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New Identity for Jack in the Box
Maybe the new logo will stick around as long as the JBX concept did: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050423/news_1b23jbx.html
Burger King's Little Brat Digs Apple Fries. Do You?
I can't guarantee this but I'm 99% sure that apple fries aren't necessarily "fresh" in the most commonly understood context of the word. I used to work in R&D for a pretty big restaurant company and we tested some "fresh" apple products for kids that had so many additives in them that they kept, sliced in wedges, for the better part of a month. Even when they started to deteriorate and become slimy they still held their shape.
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Recent Comments | Response to Comments
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
I adore Cook's Illustrated but all of the whining about the internet killing magazines/newspapers is getting ridiculous. Granted there is a ton of crap online but it's much more fun to weed through it there than in a magazine that you're paying for. Gourmet was a decent magazine for many years but Conde Nast didn't do much to keep it up to date with a changing market. The fact of the matter is that Mr. Kimball and others like him are slowly realizing that they need to change with the times. While there is a ton of crap online there are several well written food blogs, many of which are written by people that have full time jobs doing things other than recipe testing and food writing. I think it's kind of funny that some of the people that are being paid to do it are having issues figuring out how to adapt. Set aside some time in your day for constructive brainstorming to save your brand and stop wasting your time complaining about that dern technolergy they call the internets.
New Identity for Jack in the Box
Maybe the new logo will stick around as long as the JBX concept did: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050423/news_1b23jbx.html
Burger King's Little Brat Digs Apple Fries. Do You?
I can't guarantee this but I'm 99% sure that apple fries aren't necessarily "fresh" in the most commonly understood context of the word. I used to work in R&D for a pretty big restaurant company and we tested some "fresh" apple products for kids that had so many additives in them that they kept, sliced in wedges, for the better part of a month. Even when they started to deteriorate and become slimy they still held their shape.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
I loved Gourmet, and there are also food blogs that I refer to almost daily. There's room for both, if the quality is there. Ironically, the person who best expressed my feelings about the death of Gourmet is a food blogger: http://www.oneforthetable.com/oftt/stories/goodbye-gourmet.html.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
I paid in advance for a subscription to Cook's Illustrated - I never received a single issue - But, now I have had several bills from Cook's Country for a subscription that I didn't order and haven't received. Mr. Kimball is out for the bucks and not paying attention to the mechanics of distribution. To me, this denigrates the quality they are so proud of. I have balked at paying for their Internet site and wish it was offered at no cost.
I do watch them on TV quite often and like the shows - It appears that Kimball runs a tight kitchen and leaves the mechanics of print distribution somewhere in the midwest to careless management.
I will miss Gourmet in many ways just like I missed Laurie Colwin and Lilliam Langseth Christensen. Newbies, there, are good too, but the cost of publishing and distribution are big and when you see the book at the supermarket for nearly $ 5.00 an issue, you hesitate before putting it into the cart. I can purchase a whole used cookbook on the used book internet sites for that amount. Economics prevail!
Some blogs are worth reading - others are nonsense.One has to be selective or have insomnia. I read this site's content to keep up with trends and new ideas. It's, of course, NYC oriented, but that's not all bad.
Just keep on giving content worth reading. This is a good thread!
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
Chris Kimball is in need of a colonoscopy. He's full of a "lot of stuff", and most of it belongs in the toilet.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
Kimball is an ass and America's Test Kitchen just got deleted from my DVR...
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
I agree with some of the posters who have mentioned Goumet wasn't that great of a magazine anymore. I love to cook, and Gourmet was pretty to look at but I rarely ever found any recipes that I wanted to try. Either the ingredients were too obscure (and I live in a very large metro. area where there are tons of food stores) or too expensive. I hate to say it, but the few recipes I tried usually were not things I would make again (probably had more to do with my cooking skills).
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
I thought this piece was excellent commentary. I couldn't agree more.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
So there you have it. As much as any of us love and admire our peers in any group sometimes they make bad choices. Often we talked about Gourmet on here. Often the majority said they were not happy with the way it had gone and was going. I don't know a more solid demographic/focus group than this esteemed group. One of the things that takes you down the wrong path in any customer driven business is taking your finger off the pulse or trying to fix that which is not broken. Gourmet did both.
Bad business. If Ruth did not agree with CN that was something she had to deal with herself, none of us can speculate why. It is what it is for now.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
No, the internet didn't kill Gourmet. What killed Gourmet was greed. The ridiculous advertising aimed at the richest 2% of the population is what killed Gourmet. Not to mention competition from Saveur (which has suffered lately, too and better get it together before they succumb). There are so many more foodie mags out now than when Gourmet began - it makes me sad that Gourmet couldn't keep up. RIP Gourmet.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
I can't say if I changed or if the magazine changed but I realized that it was a magazine about places I would never visit and food I would never cook, first and foremost, because I couldn't afford them. Just like a fashion magazine, they started to make me feel poor and ugly and unworthy of what I saw in the magazine.
