As I'm writing this, I'm typing the words "Wolfgang Puck" and "recipes" into Google. What comes up at the top of the search results is this web page, www.wolfgangpuck.com/recipes. From that link, I have access to the works of a genius, recipes and food photos from one of the worlds best chefs. If I'm skilled enough, I can follow one of these recipes and make a meal that will surely impress friends.

Big deal, right? Everyone knows how to get recipes online. Don't forget, just a few years ago this was not commonplace. Recipes were stored on paper in books that you had to go out in public and buy. Nowadays, laptops are on kitchen countertops and a wannabe chef like myself doesn't have to print anything out or even write instructions down. The access is more mind boggling if you consider someone using a Blackberry or iPhone and looking these recipes up in the aisle of the grocery store.

There's no excuse for forgetting ingredients now. Throw social networking into this concoction and I can find out what a chef is making in real time. Local chef and owner of La Capitale, David Rosales, has a twitter account(@kidcapitale) where he talks about his life as a restauranteur. Recent tweets include this one, "Pork loins being stuffed with mushrooms. Wrapped in pork belly & roasted on a spit " and this "AM garde manger cook down. I'm in the the kitchen early...washing lettuce, working snail butter."

I don't recommend going with a recipe that's the top result from a search engine. Dig in a few pages and find a picture of a meal that makes your mouth water.

"We eat with our eyes first," said local foodie Cindy Mulligan about people's intial impression of a recipe. Her blog, Gumbo Ya Ya(gumboyaya2u.blogspot.com) is loaded with snapshots of her cooking. She started her blog because her friends kept asking her for the recipes of her wonderful meals and it was an effective way to pass on her knowledge.

Mulligan is not a professional chef, but her meals are time-tested as she learned her craft in her mother's kitchen. In some ways, these recipes are more practical to make, because they require more common household ingredients and cookware then a restaurant chef would have access to. Mulligan, however, remains modest about her particuluar talents.

"No matter how well I think I have made one of her recipes, it still never tastes as good to me as 'when Mom made it,'" she said

The Internet enables homegrown chefs, like Mulligan, to connect with others like her. A site called Foodbuzz (www.foodbuzz.com) that boasts having tens of thousands of foodies and almost a quarter of a million recipes on it from people all over the world. Advertisers, who see this audience as a perfect test market for products, send bloggers free samples.

Salemite Susan Chase's blog is called Pie O My(pie-o-my.blogspot.com) and she frequently writes about the packages that she gets from Food Buzz.

"We are under no obligation to write about these products, but I always do because I can't believe how generous they are," said Chase.

The packages range from a couple of loaves of bread to a $30 coupon to shop online at an Asian grocery store. If that wasn't enough, she's even paid a small fee for having a Food Buzz widget on her site.

Both Mulligan and chase agree that the Internet and food make a great pairing.

"I often find myself surfing the net for recipes, particularly if I want to compare ingredients and cooking methods for a particular dish," said Chase.

Mulligan appreciates the easy access to a wide swath of information.

"It’s easy and quick to find a recipe AND you don’t have the expense of having to purchase a cookbook," she said.

Neither one of them is ready to give up the stacks of cookbooks they've accumulated over the years but both will admit that the printed recipes are spending more time on the shelves these days.

For more local food info check out my sites eatsalem.com and salemites.com.