Or, 'I'm Mad as Hell and I'm Not Going to Take This Anymore!' [Photograph: Cook's Illustrated] I've listened to all the heartfelt obits for Gourmet I can at this moment. My emotional and intellectual hard-drive is full. The final straw was Cook's Illustrated editor Chris Kimball's piece on the op-ed page of the New York Times this morning. Kimball's not-so-subtle, sledgehammer-like thesis: The ignorant, inexperienced, and untrained internet masses masquerading as journalists killed Gourmet. How do we plead, Mr. Kimball? Not guilty. Not in the least, as a matter of fact, as Hamilton Nolan so aptly noted on Gawker. Kimball in the Times: The shuttering of Gourmet reminds us that in a click-or-die advertising marketplace, one ruled by a million...
Continue reading »
"Long before they were hallmarks of any cocktail geek's liquor cabinets, Gourmet ran recipes for homemade allspice liqueur (1977) and Cherry Bounce (1966)." [Flickr: lulubrooks] This news of Gourmet's shuttering has touched every food lover, and this sense of sadness and disappointment extends into the world of drinks. While the magazine's drinks coverage always seemed to feel more natural when the topic was wine, over the decades the editors occasionally gave spirits and cocktails a serious eye. Perhaps nowhere has this been more evident recently than on the magazine's website, which features drinks plumbed from Gourmet's archives arranged by decade, starting with the first issue in 1941. This series of drinks forms a curious liquid time capsule. While certain drinks...
Continue reading »
From Advertising Age's Q&A with Charles H. Townsend, president and CEO of Gourmet publisher Condé Nast: Advertising Age: A Condé Nast employee asked me today whether choosing Gourmet over Bon Appétit signals the future of Condé Nast. Do you shut down the title that's beautiful and smart with good writing, the employee asked, and go for the title with recipes and pictures of cheeseburgers? Do you go with mass over the esteemed, narrower title?Mr. Townsend: That's not Condé Nast. I think that Bon Appétit certainly has broader appeal but I would by no means characterize it as a mass magazine. It's still a high-end magazine. You look at its demography, its price points, the advertising it carries, you look at...
Continue reading »
Surely some food-related things happened today that didn't involve the shuttering of Gourmet magazine, but since this was such a big shocker, our news round-up today is dedicated to the media reaction. [CNN Money] [Wall Street Journal] [Chicago Tribune] [Baltimore Sun] [Slate] [Los Angeles Times] [Entertainment Weekly] [Eater] [Village Voice] [Boston Globe] [Bloomberg] [Washington Post] [Gawker]...
Continue reading »
"For me Gourmet has always been the gold standard for food magazines." The editor's letter from the premiere issue (January 1941) of Gourmet magazine. By now you've all read the shocking news this morning, courtesy of the New York Times, that Gourmet is going to cease publication with its upcoming November issue. The news hit anyone with a love for great writing and seriously delicious food hard. Really hard. For many of us Gourmet symbolized much of what we love about food journalism: terrific writing, careful editing, and beautiful photos. In recent years Gourmet editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl has also added food politics and harder food news reporting into the magazine's editorial mix, which was much appreciated by me, at least....
Continue reading »
Earlier today we all read the sad news that
Gourmet magazine was closing and that its final printing would be the November 2009 magazine. But let's take a look back to the very first issue of
Gourmet—January 1941.
Continue reading »
What with good fish farms and bad fish farms, country of origin labels, PCBs, and mercury, the most complicated part of dinner can be simply figuring out which fish to buy. Since there is currently no USDA-certified standard for seafood, even the "organic" label is essentially useless. So Henry Lovejoy, president of EcoFish, offered Gourmet Magazine's Barry Estabrook some tips on buying sustainable seafood. Covering everything from diver scallops to replacements for Chilean sea bass, this concise guide to fish shopping could be a handy supermarket reference....
Continue reading »
