The Last Gourmet

It came today in the mail; my very last copy of Gourmet Magazine. I held it in my hands for a moment, still in its protective plastic mailer and nodded, sighed, and set it down on my desk. The glistening and golden brown Thanksgiving turkey on the front cover stared back at me. An accidentally ominous subscription card poked out from beneath the magazine: "Last Chance Offer For Gourmet Subscribers", it read.

It was like finding a message on your answering machine left by a friend the day before they suddenly and unexpectedly died. Even they thought they would be here tomorrow, but 'the powers that be' had other plans and snatched them away without warning.

I wanted to leave it there in its austere wrapping, inner subscription cards intact, and never open it, leaving for someone else to unwrap years from now. But, like that lost friend, I had to read the last words, see the last photos. I had to breathe in that new magazine smell one last time from within its still-stiff and brand new pages.

Once I'm done reading cover to cover, like always, I'll put it away on the same shelf the others are on, but it won't stay there - none of them do. I'll take it down over and over again to reference a recipe or story, and enjoy it each and every time, but maybe a little more than the rest simply because it is ... the last Gourmet.

My Favorite Food Magazine

I read a lot of food and cooking magazines and while I like many of them, I truly love Saveur. Here are just a few of the reasons why:


1. They vindicate me and strip away my guilt;

I can now proudly say that I have been washing mushrooms for years.

I no longer feel like a lazy git for being happy about my Christmas gift of an Electric Carving Knife ('First' article by Dana Bowen).


2. Their photos make me want to dive into the page and eat through to the other side.


3. They scour the planet to come up with the most unusual out-of-the-way wonders ever.


4. The cookbook reviews have caused me to buy several new books; this can be seen as good or bad, depending on my fiscal situation at the time.


5. The recipes. I don't even know where to start. You must go and have a look for yourself. From the familiar to the obscure, and everything in-between.


6. There is no fear in sharing recipes that use lard, publishing an entire issue about pasta, steak or butter, or revealing regional snacks that may not be very good for you, but are too good not to share.


7. The Saveur 100 issues.


They are a magazine after my very heart. There isn't one article I don't read, and each captivates me and takes me somewhere new or calls to me with a familiarity that feels like a well-worn and much-loved blanket. If I'm not learning from the pages within, I'm nodding in agreement and astounded that there are others alive that think about food the way I do. I'll never stop reading.