If it isn’t already apparent, I am passionate about cooking. I watch Hell’s Kitchen, Top Chef (regular and Master’s), Food Network Challenge, Ace of Cakes, Kitchen Nightmares, Iron Chef (original and America) and the occasional cooking show. I listen to The Splendid Table podcast. Last month I read “Julie and Julia” and am working through “Omnivore’s Dilemma.” While I do have other interests including gardening, particularly growing my own veggies, clearly food is my passion. Two long-standing sources of inspiration, however, are about to exit my life, and it is these two publications that I would like to honor here: Cooking Light and Gourmet.
I have been receiving Cooking Light, courtesy of my parents, for the last 11 years and Gourmet for about the last five. This fall I decided that I have outgrown Cooking Light and asked my mother not to renew my subscription. I just find that I’m a bit bored with it, and I’m seeing too many recipes reprinted over the years. My decision to end such a long relationship was confirmed Cooking Light’s “new look” which was displayed in the very next magazine on my doorstep. What had been a somewhat scary and agonizing decision for me – ending an 11 year relationship was nothing I took lightly – became the easiest choice in the world. I hate the new branding. I can’t tell the ads from the once-familiar monthly features. Everything is bright and friendly and kitty-corner on the page, and it screams out to me that I am no longer their target audience. It makes me feel old. While I appreciate the years of recipes that Cooking Light has given me, I am ready to say goodbye.
In contrast, I am not ready to give up on Gourmet. It has been ripped from my hands all too soon, leaving me wounded and lost. In October, Conde Nast announced that, on the advice of McKinsey and Company, they were going to stop publishing Gourmet. I understand that for them it was a business decision, but for me it is a very emotional one. My in-laws said they considered sending me a sympathy card, and it would not have been unappreciated. Typically the November issues of cooking magazines are my least favorite (I don’t host Thanksgiving or have much say in preparation of anything, so the latest ideas about reinventing the traditional meal are lost on me). This year, however, I savored every detail. Expecting a heartfelt goodbye from editor Ruth Reichl, I was surprised to find a standard Thanksgiving and family letter. I don’t know if Conde Nast pulled the plug so rapidly that there was no time for a goodbye or if it was a conscious decision to exclude it, but I must say that I was disappointed. It reminds me of the last episode of the Sopranos, where the loose ends just don’t get tied up neatly. I say that I will boycott Conde Nast products and publications for life, but the anger will likely fade. In time.
In the meantime, I have been left magazine-less, so I must keep moving on. I’ve decided that I’m going to start getting Saveur. I have only read a few issues over the years, and what seemed intimidating to me early on in my culinary days is now very approachable. It helped that the cover of the issue I picked up in the midst of this turmoil is all about lamb. This was a hot topic around the time of my wedding, with my husband insisting that we serve it at our reception, and several others, including the inn owner, declaring that most people don’t even like lamb. We ran out, and my husband will forever be right to call an “I told you so” about the situation. So the proclamation on the cover of Saveur, “Why Lamb Rules” was amusing and timely. And I found that Saveur is not over my head. In fact, it made me want to raise sheep and sell lamb at a farmer’s market. Somewhere, someday.
So with the my magazine choices settled, I am ready. Ready for new inspiration. For reinvention. Ready for the biggest changes in my kitchen since…well, really only since June, when we started getting the farm share. But more change is coming to my kitchen. So stay tuned…