A Gourmet Swansong

The first "food" magazine I ever read and subscribed to was Gourmet. I remember my father reading the tome to fine dining and I remember flipping through and marveling at the photographs of table spreads. This was before my venture into vegetarianism, but I always thought the pictures in Gourmet magazine set the standard. This was the goal. Someday I too, with a little guidance from personalities such as Wolfgang Puck, Jacque Pepin, Julia Childs, and M.F.K. Fisher, could prepare entrees that resembled sculptures, pastry more like architecture than creme puff, and culinary maneuvers that required hours of special training in slicing and dicing.

From my high school years, I began tackling the art of spongecake, the exact science of pudding, the engineering of the potato. I learned how to stack and chop, how to julienne, how to properly roll dough. And I found that I never had enough culinary knowledge. Instead of going straight into working in a kitchen, or attending technical school, I went to college and got a Master's in English. My love of literature, at that time, outweighed my love of cooking. That is when I found Gourmet magazine. Here was a publication that combined my two loves, beautiful food and beautiful writing. I would come home from my job as an underpaid vegan chef, lie on the sofa with my magazine and sink into the cushions, lullaby-ed into relaxation with the sonorous cadence of food writing.

So imagine my bewilderment when it was announced this week that after seventy years, Gourmet is closing shop. In the age of free food blogs, and whittling audiences interested in the pretension of epicurean delicacies, the Old Dame simply cannot keep her footing. One more loss for print journals everywhere. My shock comes not as a vegetarian, but as a writer and a reader. While Good Housekeeping continues to sell well, some of the more established, intellectual mags are losing ground.

I struggled with Gourmet and its meat-heavy topics, but I always found my place at the table, a recipe for "braised pork shanks in wine sauce", became roasted portobellos in wine sauce, steak was supplanted with tofu, etc. In recent years, Gourmet did include options for vegetarians and vegans, featuring a vegan Christmas menu in their 2007 holiday issue. One could say the magazine wrote the book on the "foodie" movement, with leading voices and revolutionary cooks contributing to discussions as diverse as food politics, alternative diets, and classic cookery. In fact, Gourmet's attention to political issues in the "foodie" community made it stand out on the newsstand as a periodical dedicated to debating food culture, practices and controversies.

Similar, smaller magazines have met their fate recently. The progressive Herbivore magazine which folded and converted to an online vegan store, comes to mind. Other magazines, especially small press, independent and progressive journals are meeting a sinister ending as economic depression forces readers to turn down subscriptions in favor of online discussion boards and blogs.

This is not to say that we didn't see it coming, or that no one could have foreseen the eventual demise of print journals. However, there remains a sadness for me, in wondering who will pick up where Gourmet left off. True, Gourmet was a publication that appealed to mostly upper middle class readers, people who wanted to throw extravagant dinner parties, (I remember in a recent issue, the advice for throwing a party in the recession era was to serve blinis and caviar...Ha) people who could afford to drop a few hundred on a single meal. But beyond the elitism, there was true artistry, writers who were passionate about their topics, and readers just as passionate. I suppose that is what I miss most of all, the passion of people with strong convictions and a firm grasp of language, and I'm not so sure I've encountered many blogs that incorporate both.

The fall of Gourmet points out the problem with a blog-only readership. With a blog there is usually only one voice, one opinion, one side of the story, while print journals offer a diverse range of perspectives. I am fan of blogging and reading blogs, but my research and reading does not stop when the computer goes into hibernate mode. As food journals become nothing more than time saving tips for working moms (i.e. the Rachel Ray empire) I worry about the future of haute cuisine, not in the elitist sense, but in the way that Gourmet brought the concept of quality to the general public.

There's nothing wrong with buying nice wine, fresh produce and taking the time to prepare a meal, rather than attempting to feed your family in "thirty minutes or less."
We Americans spend so much time and energy on our cars, our clothes, our homes, but we don't have a food culture that tells us to invest in quality fuel for our bodies. What I loved about Gourmet was the insistence on quality.
Perhaps we are taking a step down. Perhaps this means nothing to the food-loving community. Perhaps there will be new, better, brighter journals on the horizon with plenty of support for slow, local, organic, vegetarian options.

Still, I will miss the inspiration most of all, Gourmet was my go-to when I didn't have a clue what to make, or when I wanted to challenge myself, or when I wanted to surprise my partner with a fancy dinner for two. The internet makes this possible, but in a more structured, search engine way.

Gourmet, my darling, you will be missed.