I've been getting CIA's "Kitchen&Cook" since they started offering it, and finding it quite interesting reading - both in terms of recipes and cooking technique. It's more of a newsletter than a magazine so far, but I actually find that aspect rather appealing. You can download a free issue at the moment from their site: http://www.ciachef.edu/enthusiasts/k&c.htm In the past I've also subscribed to Gourmet and Bon Appetit, and, until recently, Saveur. Mostly I let them lapse because I wanted something that was a little less advertising and travelogue heavy and thus with more concentrated food and cooking material. I have cooked a number of things from them, but now just tend to use epicurious.com to look up recipes. My subscription to Cook's Illustrated remains active and I usually buy the collected book at the end of the year and loan out my individual issues to friends and family. I haven't really noticed anything particularly annoying about Kimball, but I admit I don't read the editorials often. I don't always agree with their taste tests, but find that in the descriptions that I can sort out which ones will likely work for me. Mostly I just like them for all the ideas that end up percolating in the back of my brain. I'm going to check out Gastronomica (after the mentions I've seen here) though I suspect I'll find it too dear. But they have a way to download a sample copy so I'm at least going to browse through that.