Conde Nast has got me pegged. I’ve been a subscriber to Gourmet Magazine on and off for the last twenty years. Vogue is the only fashion rag I’ll actually spend money on. And if I had the time, I’d read Wired and The New Yorker cover to cover. Most other magazines are far more worthy of my recycling bin than my attention.
Yet Conde Nast (publisher of all my faves) has recently decided that Gourmet is no longer worthy of their funding. This, after Gourmet reemerged from butterfat and beef Bourguignon about five years ago with a shockingly relevant change in direction.
Among its new offerings, a more locovorish approach that embraces vegetarian cuisine and ethnic eating without missing a beat on guilty pleasure standbys like Jane and Michael Stern’s RoadFood column.
Better yet, this modernized Gourmet magazine now openly trades in health and politics. In fact, I don’t think I ever read a piece as pitch-perfect as Daniel Zwerdling’s Politics of the Plate entry on chicken slaughter. It inspired me to re-read Sinclair’s The Jungle and moved me to write more of my own slaughter-themed novel. How many publishers can lay claim to the kind of intelligent, thoughtful writing Gourmet now serves up?
Maybe now you’re starting to understand why a veterinarian might care about a recipe-riddled rag strewn with food porn.
For me, food is at the intersection of all my interests. Feeding my family, reveling in the craft and creativity of cookery, pondering cross-cultural complexities, raising vegetables and bringing forth animal proteins with one’s hands, they’re all represented reverently within Gourmet’s pages. Yet for all the foodie religiosity, neither the photos nor the writing treats food too preciously. Which is as it should be.
That’s why I’ve been in mourning since I caught wind of Monday’s announcement. We need more publications like this one, not fewer.
After all, it’s how I learned to cook. In the absence of a mentor or a grandmotherly presence in the kitchen, Gourmet has been my guide through the years. It’s to its well-rounded guidance that I attribute my respect for food in all its forms...especially for meats, which I once feared to cook, thinking I’d never do them justice.
That’s why I can’t help but think that if more of society was able to view food through Gourmet’s lens, a greater respect for animals––whether on the dinner plate or on the hoof––would doubtless result.
Take last night’s stew, based on a recipe for countrified lamb shanks sourced from this month’s issue: As I deboned the lamb’s leg, chopped it into imperfect chunks and browned them in olive oil, I took my sweet time getting them just right. After all, this little animal deserved nothing less than the kind of attention Gourmet’s guest chef had specified.
Later, as I let them simmer in the heady, Bourbon-spiked sauce, I had to wonder: In the absence of a supermarket checkout publication like this one, how will other generations manage it? How will they learn?
Ultimately, I decided, it’s not so much about me and mine. Rather, it’s more to do with what happens to animals like this one on my stovetop. Without a cultural touchstone like Gourmet to guide an appreciation for their service, how will they fare?
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In advance of next week's National Pet Obesity Awareness Day, this week's USA Today column is on pet obesity. Enjoy.
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Full disclosure: 36-year vegetarian for humane reasons here, but I will glaze over if another debate on carny v veggie opens in these comments.
In some sense, I get that immersing oneself in the history, politics, nutrition and chefly intricacies of preparing animals to eat elevates one's appreciation and respect for the animal who is being boiled, baked or bbq'd, but question how much of that translates to better care and conditions for the animal while alive.
I'd love to see more animal-keeping arrangements like Dr Khuly has created in her own back yard, but that's the rarest combination of will, skill, knowledge and property. More often, animals destined for elite palates are treated as badly as (or are) factory farmed animals. Foie gras geese make a good case in point.
I'm just waiting for petrie-dish meat to come into its own. I think that's the only hope for those of us who want to end the wholesale suffering of food animals.
oh holland October 9th, 2009 09:52:06 AM
For it to translate into better "back yard" farmed animals, people are going to need better information sources. Most are at least 2 generations removed from farming/livestock if it's in their family history at all. Without those decent sources, people are left to trial and error and getting by with what they can figure out. Sadly, we're losing so many of the decent sources and publications these days. Even though I'm not a regular of Gourmet, I'll mourn it's passing too. with all the great stuff in the internet, it's also creating a new kind of "dark ages"; the info is there but it's so scattered it's hard to find and then there's the "reliability of the information" factor.
oh holland, for someone wanting to avoid a "carny v veggie" debate, you sure put some charged language in that second paragraph :)
PJBoosinger October 9th, 2009 11:51:26 AM
My food porn magazine is Cook's Illustrated (and on alternate months, Cook's Country). I love the way they test the recipes and explain the science behind what works and what doesn't work Plus lots of tips, taste tests, equipment reviews, and no ads. Their pie crust made with vodka is magic!
