is a GOOD DEAL

i'm ryan sutton, the new york food critic for bloomberg news.

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Carmellini’s iPad Cookbook Is a GOOD DEAL

Andrew Carmellini, the guy behind The Dutch and Locanda Verde, has a clever little cookbook called “American Flavor.” In it, he has some choice words about the vile phenomenon known as BRUNCH:

“There’s a famous t-shirt that reads “BRUNCH IS FOR [EXPLETIVE THAT STARTS WITH A]HOLES.” Lots of times, it’s easy to see why a person might want a shirt like that: in my experience, brunch can mean long waits, lousy service from hungover waiters, cold rubbery eggs, undercooked pancakes, and bad coffee. I always said that if I ever did brunch in one of my restaurants, it would be game-changing.”

I’ve been one of those bleary-eyed waiters at brunch, with last-night’s-bachelor- party-Bacardi-151 eating through my stomach lining at 8:30am while I brought customers cream chipped beef. Who eats cream chipped beef? Not me.

Anyway, that was back in 2002, and I can count on two hands the number of times I’ve enjoyed brunch in the 10 years that have followed. One of those rare exceptions was at Carmellini’s Locanda Verde in 2009. Lemon ricotta pancakes with meyer lemon curds were involved. Dude got it right.

But just so we don’t give anyone the wrong impression, a text-search on the iPad edition of “American Flavor” only shows “brunch” mentioned eight times. We’re completely on board with that. “Breakfast”, by comparison, is mentioned 22 times, which makes sense, because breakfast is actually a meal (and one that doesn’t involve magnums of champagne with sparklers).

We at The Bad Deal and The Price Hike have always supported the cause of digital cookbooks. They’re not just lighter and (usually) cheaper than their leaden coffee-table counterparts. They’re also more readily searchable and environmentally friend (no trees to cut down!). So it goes that “American Flavor” costs $17 on iTunes, a 35% discount from Amazon.com hardcover price of $23. And the 4 pound weight of the hardcover edition is 177% heavier than the iPad weight of 1.44 lbs. So if you’re a Carmellini fan like we are, consider his digital cookbook a STRONG BUY and a GOOD DEAL.