Gastronomica

[Preet Baba x]

The new magazine Gastronomica came up in the food history thread so I thought I'd start a new thread here for anybody with comments on this magazine. I saw the first issue and found it to be a great disappointment. Here I was expecting finally a magazine that would satisfy the thirst for knowledge of the hard core foodie. Instead I found pseudointellectual babble and weak writing.

http://www.gastronomica.org/

[Fat Guy]

Preet Baba: I share your views. I got the first issue which is beautifully presented and illustrated, though the writing, on the whole, left me cold. I'd feared it would fall into the post-modern trap (if I hear much more talk about discourse, narratives and Lacan, I'll deconstruct) but it hasn’t really. Seems there’s still an objective reality out there. I found several of the articles too long and not very stimulating.

The exception is Rachel Laudan’s  "A plea for culinary modernism: Why we should love new, fast, processed food”. She intelligently argues that we have developed silly stereotypes of “the artisanal/rural” versus the “industrial”. The latter is exemplified, some might say, in Eric Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation”. Covering some of the same ground that John Thorne (in his critique of Schlosser in Thorne’s “Simple Cooking”), and Steven Shaw (in “Commentary”) do, Lauden points out that processed foods have many merits (e.g., keep well) but, most important, food made with machines can release people from servitude.  Laudan writes about the time before the tortilla machine was invented in the 1950s:

“In Mexico…women without servants could expect to spend five hours a day—one third of their waking hours—kneeling at the grindstone preparing the dough for the family’s tortillas” (p. 41)

Not only do we idealize the past, but , according to Laudan, so-called culinary purists hypocritically forget that their kichen cupboards are full of factory-made pasta and canned Italian tomatoes.

The journal is pretty pricey. บ an issue in the stores. (You do get 25% if you order on line).

I'd be happy to give the 2nd issue a go if people want to discuss it here. But maybe we should spend our dough on something better?

[Preet Baba x]

I'm going to order the current issue today in the hopes that they'll begin to iron out some of the kinks. Definitely, the table of contents looks interesting.

http://www.gastronomica.org/gastro/pages/content_13toc.html

[Fat Guy x]

Having been involved in a few new magazine launches, some of which didn't even come to fruition, I can say from experience that it's nearly impossible to do a good first issue of a magazine. Usually there have been three or four management changes before the actual launch, and the first editor-in-chief of record gets stuck with a lot of copy that wouldn't have been that person's choice. Just getting a magazine on the stands without too many spelling errors is an accomplishment worthy of at least some respect. So even though it would be a simple matter to find several faults per page in the early issues, I'd be inclined to give Gastronomica a chance. At least the overall mission seems like something interesting.

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Steven A. Shaw

www.fat-guy.com

[Preet Baba x]

This is not auspicious. They can't even get their acts together to send me the current issue. Not good business sense. Check this out:

Dear New Subscriber,

Welcome to Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture! Combining a keen appreciation for the pleasures and aesthetics of food with the latest in

food studies. Gastronomica is a vital forum for ideas, discussion, and thoughtful reflection on the history, literature, representation, and cultural impact of food. As a subscriber to this extraordinary publication, you will be among the first to receive the journal's wonderfully eclectic explorations of food as a serious art and as a vibrant, sensual experience.

We are sorry to say that your order was not received in time to be included in the mailing of the latest issue, Vol. 1:2 (May 2001), as part of your subscription term.  Your subscription will begin with the third issue of the launch volume to be released at the end of the summer and expire after you have received a full four issues.

Single copy orders of missed issues are available for purchase at the back issue rate of บ.00 per copy through the Gastronomica web site at http://www.gastronomica.org.

Your credit card will be charged and your order processed shortly.  If you have any questions regarding your subscription, please feel free to contact us via email at journals@ucop.edu or via phone at 510-643-7154.

Thank you again for joining us at the table. We're sure that in each issue of Gastronomica you'll discover something to challenge your intellect and delight your senses.

[Carolyn Tillie x]

Maybe I am the exception -- I found the magazine on a website several months before it was due to be released and have both copies. I loved it. I love over-the-top intellectualization of topics. I usually have to resign myself to history books for such banter and I was thrilled to be exposed to the literary underbelly of such writing to food.  I have aspirations to be printed in such a journal myself some day....

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Carolyn Tillie

[Preet Baba x]

But surely there is a distinction between real intellectualism and the pseudointellectual bullshit cluttering the pages of that first issue. Take the articles on genetically modified foods for example. They contributed absolutely nothing to the debate on this subject. They definitely did not contain any intellectual analysis. They read like position papers by high school Model UN competitors or political lobbying groups. I did not even see an intellectual dimension at all, real or imagined. The people writing for that magazine are not real intellectuals at least not insofar as that issue was concerned.

[Carolyn Tillie x]

I think it was the article on Turtle Soup (first issue?) that intrigued me -- I am currently working on a seminar I am presenting on the eating habits of the Victorian gentry and I am serving a 10-course meal to accompany the lecture. The information on Turtle Soup was quite invaluble to me.

Granted, the concept of genetically modified food probably doesn't belong in such a space. And, I do remember, there is a photographic section in the second issue of a catepillar eating a tomato that I could have done without...

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Carolyn Tillie

[Preet Baba x]

I didn't so much mind a discussion of genetic engineering but if you're going to give it an intellectual treatment, as the New York Review of Books recently did (see my other post), then you should dwell on society and culture and not just on silly debater's political arguments. Well, I'll be giving Gastronomica another try as soon as they get it together to send me an issue. I suppose anything is better than Bon Appetit!

