Coles Magazine on my iPad
At the risk of sounding as if I'm plugging a supermarket chain - the big bad ogres of the food world - and I guess I sort of am - I have decided to write a little bit about the Coles Magazine app, Now you can also pick up a paper copy at your supermarket but the iPad version is much better. And yes it's a means for Coles to plug their supermarket, their home brands and the brands of their suppliers, who no doubt pay for the privilege - and boy do they plug them - but it is also a very nifty little magazine with lots of excellent recipes, tips and lessons and looks absolutely great. And it's free - of course it is because it's an advertising and marketing tool.
I'm a sucker for cookery books. Before cookery books became big business and when I began to take an interest in cooking - early teens - I used to buy Women's magazines - mostly for the recipes, but also I'm ashamed to confess, for the terrible romantic stories they used to include and the tips on what to wear and how to look good. But that's a whole other story. I stopped buying them, but then came the glossy Sunday magazines of the upmarket English newspapers and they included columns by upmarket cooks such as Robert Carrier. I used to tear out the articles and put them in a scrapbook. Then it was just cook books for many years and now I find myself returning to magazines - initially I bought Delicious - but now I just stick to my online app. And I have tried the Woolworths version but it really isn't as good and is not as food focussed.
Most supermarkets these days have a sort of patron saint - in the case of Coles it's Curtis Stone, who always has a little section in the magazine of recipes supposedly devised by him. I don't know if they really are. The bulk of the magazine's recipes though are supplied by various staffers. It must be a new career - devising recipes for magazines and cook books. Woolworths has Jamie Oliver and a bit of Heston Bluemthal and I know that in England Waitrose has Delia and Heston. No doubt the other supermarkets have patron saints too. Aldi, however, doesn't seem to. But then it's may be an extra cost they don't think is worth it.
With respect to Curtis Stone, who is Australian at least but actually based in America now, and who was chef at Quo Vadis (see my fine dining article), I thought I would check out his website to see if the Coles thing was mutual - and interestingly I don't think it is. A not very in depth look at his site did not reference Coles at all. So obviously his contract does not include any obligation to push Coles other than in their own promotional materials. And why should he really I guess? But I digress. I'm not a particular fan of Curtis Stone, though I do quite like a lot of his recipes. His website is very appealing though.
But I digress. Why write about Coles Magazine? Well it's a fasting day again - and as I said I often find it difficult to know what to write about. We had a busy morning at the market and the shops and I was feeling tired so decided to relax by checking out the latest Coles Magazine on my iPad. I'm actually two editions behind. The one in the photo, and the one I looked at was July's - and I finished off June's as well. Why do I enjoy it so much?
The recipes - these are a mix. Some are really quite interesting ones - mostly those by Curtis Stone with non-branded ingredients. And the good thing is that if there is one you particularly like you can email it to yourself and then copy and paste it into your computer recipe database. (Yes I have a database of recipes culled from magazines - it's a bit pathetic isn't it?) Some are OK recipes using the odd branded but also generic ingredients (e.g. bacon, cream, nuts) and some are really not very interesting, being mostly dishes made from a mix of pre-prepared ingredients. Still they do try and if you are a time-poor and not very interested cook I guess they are useful. This time, for example, there were three recipes for what to do with curry powder. For me - I usually email myself just two or three recipes from each edition.
Tips and tricks - some of these are just little hints, some are ideas of what to do with leftovers, or how to vary the dish slightly, some are links to videos that show you how to do something. In the June issue, for example, it suggested you make lemon ice cubes from the flesh of the lemon mushed up in a food processor and then frozen in blocks - to add to drinks. July had a video on how to make perfect mashed potato and one of these two issues had a video of Curtis Stone making gnocchi. And sometimes there are tiny recipes - like spicy potato skins - a snack kind of thing. Just a couple of lines and a picture and you have a tasty, possibly addictive snack to add to your repertoire.
Information about what's in season - varieties, what to do with them, where they come from ...
Links to Taste,com and other recipes that might be connected to what they are talking about. You can't do that in print.
The overall look of the thing. It's very well designed and somehow on the iPad it looks very glossy.
For Coles it must be a worthwhile exercise. It advertises their brands, they get extra money from their suppliers for advertising their products, they project an image of caring about busy mums with not much time to cook, they project a gourmet image through the use of Curtis Stone and their little items on what's in season. A highly productive pubic relations exercise. And knowing what they are doing does not stop you being suckered in - like me.
So that's it. If you've got nothing else to do and you like looking at cookery books download the Coles Magazine app. and relax for half an hour or so. That's all it takes.
