Gourmet Magazine

Gourmet Magazine April 1945

Gourmet Magazine (1940 to 2009) was an American food magazine. More than that, one could argue it was the most prestigious food magazine ever yet produced.

The Gourmet Magazine Legacy

Gourmet Magazine treated food as a part of culture. Though it carried recipes, it was not a recipe magazine. (It was not until 1965, 25 years after it had been printing recipes, that Gourmet even set up its own test kitchens.) Instead, it was more of an “aspirational life-style” magazine, known for its long, leisurely articles of which food might be the focus, or, it might be just a pretext for the article, which veered off in other directions. They sold a fantasy; they sold you what you might create in your life, if only for one brief moment in early summer’s dappled sunlight or mid-autumn’s moonbeams on the bay.

“Gourmet was and long has been the market leader. It may not always have sold the most – though it regularly shifted over a million copies – but it always was the glossiest, the shiniest, the most indulgent. Gourmet was a magazine people collected. It was a habit.” — Jay Rayer ^[1]Rayner, Jay. Gourmet Magazine to close. Manchester: The Guardian. 5 October 2009. Retrieved July 2010 from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/oct/05/food-and-drink-magazines

To many subscribers, Gourmet Magazine was above all a “good read”, rather than something you propped up in the kitchen as an instructional recipe guide. Many felt that the best issues of Gourmet Magazine were always the summer ones, which would transport you by rapture to a sunny sidewalk cafe in Rome tossing crumbs to the little birds hopping by.

The magazine was also often a work of art in itself, with its full page, glossy colour “food porn” pictures and on location food shots set around the world, drenched in early evening white-burgundy hued sunlight. Each month’s cover would be eagerly anticipated. Gourmet took such pride in its covers that the subscriber and news stand covers were often different.

Gourmet’s fans came from all walks of life:

“Being a gourmet, the magazine repeatedly affirmed, was not dependent on a person’s wealth, class or social status. Rather, a gourmet was one who prepared meals with love and care and shared them with congenial company — something anyone could do.” ^[2]Smith, Andrew F., ed. Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City. New York: Oxford University Press. 2016. Page 362.

Improbable odds

The magazine was the idea of Earle R. MacAusland (1891-1980, born Taunton, Massachusetts). He conceived the magazine in his mind in the late 1930s and began putting the pieces for it together.

At the time, all established publications with food coverage in them still worshipped exclusively at the altar of Home Economics.

It was a less than auspicious time for a gourmet food magazine. Even a decent glass of wine with dinner was a challenge, to say the least. Nascent American wineries had been killed off by Prohibition; European market access was difficult owing to World War Two which had begun one year before. Americans were wondering how much longer they would be able to stay out of that war, and the Great Depression hadn’t yet fully relaxed its grip on the country.

“MacAusland had experience in publishing magazines for a female audience; but he was unable to find corporate backing for his dream magazine, a food journal that addressed elite readers, so he asked for money from his family to start Gourmet. By the time the first issue came out, Europe was at war, and America would enter later in the same year. MacAusland and his intrepid team of writers and editors, however, assured their audience that the time was perfect for a magazine that celebrated the good things in life.” ^[3]Smith, Andrew F., ed. Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City. Page 241.

Early years

MacAusland approached a Boston artist Samuel Chamberlain who agreed to be an out-of-house resource. Chamberlain was useful because he could both illustrate, and write well. Pearl Metzelthin would be the first editor-in-chief. MacAusland also recruited a professional chef, Louis Pullig de Gouy, to be Gourmet’s first in-house chef, and food editor:

“The magazine’s first food editor, who also provided a recipe column, was a professional chef, Louis de Gouy, who had served as chef to J.P. Morgan on the tycoon’s private yacht for a round-the-world-trip… he joined the staff of the soon-to-debut Gourmet magazine [in 1940] as its ‘Gourmet Chef’, a position he held until his death in 1947 ^[4]Smith, Andrew F., ed. Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City. New York: Oxford University Press. 2016. Pp 162 and 241.

Despite the improbable odds on the surface at least, Gourmet Magazine was launched December 1940, though the cover was dated January 1941. “In December of 1940, these three (with initial editor Pearl Metzelthin) unveiled the magazine’s first issue.” ^[5] Mendelson, Anne. Gourmet’s First Decade. Gourmet Magazine. September 2001..

That first issue was a mere 48 pages, with an illustration of a roasted boar’s head on its cover. The main piece was on the food and wine of Burgundy. MacAusland was 50 years old at the time.

