Photo: the bittenword.com/Flickr
Goodbye Gourmet, I never really knew you.
We sent our check in August, hoping the first issue would arrive for September. It never came. I have the cookbook and have leafed through past issues, but I’ve never had my own subscription. When the news broke Monday morning that the November issue of Gourmet will be the last, I began to wonder about the stories that will now go untold.
Closing Gourmet and keeping Bon Appétit makes business sense. Bon Appétit is about cooking at home, it’s usually family-oriented and budget conscious—two things Gourmet is (was) not. Bon Appétit‘s advertising revenue is strong, Gourmet‘s had been falling. But the stories told in the latter were often more about the fantasy of food, about the vacations we could not take and the restaurant meals we could not afford. Through brilliant writing, inspiring recipes and lush photography, Gourmet took us places we otherwise could not go.
Most of us will never get to the small French town of Audrix, but this Julia Watson story from the May 2009 issue takes us there. The night market is enchanting. After the sun has set, visitors and residents of the town all come to eat together in the town square. Though most readers will never have the chance to taste the flash-fried fois gras,the swirl of balsamic vinegar and honey as prepared by the farmer who raised the ducks and geese, it was only Gourmet that could bring us this story, put this quasi-dream on (glossy) paper.
Gourmet provided culinary inspiration that went beyond the kitchen. Without it, where will we now turn for a muse? Are there food, travel and photo blogs that we can curl up with at the end of a long day? And what about the business model: is the democratic force of the Internet going to overwhelm the professional food and travel writing that we used to read for vicarious experience, for inspiration, when we ourselves couldn’t get away from our desks? Blogging gives us a voice, a platform for our ideas and recipes, rants, photos and reminiscences. But it doesn’t necessarily qualify writing as professional or fund extravagant food adventures (wouldn’t that be nice?).
Life will go on without Gourmet. We will still eat delicious meals, we will still travel and live vicariously through good writing. But an element of wonder is lost, and the pages that once held the voice of James Beard are now silent. Now, about my check…?
I subscribed to Gourmet for many years. Eventually I dropped the subscription because I found that there were many more adds and the articles where getting shorter. I cooked from the Gourmet recipies especially for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. In the end I found that somehow their mission shifted, and they where not able to maintain my interest. I still have my old Gourmets and will keep them because I will pull them out once in a while and cook up some of their great meals. I will not miss the newer version, though…