SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Jony Ive is renowned for crafting a meticulous product design aesthetic that shaped the tech cultural zeitgeist during a 27-year career at Apple.

He did his most influential work after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs returned to run the company in 1997, where the two forged a partnership that would hatch a succession of game-changing products like the iPhone in 2007. Ive ultimately left the company in 2019.

Ive’s name was thrust back into the spotlight on Wednesday when ChatGPT maker OpenAI recruited him and his design firm, LoveFrom, to lead a new hardware project.

But OpenAI CEO Sam Altman can only hope this still-blossoming partnership works out as well as the mind-meld between former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Ive.

Ive became the paintbrush that Jobs used to bring his visions to life. The London-born Ive became the voice of Apple’s effort to blend technological wizardry with sleek elegance. The company’s TV commercials and product announcements were renowned for Ive discussing the intricacies of his designs in British-accented voiceovers spoken in a hushed, almost reverential tone.

After Jobs died in 2011, Ive continued carry the torch for his late boss while still striving to create products that were as aesthetically mesmerizing as they were ground breaking. Ive led design work on the Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.

When he started LoveFrom, Ive derived the name from something Jobs once said about hailing humanity by “making something with a great deal of care and love.” It’s worked with brands like Airbnb, Ferrari and Moncler and created the coronation emblem for King Charles III.

He also chose to base LoveForm in San Francisco’s historic Jackson Square, located near bars and cafes that were once frequented by Beat Generation luminaries such as “On The Road” author Jack Kerouac and “Howl” author Allen Ginsberg.

We aren’t in the thick of summer yet, not by a long shot, but hopefully you’ve already managed to fire up the grill at least once or twice. As the days get longer, the weather commands us to find a way to cook and dine outdoors.

A juicy steak is — for many — the pinnacle of grilling options. In your mind, you can already see them. Caramelized and sizzling on the outside, pink and tender on the inside, with those beautiful crosshatch marks that let you know exactly how your steak was prepared. Here’s how to get to that perfect beefy nirvana.

This method works for all cuts of tender beef steak, such as ribeye, porterhouse, ranch, T-bone, filet mignon, flat iron steak, NY strip steak and so on.

Buy the best grade of beef you can afford. USDA Prime is the top of the range, with USDA Choice coming after that. Next is Select, which will be leaner still. If possible, speak with a butcher about getting the best cut of meat for your needs and your budget.

How to get perfect grill marks

First, make sure your steaks are thick enough. If they’re on the thinner side, 1¼ inch or less, you will probably want to flip your steaks only once, so they don’t overcook on the inside while the outside becomes that deliciously appealing caramelized brown. In this case, you’ll get grill marks that go one way.

If your steaks are thicker, then go for crosshatch grill marks.

Place the steaks on the grill on the diagonal, at about a 45-degree angle across the direction of the grates. Grill for a few minutes. Rotate the steaks a quarter turn (90 degrees). You are looking to create a diamond pattern with grill marks.

Flip the steaks and grill them the same way.

Let your steaks sit on the cutting board for 5 minutes after removing them from the grill before you cut them. This will finish the cooking (it’s called carryover cooking). The resting period also lets the meat reabsorb its juices, so they stay in your steak where they belong and don’t run out onto your cutting board.

No matter what kind of steaks you choose, no matter what the thickness, make sure you have cleaned the grill well. A clean grill will offer cleaner grill marks. Also, oil the grill.

How to know whether the steak is rare, medium rare or medium

In general (and it depends on the cut of beef and the heat of the grill), a 1½-inch-thick steak will cook to medium rare in 12 to 16 minutes. A 1-inch steak will cook to medium rare in a total of 8 to 12 minutes.

An instant-read meat thermometer is the best way to check doneness. For medium rare, 130 degrees F is the approximate internal temperature.

You can also use the touch test, if you don’t have a meat thermometer. A general rule of thumb, so to speak:

For rare

Let one hand hang limp. With the index finger of the other hand, push gently into the soft triangle of flesh between the thumb and index finger of the hanging hand. It will offer very little resistance, give way easily, and feel soft and spongy. That’s the feel of a rare steak.

For medium-rare

Extend your hand in front of you and spread your fingers. Press the same spot with the index finger of the other hand. The flesh will be firmer but not hard — springy and slightly resistant. This is the feel of medium-rare steak.

For medium

Make a fist and press that same spot between thumb and index finger. It will feel firm and snap back quickly, offering only a minimum of give, as does meat cooked to medium.

A recipe for compound butter to go with your steak

A wonderful way to finish your grilled steak is to top it with a pat of compound butter, which is simply softened butter mixed with some herbs and/or seasonings. As the meat rests, place a bit of the butter atop it and let the butter melt as the meat rests.

