Over at Chowhound a lively discussion is simmering over the possibility that Food & Wine and Gourmet may no longer be the alpha and omega of food magazines.
The central charge: Both publications have forgone their original focus on edibles and potables, and become over-commercialized vehicles dedicated to the lifestyle excesses of loathesome celubutards.
Oakjoan’s original post also makes a telling point about the tried, true, and ever-so-frequent “kitchen makeover” feature:
They’re all the same—hugely expensive giant kitchens with professional ranges and walk-in fridges (kidding) and slate floors and granite counters, and blah blah blah. There’s no imagination in any of them … never a feature showing somebody’s regular kitchen make-over or examples of folks with tiny kitchens and how they’ve made them work.
The venom flows with particular pungency when the old-school (1950s and ‘60s-era) Gourmet is used as a point of comparison by eimac:
I especially loved the essays—memoirs of food writers from all over the world. M.F.K. Fisher, one of the great American essayists, was a regular contributor. The covers were amazing and the food pictures were works of art. What do I get now? Hack travel writers who only want to impress you with esoteric dishes, artsy food shots which do little to tempt you to cook and recipes that include too much time and too many “look at me” ingredients.
Scrapironchef makes what might be the best one-line comment of the whole thread:
The ability to go online and get recipes makes these mags less and less useful.
Gourmet magazine was always about upper-class dining, in restaurants all over the world. It was never about coping in the tiny kitchen. Additionally, the latest Gourmet issues have serious articles about various food topics, including the inroads that trans fats have made in our diets and why. The Oct. issue has major articles on fishing in Texas, eating in homes throughout Italy, and family cooking on a farm. Food and Wine is much more about restaurant dining and fine wines–the better to use your American Express card–the company that publishes the magazine.
Remember that 50 years ago, when Gourmet started, not many Americans knew much about the cuisine of various countries–now we do, so the editors have to look for the new.
Alas, Gourmet. I subscribed for over 20 years. I remember when it was one of America’s finest magazines, and actually was written for gourmets, not arriviste snobs who can’t tell money from class. You remember, before Ruth Reichle decided to use her power as editor to show all those people who actually got invited to the Prom who was the big, important girl now! I remember reading Gerald Asher’s (the finest wine writer writing in the English language) article every month, and wanting to go out, immediately, and buy bottles of the wine he was covering that month; she turned that into “six New Zealand whites to serve with Guacamole!”. I cooked countless dishes from their pages, celebrating fresh fruits and vegetables of the season; recipes that called for asparagus in February and apples in March began to appear, along with overpriced hard-to-find (even in New York City!) ingredients. Sadly, Gourmet is now just another lifestyle rag, with wet-dream articles about restaurants you’ll probably never eat in, and hotels you can’t afford to stay in. Dangling all those expensive things and thinking it’s “class” is really the same as leaving the label on the sleeve of a new jacket to show everone that it really IS camelhair. Really! 100% See?