Men's Magazines Get Serious About Food
The Kitchn recently praised men's magazines for getting more serious about food, from articles by Mark Bittman in Men's Health to Esquire's recipe for spaghetti and lobster. But, as The Kitchn points out, "these are still men's magazines," which means they have their own special angle on food writing. Sometimes that makes their articles all the more entertaining—after proclaiming David Chang the most important chef of 2007, GQ quotes him as saying, "My partner gets to kick me in the balls if he catches me wearing those reflective silvered sunglasses that asshole Europeans wear indoors. I can do the same to him." Nevertheless, GQ knows what its audience really wants—their "article" about model-turned-chef Padma Lakshmi is basically just a photo shoot of Lakshmi eating dinner in her underwear.
So if you're willing to wade through vapid features like Esquire's "The Hurried Man's Guide to Cheese" or a warning about "The Flabtastic Four" from Men's Health, you may find a few articles that are actually worth reading. But you're probably better off sticking with food magazines that focus on the edible kind of cheesecake.
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4 Comments:
I find food magazines to be a wasteland as well. Whether they are proclaiming the newest trend to be the most important dining experience of the century or doing another fluff piece on a celebrity chef, it's all pretty much the same.
But i'm cantankerous. Sorry.
Prairie at 6:59PM on 05/20/08
Interesting to consider that Gourmet was initially founded by Earle McAusland - with an intended focus on male audience.
foodvox at 7:24PM on 05/20/08
Padma Lakshmi eating dinner in her underwear is decidedly NOT "pretty much the same"!
(unless you're Salman Rushdie, that is)
srhcb at 8:07PM on 05/20/08
And don't forget that MAXIM just did a piece on chef's too. Page 75 starts with an article on Grant Achatz and leads to a snipit of "Kitchen Chemists" including (of course) Whylie Dufresne, Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal, and Homaro Cantu.
ChefWife at 8:45PM on 05/20/08