Well said. I was flipping through an issue of Gourmet in the book store a couple years ago and noticed a photo spread with a bunch of 20 something hipsters (models of course), eating a "southern" meal with pulled pork sandwiches. The whole thing just struck me as absurd.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
@ littlepaperheart
I do believe you meant "niche," not nitch.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
@rps
Ding, ding, ding for you, too!!!
The fashion magazine analogy is quite apt. I was a long term subscriber to Gourmet through the '90s until about 2002. I even kept my subscription going when I moved to France with the cheese company I worked for. I can't say if I changed or if the magazine changed but I realized that it was a magazine about places I would never visit and food I would never cook, first and foremost, because I couldn't afford them. Just like a fashion magazine, they started to make me feel poor and ugly and unworthy of what I saw in the magazine. Aspiration is one thing but paying to feel insulted is not my thing. I read food magazines to become better at what I love, not to read about how fabulous someone's expense account trip was to Fiji.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
@jerzeetomato
Perfect rant! And exactly what I'm thinking.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
@leilah and maybe some others re: getting exactly what you're looking for--
The advantage to magazines (and, for that matter, sites like this one) is that sometimes you don't have something specific in mind, and you just want inspiration. Sometimes I know what I want to cook, and sometimes I'm looking for something new to do with that pork chop sitting in the meat drawer, and if I just type "pork chop" into Google I'm not going to get very far.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
Blaming the internet for the demise of Gourmet (or anything else, for that matter) is a self-serving, short-sighted and pointless tantrum. Markets are fluid. Consumers pay for value. When the value dissipates, the market votes with its dollars. Progress hinges on the evolution of product and service. Combustion engines killed the buggy whip business. PC's made secretaries of us all.
@ Mrsdebdav.... right on!
I have flipped through Gourmet a time or two... I wished I could say I remember when it was good.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
bah, humbug Kimball.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
I see it this way. I am a person who has been around the culinary word magazine, tv, internet, books for decades. A devotee one might say. I subscribed to all of them.
There are many, many pretty blogs on online and some of them are just that "pretty" and their content is crappola. The content is just pedestrian at best. I am not going to name names because there are positive things to be said of many of these very blogs that I find lacking in the cooking/baking depts but they have redeemable qualities.
When you go throwing out names like David Lebovitz and then the names of people who take pretty pictures of food, it is insulting. David is a professional pastry chef and author. Bloggers as much as we hold on a pedestal are currently all trying to get their stuff out there and as much as I love to read baking bloggers, cooking bloggers and food blogging in general, often it disappoints me. Why? Because the last place in the world you want to hone your craft is in PUBLIC. There I said it!!
Example: When someone blogs about a quiche recipe from Thomas Keller (One I have made dozens of times without a hitch) and said blogger tells the free world they flubbed it, they did it again and the second time it was not so great so it must be the recipe, they have just sealed their fate.
I made the Thomas Keller quiche and it was great, it was freaking amazing, people demand for me to make it. Said blogger totally panned Thomas Keller (a successful restaurant owner, chef, author) and did it on their blog because they do not have the skill it requires to make that quiche, they have set the tone for everything else they post. Now I cannot read that very blog because I do not believe the gaul said blogger had to chastize a great recipe/Chef because they are lacking in skill but certainly not in veracity or the ability to post pretty pictures of their flub on the freaking internet.
Now you might say jerz what does all this mean? It means this. The blogosphere is just not the same as published, skilled culinary professionals. You cannot use the name of a blog/blogger and one of a chef, food author in the same sentence or in the same manner. I don't give two shits if a blogger has a book out because they had "buzz" and site hits and talked at freaking blogher or were on a talk show. You are mixing apples and oranges. Full stop!!! Blogging is in fashion and it will go out of fashion. The Eater article was not without merit. There are too many fish in the pond. Eventually how many people can you read about making the same damn cake. How many pictures of it do I have to look at on tastespotting? The blogs will thin out in time the fashion just has to pass.
A celebrated blogger is not a chef (although some chefs are bloggers, thank God). They are people who are taking pretty pictures, telling stories and creating buzz to sell themselves. To me this is the skip to Go and collect your 200 bucks. This is precisely why I do not blog. I have watched thousands of others take beautiful pictures of crap food and bad mistakes from good recipes. I have listened while bloggers pan great cookbooks/recipes because they are not capable of the skill they require and I have seen "propaganda" used to ellevate blogdom to some high level which is totally bogus and unearned by many.
Twitter is bullshit, I hate it, it reeks of self promotion. This is the era of self promotion. When this passes only the strong will survive. You will all get bored of the food blogosphere the same way you got tired of Food Network and Gourmet.
