The Restaurant Menu Now on iPad Touch

I never go to restaurants that show photos of their dishes at the entrance. For me it’s a sure sign the place is for tourists only, so I avoid them even when I’m a tourist myself. But I have to change my mind about food photography if gourmet chefs such as Gualtiero Marchesi in his restaurant in Milan, Teatro alla Scala “Il Marchesino” offer a touch menu: it’s practically an iPad on which you can order by scrolling through the photos and tapping the screen with your finger. It’s a new frontier for the restaurant industry, an industry that’s now adapting, replacing the old food list with the ultimate hi-tech object. It seems the Americans thought of it first, and have already been using it for the wine list. After the online journals and the books for download, here we have the pappardelle with rabbit meat on the iPad, with information on the ingredients used, so as to avoid embarrassing the waiters who do not always know what the dish contains. Now we’ll need photographers with an eye for gourmet food to choose the best light and pay tribute with one click to the “impepata” with mussels or to the spaghetti with a forest perfume. And speaking of aromas, waiting for an iPad that also brings you the smells from the restaurant’s kitchen, I remain loyal to the menu written by hand on butcher paper.