First issue Gourmet magazine. January 1941. Cover by by Henry Stahlhut.

Against all odds, perhaps, Gourmet Magazine was a success from the start, because it gave people an escape from the times.

In 1941, Clementine Paddleford came onboard as a regular contributor. The “You Asked for It” column of recipes requested by readers started in 1944. The magazine started running serial narrative articles that became popular with readers.

The covers were often by Henry Stahlhut and are now collected and sold as artwork in their own right. Stahlhut continued to do covers for Gourmet magazine until around 1960. The covers were uncluttered with text, to let the artwork shine through. There would be lots of text inside the magazine, but the cover was for visual communication. Readers would know what to expect of Gourmet magazine, without a cacophony of busy text blurbs obfuscating the emotions and feelings that that month’s cover visually conjured in buyers.

The early years of the magazine would focus on French cooking as well as eastern American food.

From 1945 to 1965, Gourmet’s offices were in The Plaza hotel in New York. “Shortly after the war, MacAusland moved Gourmet’s offices into a penthouse at the Plaza Hotel, where they remained for the next twenty years.” ^[6]Smith, Andrew F., ed. Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City. Page 362.

Food critic Bonnie Henry remembered the Plaza Hotel offices:

“She [Ed: Caroline Bates] got the job. Started in 1941, the magazine was by the mid-1940s located in the penthouse of New York’s Plaza Hotel. It also was the home of founder and Publisher Earle MacAusland – and his poodles and terriers. Two other editors shared the office with Caroline… Although there was a kitchen on the premises, all three editors tried out recipes at home. “We had a French chef in the kitchen for Mr. MacAusland, but we were warned not to go in there. A year or two before I got there, he had thrown a knife at someone.” ^[7]Henry, Bonnie. Critic for now-gone Gourmet magazine savors the memories. Tucson, Arizona: Arizona Daily Star. Monday, 28 December 2009.

James Beard (1903 – 1985) was an associate-editor editor in the late 1940s. He left after a failing out with Earle MacAusland in 1950.

“MacAusland hired the New York City caterer and cookbook author James Beard, who had just published Hors d’Oeuvre and Canapés (1940), as associate editor. Beard became the magazine’s restaurant critic in 1949. He left in 1950 after feuding with MacAusland over a gaffe — Beard had reprinted one of his Gourmet columns almost verbatim in an advertising booklet. The two eventually buried the hatchet and Beard returned to the magazine in 1969.” ^[8]Smith, Andrew F., ed. Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City. Page 362.

A 1944 issue introduced Americans to Key Lime Pie, in the middle of rationing. This was aspirational food indeed, for Americans tired of Depression, tired of war, and looking eagerly to sunny times ahead.

Gourmet Magazine August 1944. introducing Americans to key lime pie in the middle of rationing.

Louis de Gouy died in 1947. Louis Diat (1885-1957) of The Ritz-Carlton in New York became the Gourmet’s in-house chef. Diat laid claim to having invented Vichyssoise.

From 1949 to 1951, the magazine surveyed French cooking region by region, but even while this massive exercise was being undertaken, other cuisines besides French had started to claim print space in the magazine.  By the start of the 1950s, Italian cooking was no longer a stranger to the pages, and pasta no longer meant “macaroni.”

In the 1950s, the magazine started to become well known for two things — its romantic treatment of food, and overly-elaborate recipes that required ten kitchen helpers and ingredients — such as avocados — that no one could get in the United States.

April 1952 issue of Gourmet Magazine showing avocados, which would have been a near-impossible ingredient for most Americans to get.

Gourmet Magazine and travel

Also in the 1950s, the magazine began to tie food with travel, by anchoring food in its locale in minute detail, resonating with the number of Americans who had been to Europe during the war or who could now afford to get there at least once in a lifetime.

“[Pearl] Metzelthin’s influence was clear in the emphasis the magazine placed on travel. Gourmet was, from the first, a magazine about eating good food in other countries, giving a new direction to travel journalism and marking a significant departure from traditional recipe sections of women’s magazines. Rather than simply providing practical recipes for home use, Gourmet provided armchair travel and a fantasy lifestyle to transport readers from the ordinary.” ^[9]Smith, Andrew F., ed. Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City. Page 241.

In the 1960s, the tie with travel became far stronger even, with lots of colour photographs and on-location shots. The travel pieces began covering what was happening now in other places, which represented a break from Gourmet’s previous emphasis on seeing places to connect with a romantic and literary past. The 1960s was the dawn of the cheap airfare travel era; Gourmet provided its readers the knowledge to transform themselves from “tourists” into “travellers.”

