Kate Lawson on Food

Category: In the news

Gourmet cooked its own goose

My first inkling that Gourmet magazine had lost touch with its readers began when I spied the 10 color photos of a Tuscan-inspired meal in the May edition.

I'm sure this concept of running large photos of food is nothing new but a story titled "Cucina Paradiso" kicked off with a double page photo of a boy in a sleeveless undershirt and cap holding a big plate of fettuccine and crabmeat (I had to read the cutline to discern the dish). What followed were eight pages of photos, some on facing pages of grilled squid, celery leaves and mushrooms, crostini topped with fava beans and cornmeal cookies. A woman wearing a green polka-dot dress sat with a fedora festooned male model and they looked like they were having a gay old time. Recipes followed. No story. I thought for a minute I was looking at the fashion edition of Vanity Fair.

The very next article, "East L.A. Story," featured a close up shot of an Asian chef sipping liquid from a ladle, a close up of a cleaver and dumplings and a double page photo of duck roasting on a spit. The only recipe featured was for stir-fried egg and tomato.

A similar feature followed on Peruvian cooking and more big photos (a women's hand showed a very cool ring) and then there was a tiny walnut tart perched on some weathered boards and well, you get the idea.

Don't get me wrong, I love to read about food and even more, I love to cook it. But I don't need another coffee table magazine and I won't be looking for a recipe for Finnish meatballs with allspice, sour cream and lingonberries any time soon.

A friend and former food writer would often remark that Gourmet, which has been around since 1940, just wasn't connecting with us any more. I couldn't agree more even though the editor, Ruth Reichl, is powerful in the food world, having written three best-selling memoirs and receiving four James Beard awards for restaurant criticism and journalism.

Although I've used countless recipes and adapted them for my Simply the Best column, investing in a subscription to see well-dressed models tiptoeing through a stream dangling a picnic basket from a bejeweled hand just wasn't going to happen for me.

So I was slightly saddened but really not surprised, that Monday Conde Nast Publications announced that it is shuttering the magazine.

During this incredibly difficult year we've seen newspapers close, banks fail and the unemployment line growing increasingly longer. I guess we think that some things are immune.

Apparently, the cuts come at the conclusion of a three-month study by McKinsey & Co., which conducted analysis of Condé Nast's costs, and told several magazines to cut about 25 percent from their budgets. These are the first closings announced by the company since the McKinsey study.

Now, Conde Nast said, Gourmet's brand will live on in books and TV programming.

In addition to Gourmet, Condé Nast plans to announce it will also close Cookie, a parents magazine, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride.

That doesn't mean that home chefs don't care about gourmet cooking (or getting married or having children). We're just putting practicality on the front burner.