Linda H October 9th, 2009 02:35:37 PM
Linda H., is Cook's Illustrated available at, say, Borders? I don't cook much at all (never had a kitchen with more than 3' of counter space and almost no one to cook for most of the time), but I recall looking through my mom's copies of Gourmet and wishing I could try some of the recipes. Supposedly a small kitchen renovation will happen for me in the next 2 years, so maybe I'll start dreaming a little now. A pie crust made with vodka - and filled with key lime sounds really interesting.
KateH October 9th, 2009 06:16:54 PM
Kate: H: I've cooked in some very small, poorly equipped kitchens. Want some inspiration? Read Home Cooking by the late Laurie Colwin. This is among the best food writing EVER. And it's short. I purged 1,000 books this year from my home. This one stayed.
And, yes, Cook's Illustrated is everywhere. You can get it at any major bookstore or at the checkout aisle at Whole Foods, even. It's great for getting technique down pat. In fact, for the last ten years I've been wedded to their version of flaky fruit pie crust. The best ever.
Dr. Patty Khuly October 10th, 2009 06:32:44 AM
Thank you for highlighting Gourmet Magazine this week. I too was shocked tp see its demise. And I too as a bride and young married adult, learned much from Gourmet. This was many years ago.
I was married and did not know how to cook...nor properly set a table! Where did all those silverware pieces go, all-in-a-row? Glasses/Goblets? Three in a triangle but which one was in front? Wine? Red or white?
The "Joy of Cooking," and "Betty Crocker," were my initial teachers. However, I needed more, as I now needed to entertain, give parties.
One day I saw Gourmet magazine on the grocery store racks. I browsed through and bought it. Wow! Just what I needed. It became my "bible" for cooking, table setting/decorating, party planning.
I still vividly remember my 1st time completing a whole meal from Gourmet: Coq au Vin, Cherries Jubilee. The table set perfectly on lace and all... The dinner was a success. Then desert. I lit the brandy on the Jubilee and wow! Flames shot up one foot. A veritable explosion!
Those were the days my friend...
And btw, good to hear Gourmet was presenting vegetarian cooking and articles. It now would have suited me more!
Terry October 10th, 2009 07:13:11 AM
oh Holland: I can understand why a vegetarian would not relish the idea of how cooks learn to prepare meats. It's probably a revolting thought. What Gourmet advances, however, is a vast improvement over factory farming. Not only does it not shy away from the political and welfare realities inherent to eating meats, it showcases alternatives and urges its readers to seek these out. That's a VAST improvement over what traditional cooking magazines do, one any vegetarian should applaud (I think).
Dr. Patty Khuly October 10th, 2009 09:52:08 AM
Terry: You date yourself. Coq au vin and cherries jubilee were in a 1960's issue, I believe. ;-)
When I started with Gourmet (in the late 1980's off a supermarket shelf as well), my first stab was at a frozen plum souffle. Why I started so grand I'll never know, but I'll never forget its perfection. Ah, nostalgia...
Dr. Patty Khuly October 10th, 2009 11:14:05 AM
Dr Khuly -- Though I don't eat animals, I accept the rest of the world's not so absolutist and cheer whatever sensitizes people about the realities of meat. Always glad when a meat-eater says "no more veal for me," or moves down the spectrum from pigs, lambs and cows to fish. If Gourmet extended such thoughtfulness, I'm sorry it's a goner, too.
oh holland October 10th, 2009 10:45:02 PM
oh holland: well, then, I guess you'll be happy to know that I don't eat veal. My sister refuses to eat any pigs––too smart, she says. I'm not quite there yet, but I'll admit it's almost impossible to find well-raised pork without going the [very expensive] mail-order heritage route.
Dr. Patty Khuly October 13th, 2009 09:02:40 AM
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