Gourmet Magazine August 1969, travel to Europe was becoming easier for the aspirational middle-class.

Ruth Cousineau, director of Gourmet’s test kitchen in its final years, said, “… we would travel a lot—travel is invaluable for a cook.” ^[10]Castronovo Fusco, Mary Ann. So Long, “Stringent” Process. Morristown, New Jersey: New Jersey Monthly. 9 February 2010. Accessed August 2019 at https://njmonthly.com/articles/eat-drink/so-long-stringent-process 

Calibre of writing

By the end of the 1960s, the magazine had collected a group of writers with specialist, even academic, expertise on certain topics, rather than the all-purpose writers it had relied on before.

“As the years went on, MacAusland courted the finest of food writers, such as Jane Grigson, Joseph Wechsberg, Elizabeth David and chef Louis Diat… MacAusland also published writers from other genres, such as science fiction master Ray Bradbury and even F. Scott Fitzgerald.” ^[11]Smith, Andrew F., ed. Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City. Page 362.

In 1969, James Beard returned to the magazine, despite his volatile temper.

Writing for Gourmet was a Cadillac gig:

“Working for Gourmet was like flying the Atlantic first class. It ruined you for other food magazines. It wasn’t just the pay, which could be multiple dollars per word. It was also the awe inspiring heft of the operation: the way food photography events were organised like they were Hollywood movie shoots, complete with casting calls and on-site catering…” ^[12]Jay Rayner . Gourmet Magazine to close. Manchester: The Guardian. 5 October 2009.

The 1970s

In the 1970s, there was further emphasis on specialized items such as short-grain rice or fresh coriander, but at least those things were available in stores now.

Nouvelle cuisine pushed its way onto the pages, and Caroline Bates started her American west coast pieces for the Spécialités de la Maison column, focussing on what was happening food-wise in California — a signal that New York was no longer the be-all and end-all for food.

In 1975, the magazine heralded the advent of food processors.

Sale to Condé Nast

Earle MacAusland died in 1980.

Food by the 1980s had started to become a political and nutritional issue for some, but Gourmet tried to rise above that.

“Having established a style that struck a chord with readers, the magazine remained largely unchanged for its first forty years. Gourmet did not jump on food fashion bandwagons, remaining true to its original Francophilia and focus on New York.” ^[13]Smith, Andrew F., ed. Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City. Page 242.

MacAusland’s widow sold Gourmet in 1983 to Condé Nast, and Jane Montant became chief editor of the magazine.

By the end of the 1980s, Gourmet started focussing on American regional cooking, and Italian food, and tried to catch up to life around them by offering simplified menus and shorter articles because while people liked to read about good food, even Gourmet readers had less time to spend at it.

The magazine started to introduce recipes that could actually be made on week-day evenings — though still, you had to plan to do nothing else that evening. One page travel pieces were introduced.

Gourmet Magazine August 1987. Glorious cover shots made the magazine “pop” on newstands.

In 1991, Gourmet was doing well as a business. Advertising pages had increased, as had circulation ^[14]Marcus, Erica. Condé Nast pulls plug on Gourmet magazine. Newsday. 5 October 2009..

Ruth Reichl — Gourmet Magazine’s final years

In 1999, Ruth Reichl was appointed chief editor. She was the first ever chief editor from outside the magazine, having previously been a restaurant critic for the New York Times.

Ruth Reichl at The Great GoogaMooga Festival, May 2012. Timothy Krause / wikimedia / 2012 / CC BY 2.0

“The magazine was finally jolted into contemporary culture in 1999, when Ruth Reichl was appointed editor… she brought a new sensibility to the magazine.” ^[15]Smith, Andrew F., ed. Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City. Page 242.

During the response to the 9/11 attack in New York City in 2001, the staff of Gourmet magazine used their test kitchens to cook food for the first responders. “Reichl recounted how she and her staff had rallied to help the first responders. Using their kitchens to cook up comfort food classics like lasagna and chili rather than to test the latest fashionable recipe, the editorial staff felt compelled to feed their city.” ^[16]Smith, Andrew F., ed. Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City. Page 242.

Under Reichl, some of Gourmet’s covers become more text-cluttered, looking more like supermarket checkout stand rags garishly shouting for attention.

Gourmet February 2007, showing a cover cluttered with text.

