Gourmet Magazine is no more ... - Thorn Tree travel forum

Gourmet Magazine is no more

Replies: 9 - Last Post: 08-Oct-2009 20:34 Last Post By: tribolite

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Posted
06-Oct-2009 03:33
by: nutraxfornerves

Posts: 10,423
Registered: 09/06/01

Gourmet Magazine is no more

Condé Nast plans to announce this morning that it will close Gourmet magazine, a magazine of almost biblical status in the food world; it has been published since December 1940.

Read the whole story

The memos from the publisher are here

Nutrax
The plural of anecdote is not data

Posted
06-Oct-2009 10:18
by: Edwricepatty

Posts: 309
Registered: 14/11/03

1

Gourmet is a magazine's magazine. I used to advertise a product in it about 15 years ago and it was sooo expensive. But - if you had a nice looking ad - your product could not help but look good in the general ambience of the magazine and the other advertisers. As a reader, I have disliked magazines in general since they were trivialized - dumbed down as part of the stupidification of North America in this the golden age of stupidity (the movement now even having a goddess - Ms. Palin) - and I think I probably have not purchased more than a few in about 10-12 years. I cannot even read them on airplanes as they are so hollow, meaningless, and drivel-laden.

Posted
06-Oct-2009 21:16
by: tribolite

Posts: 2,460
Registered: 03/05/01

2

That is sad news indeed.For generations of foodies and gluttons alike,the stunning photos,articles and recipies in Gourmet were scrumptiously delicious eye candy as well as inspiration to try them out .

Posted
06-Oct-2009 23:23
by: VinnyD

Posts: 20,897
Registered: 06/10/04

3

I never thought much of it, but I never saw it in the Ruth Reichl era so it may have changed. Back in the sixties or early seventies Nora Ephron wrote a pretty funny piece about it for Esquire, reprinted in her book Crazy Salad.

Meet VinnyD.

Posted
07-Oct-2009 20:35
by: Anonimo

Posts: 4,373
Registered: 25/03/01

4

I was first exposed to Gourmet Magazine back in the 50's, when the covers were individually hand painted. ;-) It introduced me to what was then an enigmatic world. I remember one of the first issues we had had a cover painting of mushrooms under a glass dome. I wondered "Why?".

There was a long running series, "Travels with Gramps", by Stephen Longstreet, that was fascinating and opinionated.

I liked Gourmet best during the 80's. Later came Bon Appetit, which seemed to me an upstart of lower class, devoted to pink peppermint layer cakes on its covers. Later it got better. Eventually I became disgusted with the whole lot, the excess, the upwardly mobile striving, the stinking perfume ads (thankfully, those have gone) and the pack of ads in the front of the magazine.

Recently I read an article, probably on nytimes.com about the whole bloated Conde Nast expense account and staff perks system. Read that, and you'll understand better why they are sacrificing Gourmet. Cuts Meet a Culture of Spending At Conde Nast

Truly serious cooks would gravitate to Cook's Illustrated, but I'm not really that serious.

"Cada Loco Con Su Tema" - Don Anonimo My Mexican Kitchen

Posted
07-Oct-2009 21:01
by: VinnyD

Posts: 20,897
Registered: 06/10/04

5

#4 -- It seems that when you wanted to signify elegance or would-be elegant pretentiousness in movies of the 40s or 50s you would mention "pheasant under glass" or "mushrooms under glass". I suppose the glass kept the dish warm, but probably it was there mostly just to show that you could afford something fragile and of little utility. (See Thorsten Veblen.)

I wonder if you could find the requisite domes today.

Meet VinnyD.

Posted
08-Oct-2009 00:24
by: tribolite

Posts: 2,460
Registered: 03/05/01

6

Glass domes to keep the flies away and naughty kids from pokeing the food with their grubby fingers?:))

Posted
08-Oct-2009 02:38
by: nutraxfornerves

Posts: 10,423
Registered: 09/06/01

7

"Sur (or sous) cloche" is an old technique. The cloche is actually a glass bell. Escoffier:

CHAMPIGNONS SOUS CLOCHE Trim the mushrooms; season them with salt and pepper, and garnish the hollow of each with a piece of maitre-d'hotel butter, the size of a hazel-nut, and ½ coffeespoonful of cream.

Set a mushroom on each piece of toast, which should be 2" in diameter and fired in butter. Dish them on an egg-tray, and cover them with a special glass bell, 4" in diameter and 2" high, the rim of which must rest on the bottom o the dish, the diameter of which should be such to fit the bell..

Put the dishes on the side of the stove and cook in moderate heat for about 25 minutes.

Sometimes foods were just served under glass keep the dish warm. In the days of houses without central heat and kitchens a long way from dining rooms, this makes sense. Another reason was the aroma--remember those ortolans? The idea was that the diner would lift the glass and inhale all the trapped aroma. Fanny FArmer (1913) says:

Individual dishes with bell-shaped glass covers may be bought at first-class kitchen furnishers. These dishes are sent to table with covers left on, that the fine flavor of the prepared viand may all be retained.

Nutrax
The plural of anecdote is not data

Posted
08-Oct-2009 16:43
by: Myanmarbound

Posts: 5,917
Registered: 24/10/04

8

I've seen silver cloches a very few times but never glass ones. I went to the opening of a very swank restaurant in Macau a few years ago and was served an amuse bouche of foie gras. Next to it was an upside down glass trapping a sliver of white truffle. You were supposed to eat the foie gras and from time-to-time take a sniff of the air under the glass!

I'm so glad that the opening was hosted by the restaurant and I wasn't paying my own money for scented air.

you prurient foul-mouthed shit-stirrer

Posted
08-Oct-2009 20:34
by: tribolite

Posts: 2,460
Registered: 03/05/01

9

It is a common practice at grand wedding dinner receptions in 5 star hotels out here to serve their dishes covered with EPNS domes with wait staff removing all the covers simultainously to reveal the dish.
Just attended one a couple of nights ago.

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