Gourmet's death by 1,000 blogs
By Jonathan Bender in News
Mon., Oct. 12 2009 @ 10:30AM
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If the popularity of food blogs is any indication, our current vision of ourselves, as preparers and consumers of meals, is not as kitchen pros who can magically make the complicated look effortless, but as bumbling amateurs who can miraculously pull together a meal that actually tastes good.It raises the issue of how we see and talk about food. Because while Gourmet wasn't the center of the food discussion, it represented an ideology that may no longer have a champion.
"Gourmet, like all food magazines, was more about the way we think about food than about the way we actually prepare and eat it," writes Yabroff.
While this meanders dangerously into a sentimental offshoot about looking for a foundation in a world that is constantly changing, the tradition of Gourmet is not one to be cast away lightly. It's a 70-year-old publication that, in Ruth Reichl, had one of America's most prominent food critics at its helm.
So, I'm lamenting that loss of institutional knowledge. And now, where does an essay like David Foster Wallace's 2004 piece on the Maine Lobster Festival get published? And how do I find it?
To some degree, we need Julia Child in order to have aspirations about becoming a better Julie Powell. Otherwise, we're all just treading water in a pot that's already started to boil.
[Image via Flickr: thebittenword]
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