Reichl brought on board writers such as Calvin Trillin, who, by his own admission, “wasn’t ever a reader of Gourmet or of any other food magazine. I’m actually not that interested at all in the subject of food and cooking, and I don’t cook.” ^[17]Calvin Trillin. Remembering Gourmet Magazine. Big Thank. 20 April 2012. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTZVgEDK9gc&t=15s. 15 seconds.

One of the many “missteps” under Reichl sometimes cited is an August 2004 piece on lobster by David Foster Wallace (born 1962, committed suicide 12 September 2008).

Reichl commissioned him to write a piece on the Maine Lobster Festival. Instead, he produced a controversial dissertation, entitled “Consider the Lobster”, about whether and how much pain lobsters feeling upon being dumped into the pot.

“When she took over as editor Ruth Reichl, former New York Times restaurant critic, claimed she wanted to make the magazine the New Yorker of food, which many of us took to mean that she was going to stuff it full of staggeringly long, wonderfully in-depth, capricious, whimsical pieces. In truth she only realised that ambition once, when she ran a massively long piece by the late novelist David Foster Wallace called ‘Consider the Lobster’. Sent to cover a Maine lobster festival, he filed a rambling treatise on whether lobsters feel pain, complete with his famous footnotes. Thousands of Gourmet readers wrote in to complain. This was not what they bought the magazine for. They wanted perfect incorruptible recipes for pumpkin pie, complete with filthy food porn photography.” ^[18]Rayner, Jay. Gourmet Magazine to close. Manchester: The Guardian. 5 October 2009. Retrieved July 2010 from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/oct/05/food-and-drink-magazines

Here’s an excerpt from Wallace’s controversial piece:

“However stuporous the lobster is from the trip home, for instance, it tends to come alarmingly to life when placed in boiling water. If you’re tilting it from a container into the steaming kettle, the lobster will sometimes try to cling to the container’s sides or even to hook its claws over the kettle’s rim like a person trying to keep from going over the edge of a roof. And worse is when the lobster’s fully immersed. Even if you cover the kettle and turn away, you can usually hear the cover rattling and clanking as the lobster tries to push it off. Or the creature’s claws scraping the sides of the kettle as it thrashes around. The lobster, in other words, behaves very much as you or I would behave if we were plunged into boiling water (with the obvious exception of screaming).” ^[19]Wallace, David Foster. “Consider the Lobster” in Gourmet Magazine. August 2004.

Loyal readers would come to blame the magazine’s eventual demise on Reichl for pieces such as this.

Some embittered readers said the magazine got what it deserved, as it had got too out of touch with them in every way. Some readers felt that the changes in the 2000s made the magazine too pedestrian, and run-of-the mill; that the magazine was actually educational up until the 2000s, after which it became more style than substance, and more about beautiful people than food.

One of the final issues, in September 2009, had fashion models cooking in the Hamptons.

But in reality, the readers were still with Gourmet, despite the Reichl naysayers. In 2008, Gourmet had a circulation just shy of a million readers — 980,000, but the decisive factor in its demise appears to have been advertising revenue. Ad pages had dropped 50% in 2009 from 2008.

And the magazine wasn’t looking good compared to its main competitor, Bon Appetit. In 2009, Bon Appetit had better numbers all round: 1.4 million circulation (vs Gourmet’s 980,000), higher readership average income ($83,563 US versus $81,179 for Gourmet readers), and younger readers (49 years median age, versus 50.3 for Gourmet.) ^[20]”Gourmet led the food category in advertising, with 1,333 ad pages last year, a 1 percent increase over 1989. The magazine’s average circulation for the last six months of 1990 was 899,549, well above the 725,000 circulation that the magazine guaranteed its advertisers. Despite an 8 percent drop in newsstand sales, circulation rose 11 percent from a year earlier, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.” —A New Editor for Gourmet. The New York Times. 7 March 1991. And, to boot, that main competition, Bon Appetit, was also owned by Condé Nast — so the company could lose one food magazine, and still have a “premium” one in its stable of publications.

In the second half of 2009, the McKinsey & Co. consulting company helped Condé Nast (owned by S.I. Newhouse Jr at the time) identify which of its magazines to kill. The food magazine recommended to go was Gourmet, and that was that.

“It was really an unconscionable act,” says Caroline [Bates]. “There was no sense of history of this magazine.” ^[21]Henry, Bonnie. Critic for now-gone Gourmet magazine savors the memories. Tucson, Arizona: Arizona Daily Star. Monday, 28 December 2009.

