Last week Gourmet ceased publication and I felt as if I had lost an old friend. When I first started cooking in my late teens and early twenties, Gourmet was the magazine I read religiously.I suppose that Gourmet was for me what National Geographic was for others. Those essays about far-away places and untasted foods were my passport to a larger world--a world of infinite variety and pleasures. My old recipe file still has some recipes from those days laboriously copied by hand and filed away for future reference and use.
I liked the turn that the magazine had taken with Ruth Reichl at the helm. There were still the wonderful, lush travel pieces; but the writers also tackled the politics of food and championed the local, sustainable movement. They covered high-brow and low-brow. As a long-time fan of Road Food,the regular features by Jane and Michael Stern were among my favorites. The writing was of a consistently high quality --a pleasure to read.
Nothing lasts forever and, perhaps, I should be more philosophical about Gourmet's demise. Now the field is left to Saveur, a worthy heir to the tradition of fine food writing. I enjoy that magazine , but I will miss my old friend and cooking mentor.
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