[Michelle Ng x]

Carolyn, are you a food writer or teacher? It sounds like you are. If so where can we read your work?

[Fat Guy]

I bought the second issue of Gastronomica a couple of days ago, and I’m pretty pleased with it. So maybe it is worth sticking with journals (as well as restaurants) for a while following the launch.

Of particular interest are the photographs by Catherine Chalmers, whom I’d never heard of. There is a series of six terrific close ups (a page apiece) of a tomato. Insects are involved and you may never eat a tomato again. Actually, I thought I might not, but I quickly got over it.

Second, there are photos of two massive sculptures by Janine Antoni. The first is “600 pounds of lard before biting”. The second is “600 pounds of chocolate, gnawed by artist". Quite stunning. Like huge brown and white icefloes.

I happened to have seen two of Antoni’s works that were in the care of Sandra Gering http://www.geringgallery.com/ (whom I know) in 1994. These were two busts of Antoni-one made of soap, the other chocolate. The one made of soap had been used by the artist (in her bath of course), and she'd licked the one made of chocolate. So, here's an artist (unlike Chef Keller, discussed on other thread bec he had not tasted his dish of oysters and tapioca before serving it to his guests) who goes to great lengths to eat as many of her creations as she can.

Anyone up for discussing the articles? The one on how coriander needed to be rehabilitated (because it was wrongly associated with bed bugs) looks interesting.

[ChocoKitty]

I was intrigued enough with Gastronomica to submit an article (approved for publication in early 2002, but we'll see what happens).  I think that Gastronomica has an interesting mission and fills a gap missing in current food mags, but sometimes I think it's trying too hard to sound intellectual.  I think it needs to lighten up just a bit.  My favorite pieces so far have been "In Defense of Processed Food" and "Culinary Colonialism", but I tend to like the lighter articles among the 8000-word scholarly behemoths.

All in all, I find it refreshing that a publication is willing to tackle food in a context other than a slew of "easy, quick" recipes or a glossy lifestyle magazine.  I think that with a little more editing (I *hated* seeing the FDA referred to as the Food and Drug AGENCY -- it's ADMINISTRATION!), it should find its voice.  I hope it sticks around, even if it isn't in quite the same form it is now.

[yvonne johnson]

Welcome ChocoKitty. I liked the article on processed food too. (That was me, "Deleted Member", above. The moderators aren't going to get rid of me that easily:). Funny, when the posts are read in 'reply to post mode', my name appears.) In any case, congratulations on having an article accepted for publication. Are you willing to reveal the areas that interest you?

[fresco]

Has anyone read this magazine over the past couple of years--I never see it on news stands. Is it worth subscribing?

Edited August 6, 2003 by fresco (log)

[Jinmyo]

fresco, they've sent me my renewal notice.

I'm thinking about it.

I've enjoyed some articles. I've learned a few things, but nothing practical.

But...

[fresco]

How would you rate it for entertainment value?

[Jinmyo]

Well, some of it is unintentionally funny. Then some of it tries to be funny in that pomo self-ironic heavy-handed fashion. Which can be funny in itself in a meta-narrative kinda way.

Some of the photographs are nice.

I'm just not sure that many of the people involved actually enjoy food as much as they are fascinated by chewing as metaphor.

So I'd rate it a fork with a bent tine.

[fresco]

some of it tries to be funny in that pomo self-ironic heavy-handed fashion

Don't think I want to pay money to get more of that.

[MatthewB]

some of it tries to be funny in that pomo self-ironic heavy-handed fashion

Don't think I want to pay money to get more of that.

That's only some of it though. (And Jin is spot on with her description of this element.)

There's also some wonderful stuff that you won't find anywhere else.

Though if I had to choose between this & the Slow Food periodicals, I'd get a membership to Slow Food first.

[fresco]

I wish more of these publications were available on the newsstand. The best way for me to find out whether a magazine is worth a subscription is to keep track of how many times I fork out to buy individual issues over a year.

[helenas]

I'm just not sure that many of the people involved actually enjoy food as much as they are fascinated by chewing as metaphor.

Jinmyo,

you found the best words to describe the magazine. I wonder what Dara Goldstein would reply to this. She definitely loves food, at least if one would judge from her books on russian/georgian cooking.

[fresh_a]

I got bored really easily after reading just a few issues...

[Suzanne F]

I too am debating whether or not to continue getting it, now that I'll have to pay. Some of it is fascinating, along the lines of Near a Thousand Tables; some is sooooooooo academic -- not necessarily a bad thing, just not always what I want to spend my time reading. For that, actually, I am glad of its existence: it gives credence to food as a discipline worthy of study. But I think overall I'd rather use the time here.

[bloviatrix]

I wish more of these publications were available on the newsstand. The best way for me to find out whether a magazine is worth a subscription is to keep track of how many times I fork out to buy individual issues over a year.

Do you have a local bookstore that specializes in cookbooks? If so, they might carry it. In NY, you can pick up single issues at Kitchen Arts & Letters. I think they also carry back issues. They take phone orders, so I'm sure you can order a copy from them -- 212/876-5550.

[alacarte]

I wonder what Dara Goldstein would reply to this. She definitely loves food, at least if one would judge from her books on russian/georgian cooking.

you could ask her--- gastronomica@williams.edu