Food &Wine vs. Gourmet?

elyhtak · January 20, 2003

I would like to hear the galley's opinion on this one...does anyone prefer one food magazine of the other? I used to have a subscription to Food &Wine and enjoy the recipes and wine pairings in it, however cannot decide now whether to renew that subscription or get a subscription to Gourmet or some other food magazine instead. Opinions?

cabrales · January 20, 2003

I prefer Food & Wine to Gourmet. I am not addressing the relative appeal of included recipes, as I do not cook. However, the restaurant news is slightly better in F&W, in my assessment. Neither is particularly attractive, I'd have to admit.

Belmont3 · January 20, 2003

I subscribe to Gourmet, Cooks Illustrated, Saveur and Northwest Palate. I love them all. I use recipes from all as well. It is kind of a good mix I feel of exposure at all different levels. I read each issue cover to cover and would be hard pressed to give one up.

NeroW · January 20, 2003

This is my opinion, since we were asked.

I frequent the website epicurious.com, an affiliate of Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines. Many of the forums and user reviews on that site lately have expressed disappointment with Gourmet magazine in particular--I believe there was an editorial change recently? Personally I subscribe to Food & Wine, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Cook's Illustrated, and Gastronomica. I find myself more and more drawn away from Gourmet--it is ad-heavy, the recipes do not always make sense and the cost to the cook of preparation and time for some of their recipes is frankly astronomical. Food & Wine, in my opinion, has more for your money. Gourmet is a beautiful looking magazine, but I did not renew my subscription this year. Plus, you can get all the recipes for free on epicurious.com, often before you get the magazine in the mail. Why buy the cow?

Really Nice! · January 20, 2003

I let my subscriptions to Gourmet and Bon Appetite run out. There's too much advertising and too much non-food related stuff that doesn't interest me. I got tired of flipping through the first 50 pages only to find 44 pages of advertising, two pages for the TOC, a page of employees names, a page of contributors names...

The Art of Eating is a quarterly magazine that I enjoy reading. Art of Eating. It's $39 for one year, $69 for two years, or $99 for three years.

Art Culinare is the ultimate in food porn. Incredible pictures, but the dishes are rather involved. 1 year subscription (four issues) at $59.00

I'm thinking about Gastronomica. Does anyone have experience with this one?

NeroW · January 20, 2003

I'm thinking about Gastronomica. Does anyone have experience with this one?

I have read quite a bit of Gastronomica and I truly love it. I want to be a food writer and this is the magazine to read when I become discouraged with myself. If you like thought-provoking writing about food, Gastronomica is worth a shot.

elyhtak · January 20, 2003

Nero, yes I also frequent epicurious.com, which is a fantastic place to search for recipes, and also considered that in this whole maganize situation. So maybe I should just stick with Food&Wine, which has been fairly good to me so far and the recipes as you mentioned are typically not over the top cost wise. I find that some magazines print the a lot of complicated recipes that require small amounts of less-readily available ingredients that drives up the cost AND effort factor of trying the recipes. That bugs me.

Really Nice! · January 20, 2003

I have read quite a bit of Gastronomica and I truly love it. I want to be a food writer and this is the magazine to read when I become discouraged with myself.

Then this is exactly what I need!

Thanks, NeroW :biggrin:

torakris · January 20, 2003

When I am in the US I usually but a bunch of cooking magazines, then rip out the recipes I like and put them into a folder. I found over the years that I was taking so few recipes from Gourmet and Bon Apetit, that I stopped buying them. Now with Epicurious, I don't even see the need to glance through them.

The only magazines I subscribe to are Cook's Illustrated and Fine Cooking.

I enjoy Food and Wine, my grandmother has had a subscription forever and I always look at it at her house, but I don't drink and I don't live anywhere near the restaurants they review so it isn't worth the money.

Last month I bought their 2000 (year) collected recipe book and have enjoyed cooking from it and they also have recipes at their website.

guajolote · January 21, 2003

Gourmet has those stinky perfume ads in it so I had to cancel my subscription. Food & Wine has seemed to focus on "quick" and "lite" a lot lately - I prefer slow and heavy. I think Savuer is the best but the last year has been not as interesting.

plax · January 21, 2003

I find that the magazine I use most for cooking is Cook's Illustrated, because I like the way they go in depth on a particular topic and tell you all the ways they experimented with getting it right. Also like Saveur a lot because of the cultural connections they make to food (and also because they've published some of my work!).

Neil

jaybee · January 21, 2003

I'm with PLAX on this one. Gourmet and F&W are really rags and excuses for advertising. When I recall what Gourmet used to be in its heyday, it is sad to see.

Edited January 21, 2003 by jaybee (log)

helenas · January 21, 2003

I get F&W for recipes only: not all of them are posted on their web. But i really like australian Vogue Entertaining & Travel.

Jinmyo · January 21, 2003

F&W had a brief piece by FG. But is still vile. Gourmet hasn't and so is, if not more vile, is not less.

Art of Eating, Culinary Arts, Gastronomica are all worthwhile.

But really, if one is using eGullet daily as prescribed by trained professionals, who needs magazines?

Fat Guy · January 21, 2003

To stick to the primary comparison, it's difficult to compare Food & Wine to Gourmet because Gourmet isn't strictly a food magazine. So much of its content is generalized fine-living. In addition, my perception is that Gourmet pitches to a higher-income, more urban demographic than Food & Wine. Certainly, from the perspective of a writer, Gourmet is the more writerly of the two and, I believe, pays its writers more (I've never written for Gourmet so I can't say for sure). Gourmet has actual critical restaurant reviews, tends to be more willing to pass judgment in general, and allows writers' voices to be heard loud and clear. Food & Wine has a bit more of an overarching house style.

