Did food blogs kill Gourmet? That's Jenni Yabroff's theory on Newsweek's Pop Vox blog. Yabroff essentially argues we are a nation of Julie Powells who aren't really interested in reading the writings of a bunch of Julia Childs, at least in magazine form:
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.
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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While there is plenty of information online, not everyone is interested in gathering it from that source. My husband, for instance, loooves his food magazines. We subscribed to Gourmet, and we also have a subscription to Food Network Magazine (which we love to death, btw...it was a gift from the in-laws last year), and Saveur. He prefers sitting on the couch, perusing the magazines while there's something inane on the t.v. in the background, rather than sitting and surfing the net for info.
I, however, am on a computer all day long (my husband is a chef, so, yeah...), and willingly troll Food Network for new ideas all the time when I'm bored and thinking of food. I only look at the food magazines when he points something out to me in them. (Except for the FN Mag. I really love that thing, although I only look at the recipes, srsly. Their articles aren't interesting to me in any way.)
This isn't the first Conde Naste casualty this year (Domino went out a few months ago, and it made me VERY sad...), and I'm sure it won't be the last. But that's cool...we have other options, and that's all that matters.
Ruth R the writer and editor of Gourmet is as brilliant as she is entertaining as she is humorous. Alas, that kind of food writing is going the way of the Dodo and the Edsel. Now we have blogs by boobs as stupid and boring as they are sincere. And god almighty they are sincere. The Times calls this this phenomenon, "crowd sourced". It is the white noise babble that,on every level, speaks to the dumbing down of public discourse in our culture. Gourmet's abrupt departure from the zeitgeist will be mourned and moaned about for a month or two and then forgotten. In the United States of Amnesia the utterly forgettable blogosphere is the new treacle that binds us togethor.
I stopped subscribing to the food mags last year when we had to cut back expenses. Honestly, I didnt miss them as much as I thought I would. I only subscribed to them for cooking ideas and I get that now with food blogs, recipes sites and photo sites. I visit www.TastyKitchen.com, www.FoodBlogs.com and www.FoodGawker.com all the time and get some great cooking ideas there. Even when our finances bounce back (hopefully soon!), I don't see that I will renew my subscriptions again. There is to much good stuff online that is free.
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