At last! I can safely bring the iPad into the kitchen
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I don’t put my cookbooks on a pedestal. I write in ‘em. I bend over page corners to bookmark
recipes. And if a page gets spattered or oil-stained, c’est la vie.
But that all changed with the arrival of my iPad. When I plunked down my hard-earned money for the Apple tablet this summer I envisioned using it as a chic digital cookbook. But reality dawned, and I realized I couldn’t possibly let my beloved device anywhere near heat, liquid or marinara sauce. Cooking from the iPad became like a cardio workout. I’d do laps back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room, where my iPad was safely positioned out of harm’s way.
But that gets old real fast.
Enter a clever little invention called Chef Sleeve. The name is self explanatory. The device is a clear plastic sleeve that surrounds your iPad and protects it from all kinds of messy kitchen mishaps. Shaped like a long envelope, you can even seal one end. And the sleeves are thin enough that you can still easily swipe and enlarge images as you cook and go. (Remove it for more involved browsing and e-mailing.)
The sleeves come in a box with a cutout that allows you to prop up the iPad in your kitchen. Maybe I’m just a worrywart, but I fretted over using a carboard box to protect the iPad, seen above, perched on top of my microwave, and worried about it ripping loose or tipping over. Now, I put the device in the sleeve and then prop it up in a cookbook holder.
Of course, I keep it away from the stove and anyplace where liquid might pool and somehow seep in, etc. But I find that if I take a little care with positioning the device away from the mess, I can easily reuse the sleeves more than once.
They are designed to fit the iPad, but I don’t see why they couldn’t be used with another
similarly sized (or smaller) tablet or even a smart phone. They are about $20 for a packet of 25 sleeves. Have you used Chef Sleeve? What did you think? Do you have other iPad accessories to recommend for kitchen use?
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--Rene Lynch
Twitter / renelynch
