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Julia Child lived an interesting life. After working for the OSS (the precursor to the CIA) in World War II, she then became well-known as a chef who helped introduce French cuisine to Americans. In order to celebrate what would have been her 100th birthday this August 15th, Random House has launched an iPad app based on her famous cookbook series: Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This app features 32 recipes from the first volume of her French cookbooks. With the advent of modern technology, there’s color photographs of all the finished dishes to see how they should look. Don’t know how to pronounce the names of some of the French dishes? The app provides a handy pronunciation guide. There are handy grocery lists of ingredients given to make shopping easier. As well, video clips of Julia Child’s 80’s TV series The Way to Cook are provided that show her cooking techniques hands-on, along with audio notes from her long-time editor, Judith Jones.

Condé Nast Digital's latest addition to Gourmet is the launch of the official application for iPad, called Gourmet Live, allowing users to explore their "passions for every aspect of food in a brand new way" (Condé Nast). The application is free, includes some recipes to get started, and is available to download now.

"This app brings together the key components of a good meal — great company through access to social networks, the best ingredients in the form of fantastic content, and a beautiful presentation," said Juliana Stock, General Manager of Gourmet Live, and Creative Marketing Director for Condé Nast Consumer Marketing. "We’re serving up content developed exclusively for Gourmet Live and curating the great content of Gourmet magazine in reimagined ways."

Gourmet Live brings more than just recipes, offering news and food-related information from celebrities and even President Obama: "Read about how the Obamas’ eating habits reflect on national food trends. Hear a four-time Oscar nominated actress talk about her love of food, family and butter. Follow one man’s quest for authentic British food in NY and LA" reads yesterday's release.

New covers are updated every day on the application, with new stories and recipes "at least once a week." The application also includes a social networking 'reward' feature, allowing you to save articles and get inside tips if you connect with Facebook or Twitter. The application's design is modern and pictorial, placing emphasis on images on the home page and text within the articles. The layout is clean and the font smart, but there is no interactivity (like check boxes).

Whether this will become another essential utensil in your kitchen, or just an application that you'll try out once, it's free to download and quick to install - meaning there's nothing to lose. Just be sure that your hands are clean when you tap the iPad, otherwise there's going to be even more cleaning to do!

For more information and frequently asked questions, see here.

[Image courtesy of Gourmet]