Nick · January 21, 2003

I have a subscription to F&W and some issues are interesting. But, a lot the stuff is like re-treading a tire.

As I remember, my mother was getting Gourmet back in the fifties when I was pretty young and maybe it was from that that I learned there was more to cooking and serving than just traditional fare. I looked at an issue of Gourmet a year or so ago and it was a far cry from the issues my mother was getting.

As others have pointed out, there is way too much advertising in the cooking magazines of today. And, most of it has nothing to do with cooking.

Some good cookbooks and what's happening here are enough for me.

Edited January 21, 2003 by Nickn (log)

**JAZ** · January 21, 2003

I work in a cookware store that carries most of the major food magazines, and so I can read any and all of them.

I always read Cook's Illustrated and find it interesting but rarely agree with their opinions on anything, except macaroni and cheese. (And since I'm now holding them personally responsible for the failure of my Christmas peanut butter truffles, I'm carrying a bit of a grudge).

Once in a while a recipe in Gourmet, Food & Wine or Bon Appetit will appeal to me and I'll copy a page, but that's about it for my interest in them.

Fine Cooking is my favorite cooking magazine because it's all about cooking -- no travel, no restaurants, no lifestyle crap. I'm actually seriously considering subscribing to it again (I stopped when I started working at the store, because I could read it for free, and can usually take home a remaindered copy sans cover) because I've found more and more I want the issues at home, with covers, right when they come out.

I keep thinking that I should like Saveur, but I just don't. Not sure why.

Cuisine (now Cuisine at Home) would be a much better magazine if the so-called writers for it could write. Good ideas, recipes that can be made at home, nice technique stuff for the beginner to intermediate cook. But, ack! the writing is awful. I can barely make it through a couple of paragraphs before I just want to sic my college grammar professor on the entire staff.

Eating Well's new incarnation seems to be not as good as its original format but miles ahead of what it dwindled into before its well-deserved demise. I hope it continues on the right track, because it would be great to have a good, moderate magazine devoted to relatively healthy eating (Cooking Light is positively the worst excuse for a supposed cooking magazine in the entire Western Hemisphere).

Art Culinaire is pretty to look at but vapid.

I love Gastronomica, but it's not really a cooking magazine. Great for the aspiring food writer, not so useful if you're looking for recipes.

Lesley C · January 21, 2003

I find Food and Wine a complete bore. That magazine has no soul. And I agree with the people who said Saveur has gotten dull.

I still find lots to like about Gourmet, but no, it isn't at all as good as it used to be (I have hundreds of back issues, which I refer back to constantly for recipes and info). I can't pinpoint exactly what it is about that magazine that I find disappointing. I think it has lost its elegance. :sad: I used to be thrilled when it arrived. But this year, I too have dropped my subscription.

There are still some excellent food articles in Martha Stewart Living and the recipes are quite good. Anyone who shuns that magazine is missing out, I think. For pastry, it's very, very good (or as Martha would say "very very excellent"). :smile:

awbrig · January 21, 2003

my vote is for Gourmet too...

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ngatti · January 21, 2003

Well I find Saveur pretty vapid (great photography though, IMO)

Art Culinaire vapid? I only look at the pictures. Is there enough editorial content (writing) to consider it vapid? The recipes don't look like they work so I use them very generally. More as an ingredient guide. BTW, I'm looking for any issues from 1 to 29 (PM me), to complete my collection.

I read Gourmet for Ruth Reichl's editorial. :wub:

Nick

Dana · January 21, 2003

I stop what I'm doing the minute my Fine Cooking hits the mail box and read cover to cover, planning what I'm going to make from it this month. I take F&W and Bon Appetite as well, although they aren't as compelling to read as FC. I quit Gourmet last year. The articles seem to revolve around large cities I'll never visit and most of them are sooooo looonnnggg that I have trouble finishing them in one sitting. The articles get tedious and I get bored quickly. - I will often finish a book in 2 or 3 sittings, so I really don't think it's me, but the material. IMHO

porkpa · January 21, 2003

I have been a subscriber to Gourmet for over 35 years. At one time it was the ne plus ultra of food magazines. Unfortunately in my opinion that is not the case today. I used to look forward to its arrival each month. Now sometime it will sit for weeks until I even look at it.

Maybe its a manifistation(?sp) of a switch of time spent on print to the internet. I'm not sure.

It seems to me that the new Gourmet(Reichl's) is all about sizzle, with very little steak. IMO the old Gourmet was far superior. The new one hasn't alienated me enough yet to consider halting my subscription, but it has come close.

Porkpa

Liza · January 21, 2003

Art Culinaire vapid? I beg to differ.

AC is the one I drop everything for and read and keep and refer to all the time. They have recipes from chefs around the world; their themes are explored and deconstructed and re-formed by the chefs, not by a features article turned food writer; they list every ingredient and source and technique necessary to replicate the dishes; the provide real bios of the chefs; AND, they're hard bound, which makes them easy to keep. If I could subscribe to only one food publication, it would definitely be Art Culinaire.

mamster · January 21, 2003

I'm generally skeptical of any magazine that is required to have a turkey on the cover of the November issue. Buy an imagination, folks.

No one has mentioned Cooking Light. A friend of mine has a sub, and if you ignore the nutritional supplement ads and articles about exercise regimens, the same way you ignore the ski vacation articles in Gourmet, there's actually some good stuff--particularly vegetable dishes, which they can handle with more finesse than the veg magazines because they put bacon in when necessary.

MsRamsey · January 21, 2003

I agree. I was very surprised at how appealing the recipes in Cooking Light can be.

I like Saveur -- I admit it's partly because the design and layout are so attractive. Food & Wine isn't even a contender. It's a thin, unsubstantial magazine that usually seems pretty short on recipes compared to other magazines. The kind of thing you find in the doctor's office.

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