The last issue was November 2009. It does not look like a last issue, because it was prepared the month before when Gourmet’s employees had no idea that the sudden-death end was weeks away. The 2010 issues for January, February and March were already planned, even to the point that food was being photographed for them. ^[22]Clifford, Stephanie. Ruth Reichl Speaks About Closing of Gourmet. New York Times. 6 October 2009.

The final magazine cover, November 2019. The cover had returned to its uncluttered self. This cover was for newsstand sales, there was a separate cover for subscribers.

The end was publicly announced on 5th October; the staff were given only a few days to pack and vacate the offices.

The bean counters that recommended the closing of Gourmet just assumed that its readers, and advertisers, would be happy with Bon Appetit magazine instead. But the two magazines were night and day. Bon Appetit readers were looking primarily for meal ideas while “Gourmet addressed readers, both male and female, who were not anxious about what to cook for dinner but were more generally interested in the culinary world around them.” ^[23]Smith, Andrew F., ed. Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City. Page 214.

Helen Rosener wrote that Bon Appetit had always been “that food magazine that isn’t Gourmet.” ^[24]Rosener, Helen. Where Are They Now? The Gourmet Masthead, One Year Later. Grubstreet.com. 5 October 2010. Accessed August 2019 at http://www.grubstreet.com/2010/10/the_death_of_gourmet_one_year.html

In 2010, analysts noted that instead of transferring to Bon Appetit, Gourmet’s stable of advertisers and loyal readers had simply “poofed”.

“Some business analysts speculate that Condé Nast’s plan is to move Gourmet’s readers to Bon Appetit.  Subscribers, unless they protested, became subscribers to Bon Appetit instead. It is unclear yet if this will work for the company. The two readerships often sneered at each other across dinner tables. Gourmet was more upscale than Bon Appetit, aimed at a highly-educated market, who wouldn’t be caught dead holding a copy of ‘Bon Appetit’ in their hands. Bon Appetit, while aimed at affluent people like Gourmet, is considered more “accessible” and has simple recipes with few intellectual or execution challenges to them.

When Gourmet was closed, observers expected an industry food fight. Bon Appétit’s circulation was forecast to bloom as it absorbed former readers of Gourmet, and other magazines began eyeing Gourmet’s list of more than 900,000 subscribers. Though Gourmet was not thick with ad pages, its advertisers were expected to jump to competing high-end food magazines, like Food & Wine, Saveur and Bon Appetit. Half a year after Gourmet’s final issue, in November, the Gourmet readership and ad base seem to have largely vanished.” ^[25]Clifford, Stephanie. Fans of Gourmet Magazine Accept No Stand-Ins. New York Times. 16 May 2010.

In June 2010, Condé Nast announced that by the end of 2010, Gourmet Magazine would be revived for Apple Computer’s iPad. The magazine as an app for iPad was released publicly on 23 September 2010, in Apple’s iTunes store.  ^[26]Schramm, Mike. Gourmet magazine to return as iPad app. Engadget.com. 22 June 2010. Accessed August 2019 at https://www.engadget.com/2010/06/22/gourmet-magazine-to-return-as-ipad-app/ .

Kemp Minifie, formerly of the Gourmet Magazine food department, implied in an email that it was a new bunch of people doing the app: “‘Gourmet Live’, an app, is due out any day but I’m not involved in that. CNP farmed it out to another company altogether.” ^[27]Kemp Minifie. Email to Sarah Moulton. September 2010. Accessed August 2019 at https://saramoulton.com/2010/09/gourmet-magazine-is-back-in-a-new-form/

The app lasted for a few years then disappeared. (An app called Gourmet Traveller currently in the app store as of 2019 is for an Australian magazine and has nothing to do with Gourmet.)

At the same time, a website called Gourmet Live was launched in 2010 at live.gourmet.com. A few years later, the web site disappeared, with the URL pointing readers instead to Epicurious.