As for Conde Nast, I am not surprised they screwed up Gourmet. As I have said in past posts sucking down Risotto with underwear models did not a magazine make. It sucked and you know who is always to blame, the editor. No one blames the airline when the plane crashes they blame the pilot. Her talented staff picked out the shabby chic DKNY easter dinner photo shoot which to me was the same as the talking dummies on the Old Navy commercial.
Food writing as we know it has been dumbed down. It is a trend and it will pass. Rachel Ray's magazine is a huge success do you need any more proof than that?
As for Chris Kimball, I like him. Why? Because he is not full of shit. he may in fact be a prat but I like him. I read CI for one thing, nuts and bolts and unbiased reviews because CI does not sell advertising. Aren't you tired of being spoon fed trends. I am. Whew rant over...
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
If he thinks the internet is the problem then I would be happy if he would stop sending me email promoting his books and magazines.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
I'll take davidlebovitz.com, 101cookbooks.com, and seriouseats.com over some random twitter post any day. And I think they all make money off my visits. Yes, the good still rises to the top.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
Gourmet died at its own hand... I have been a subscriber for years and years (since college!!) and, while still a huge fan of the magazine, had noticed a decline in the quality of both the writing and the recipes over the last 5 years.
On the other hand- I think Christopher Kimball is a complete prat. I cancelled my sub. to Cooks Illustrated after the infamous, "you may not reprint our recipe" episode that was all over the web several months ago. Fine Cooking is my current go to mag for ideas. Well, that and the web. :-)
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
If I go online, I can find recipes and suggestions from people who have been, for example, cooking traditional Vietnamese food for their entire lives. If I go to magazines, maybe I find something interesting and maybe I don't - but the key thing is that I don't find exactly what I'm looking for. On the internet, the quality is a gamble, but I know enough to sort through half a dozen pho broth recipes to find one that will work - ie, EXACTLY what I'm looking for as opposed to just a nice read. Cook's is lovely, and they do good work. But when I want a recipe, I want to just go get it.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
"The publication overhead would presumably be much less, and RR's staff can maintain the same level of journalism they did in print."
Except that it's tough to maintain the same level of journalism when you are no longer being paid the same amount to do so. Journalists are people with jobs, and jobs need money to survive - something which we need to figure out a way to apply to the internet if we want good journalism to survive!
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
the people who say that gourmet was irrelevant clearly were not subscribers in recent years. ruth reichl brought, i thought, an amazing modern touch to the magazine, and a thoughtful, open presence. i made several recipes from every issue, from their "quick weeknight" recipes to their more involved, challenging recipes that i saved for a weekend night when i had more time. as for the topic at hand, the internet didn't kill gourmet — it was the accounting department.
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
Though I love his recipes, books and articles, as well as what he's done with the magazines and broadcast ventures he brought to life, I did think that in this op-ed piece, Chris Kimball did sound like the Walrus of Lewis Carroll fame. And Ed and others are right - it wasn't the internet that killed Gourmet, or a lack of vision that killed Gourmet, it was the inability to see and think straight, and to keep its focus on food and the in which direction foodies were turning. It became more of a travel/luxury lifestyle magazine rather than an exploration of food and cooking. And with so many alternatives in so many media - in broadcast, book publishing, as well as other food magazines, it Gourmet didn't refresh its outlook - it just became more irrelevant as it ignored many trends in cooking and dining. Advertisers and readers went elsewhere (including me about 8-10 years ago). And for at least a few months, I'd been getting subscription solicitations in the mail charging $6.00 for 12 issues - a sign of desperation, and an indication that readers were moving elsewhere
Did the Internet Kill 'Gourmet' Magazine?
You know what's strange, is that I thought Gourmet had one of the better web presences of the major food mags. Between its main site and its association with Epicurious, I figured it would flourish online if the print version ceased to be. But it looks like they're shutting Gourmet.com down, as well.
Why not give it a shot? The publication overhead would presumably be much less, and RR's staff can maintain the same level of journalism they did in print. After all, McLuhan aside, it's the media's that's changed, not the message.
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I adore Cook's Illustrated but all of the whining about the internet killing magazines/newspapers is getting ridiculous. Granted there is a ton of crap online but it's much more fun to weed through it there than in a magazine that you're paying for. Gourmet was a decent magazine for many years but Conde Nast didn't do much to keep it up to date with a changing market. The fact of the matter is that Mr. Kimball and others like him are slowly realizing that they need to change with the times. While there is a ton of crap online there are several well written food blogs, many of which are written by people that have full time jobs doing things other than recipe testing and food writing. I think it's kind of funny that some of the people that are being paid to do it are having issues figuring out how to adapt. Set aside some time in your day for constructive brainstorming to save your brand and stop wasting your time complaining about that dern technolergy they call the internets.