Garlic Parmesan Compound Butter

2 tablespoons unsalted butter (softened)

1 tablespoon finely grated Parmesan

1 small garlic clove (minced)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

In a small bowl, combine the butter, Parmesan, minced garlic, salt and pepper until well blended. Place a couple tablespoons of butter on top of a steak as it rests after being removed from the fire.

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Katie Workman writes regularly about food for The Associated Press. She has written two cookbooks focused on family-friendly cooking, “Dinner Solved!” and “The Mom 100 Cookbook.” She blogs at https://themom100.com/. She can be reached at [email protected].

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For more AP food stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/recipes.

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — There are hardly any tourists in the scenic Himalayan region of Kashmir. Most of the hotels and ornate pinewood houseboats are empty. Resorts in the snowclad mountains have fallen silent. Hundreds of cabs are parked and idle.

It’s the fallout of last month’s gun massacre that left 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists, dead in Indian-controlled Kashmir followed by tit-for-tat military strikes by India and Pakistan, bringing the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of their third war over the region.

“There might be some tourist arrivals, but it counts almost negligible. It is almost a zero footfall right now,” said Yaseen Tuman, who operates multiple houseboats in the region’s main city of Srinagar. “There is a haunting silence now.”

Tens of thousands of panicked tourists left Kashmir within days after the rare killings of tourists on April 22 at a picture-perfect meadow in southern resort town of Pahalgam. Following the attack, authorities temporarily closed dozens of tourist resorts in the region, adding to fear and causing occupancy rates to plummet.

Graphic images, repeatedly circulated through TV channels and social media, deepened panic and anger. India blamed Pakistan for supporting the attackers, a charge Islamabad denied.

Those who had stayed put fled soon after tensions between India and Pakistan spiked. As the two countries fired missiles and drones at each other, the region witnessed mass cancellations of tourist bookings. New Delhi and Islamabad reached a U.S.-mediated ceasefire on May 10 but hardly any new bookings have come in, tour operators said.

Sheikh Bashir Ahmed, vice president of the Kashmir Hotel and Restaurant Association, said at least 12,000 rooms in the region’s hundreds of hotels and guesthouses were previously booked until June. Almost all bookings have been cancelled, and tens of thousands of people associated with hotels are without jobs, he said.

“It’s a huge loss.” Ahmed said.

The decline has had a ripple effect on the local economy. Handicrafts, food stalls and taxi operators have lost most of their business.

Idyllic destinations, like the resort towns of Gulmarg and Pahalgam, once a magnet for travelers, are eerily silent. Lines of colorful hand-carved boats, known as shikaras, lie deserted, mostly anchored still on Srinagar’s normally bustling Dal Lake. Tens of thousands of daily wage workers have hardly any work.

“There used to be long lines of tourists waiting for boat rides. There are none now,” said boatman Fayaz Ahmed.

Taxi driver Mohammed Irfan would take tourists for long drives to hill stations and show them grand Mughal-era gardens. “Even a half day of break was a luxury, and we would pray for it. Now, my taxi lies standstill for almost two weeks,” he said.

In recent years, the tourism sector grew substantially, making up about 7% of the region’s economy, according to official figures. Omar Abdullah, Kashmir’s top elected official, said before the attack on tourists that the government was aiming to increase tourism’s share of the economy to at least 15% in the next four to five years.

Indian-controlled Kashmir was a top destination for visitors until the armed rebellion against Indian rule began in 1989. Warfare laid waste to the stunningly beautiful region, which is partly controlled by Pakistan and claimed by both countries in its entirety.

As the conflict ground on, the tourism sector slowly revived but occasional military skirmishes between India and Pakistan kept visitors at bay.

But India vigorously pushed tourism after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government scrapped the disputed region’s semi-autonomy in 2019. Tensions have simmered, but the region has also drawn millions of visitors amid a strange calm enforced by an intensified security crackdown.

According to official data, close to 3 million tourists visited the region in 2024, a rise from 2.71 million visitors in 2023 and 2.67 million in 2022. The massive influx prompted many locals to invest in the sector, setting up family-run guesthouses, luxury hotels, and transport companies in a region with few alternatives.

Tourists remained largely unfazed even as Modi’s administration has governed Kashmir with an iron fist in recent years, claiming militancy in the region was in check and a tourism influx was a sign of normalcy returning.

The massacre shattered those claims. Experts say that the Modi government’s optimism was largely misplaced and that the rising tourism in the region of which it boasted was a fragile barometer of normalcy. Last year, Abdullah, the region’s chief minister, cautioned against such optimism.

Tuman, who is also a sixth-generation tour operator, said he was not too optimistic about an immediate revival as bookings for the summer were almost all canceled.

“If all goes well, it will take at least six months for tourism to revive,” he said.

Ahmed, the hotels association official, said India and Pakistan need to resolve the dispute for the region’s prosperity. “Tourism needs peace. If (Kashmir) problem is not solved … maybe after two months, it will be again same thing.”