Gourmet Magazine Timeline

• 1940 — First Issue
• 1943 — Founder Earle R. MacAusland assumes chief editor position
• 1945 — Move into offices in Plaza Hotel, New York City
• 1965 — After twenty years, Gourmet Magazine leaves its offices in the Plaza Hotel for new quarters in Times Square, where it acquires its first ever test kitchen
• 1980 — MacAusland dies. Jane Montant becomes chief editor.
• 1983 — Chief in-house photographer Luis Lemus dies. He is replaced by Romulo Yanes.
• 1991 — Montant retires. Gail Zweigenthal becomes chief editor.
• 1999 — Zweigenthal. Ruth Reichl becomes chief editor, the first ever from outside Gourmet’s ranks
• 2009 — Condé Nast kills Gourmet Magazine

Some notable people who worked or wrote for Gourmet Magazine

• Clementine Paddleford
• Craig Claiborne (1920 – 2000) once worked there as a receptionist
• David Rosengarten (1950 – ) was a popular reviewer, if only because readers read him to be infuriated by his attitudes
• Jane (1946 – ) and Michael (1947 – ) Stern did series on road food in the United Stes
• Joseph Wechsberg (1907 – 1983) wrote for Gourmet for almost 40 years. He was the first person to write extensively on mineral-water in the magazine, in 1970.
• Laurie Colwin (1944 – 1992), the novelist, was loved by many for her warm approach to food
• Ray Bradbury (1920 – ) began his novel “Dandelion Wine” as a piece for Gourmet Magazine in June 1953
• Robert P. Tristram (1892 – 1995) wrote articles on hunting and fishing in Maine

Editors-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine

• Pearl V. Mezelthin (1941–1943)
• Earle R. MacAusland (1943–1980)
• Jane Montant (1980–March 1991)
• Gail Zweigenthal (April 1991–March 1999)
• Ruth Reichl (March 1999– November 2009)

“Gourmet’s first editor, Pearl Metzelthin… was born in the United States, raised in Germany and Poland, married to a German diplomat, and stationed in China. She spoke many languages, had studied nutrition, and helped design cooking equipment for airliners in the early days of commercial air travel. Before she became Gourmet’s editor, she had capitalized on her globetrotting past by writing The World Wide Cook Book, published in 1939. ^[28]Smith, Andrew F., ed. Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City. Page 214.

Jane Montant had started work at Gourmet in 1953, answering correspondence that came in from subscribers. ^[29]Jane Montant, 85; Led Gourmet Magazine in Period of Growth. Los Angeles Times. 17 January 2002.

Gail Zweigenthal had started at Gourmet in 1965.

Maggie / flickr / 2009 / CC BY 2.0

Literature & Lore

“Whenever I get married I start buying Gourmet magazine.” — Nora Ephron

“Si Newhouse, Lord of all Condé Nast, has, it seems, this thing about garlic. So by personal Newhousian decree, there is to be no garlic used in the [Condé Nast] cafeteria. ”We have garlic in our [Gourmet test] kitchens,” announced Ms. Reichl, proudly seditious.” — Kifner, John. A Passion for Food, Now Served Monthly. New York Times. 2 February 2001.

Videos

1988 Gourmet Magazine Commercial

Ruth Reichl on her days at the helm of Gourmet

The Life and Death of Gourmet Magazine. Janice Bluestein Longone, University of Michigan. (Link valid as of August 2019)

Gourmet Magazine Resources Online

Links below valid as of March 2022:

• Gourmet magazine recipes archive
• Gourmet magazine archives (note: 1980s and 1990s are not online)
• Pinterest page dedicated to Gourmet Magazine covers
• The Lost Christmas Recipes of Gourmet

Further reading

The Life and Death of Gourmet: The Magazine of Good Living, January1941-November 2009 (Longone, Jan; Fileti, Cecilia; Krezel, Lili; Nesbit, Joanne. University of Michigan Library 2014.

Sources

Business Wire. America’s First Food Magazine Turns 60. New York: Business Wire Magazine. 28 August 2001.

Gross, Terry. Interview with Ruth Reichl. Ruth Reichl: A New Book And The End Of ‘Gourmet’. Aired 14 October 2009. Transcript retrieved July 2010 from http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=113758495

Johns, Chris and Alexandra Gill. The death of Gourmet. Toronto: The Globe and Mail. 6 October 2009.

MacNicol, Glynnis. McKinsey Bell Tolls: Condé To Shutter Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride. 5 October 2009. Retrieved July 2010 from http://www.mediaite.com/online/mckinsey-bell-tolls-conde-to-shut-gourmet-cookie-modern-bride/

Reichl, Ruth. Editor. Endless Feasts: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet. New York: Random House. 2002.

Vanacore, Andrew. Gourmet Magazine Ceases Publication. Toronto, Canada: The Globe and Mail. 5 October 2009.

Times Critic Will Become Editor of Gourmet. The New York Times. 26 January 1999.

Wortham, Jenna. Gourmet Magazine Revived for the iPad. New York Times. 22 June 2010.