Nostalgia abounds as the reality sinks in that Gourmet magazine is really gone: We'll never receive another issue in the mail. We'll never have another opportunity to crack the glossy binding holding together a new month's culinary content.
We're still adjusting to the news and no doubt you are, too. Check out this poignant photographic essay from Kevin DeMaria, the former associate art director of the magazine. It documents the offices, common areas and test kitchen of the magazine as staffers were looking back, packing up and moving out.
Some of the most notable "Gourmet" recipes never made it to the magazine. Through its 69-year run, the magazine's food editors and test kitchen staff developed hundreds of adventurous, experimental, personal and just plain luscious recipes that for one reason or another escaped the print edition. With Gourmet.com's 2008 launch, multimedia supplements to magazine features, test kitchen video throw-downs, staffers' favorites and perusals of family archives afforded the opportunity to showcase Web-exclusive content, and a chance to serve up these recipes to their more cyber-savvy readers.
Though an Oct. 13 Tweet by the magazine's Executive Editor John Willoughby advised followers to "Go to gourmet.com, copy Web-exclusive recipes that will disappear: strawberry dumpling, banana upside down cake, curried pork noodles, etc.", Slashfood has been told by other Condé Nast insiders that after the magazine's recent, sudden shuttering, the future of Gourmet.com content remains uncertain, save for mag-published recipes that will be migrated to sister site Epicurious.com.
We're not taking any chances. We've clicked our way through 300-plus Web-exclusive recipes from October 2005 to September 2009 to find the 25 you simply must copy, paste and collect before they're (possibly) lost to the ages.
Todd English and Erica Wang.
Photo: David X Prutting,
PatrickMcMullan.com
Todd English is speaking out for the first time since calling off his wedding to Erica Wang.
"I couldn't go through with it," the 49-year-old chef of Olives told People. "I thought I'd met my partner, but as things progressed [it] went down hill."
English has appeared on "Iron Chef America" and PBS's "Cooking Under Fire."
In the People interview, English accused his jilted fiancee of "physical and verbal abuse" and allegedly hitting him in the eye in September. The New York Post reports Thursday that English visited a New York City police precinct to report the allegations.
But she denied the abuse allegations to the New York Post earlier this week, telling the paper that English has left her without a job (she was his personal assistant) and an apartment, and forced her to pay $12,000 for wedding expenses.
"An animal wouldn't treat another animal the way he has treated me," Wang told the Post. "He is forgetting I am human. I don't deserve this. He has caused me, my friends and family so much pain."
Slashfood reported on Oct. 5 that Wang had thrown a party despite the nuptials being called off.
The magazine, owned by Conde Nast, has been published since December 1940. Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride are also slated for closure, the paper said.
"Thank you all SO much for this outpouring of support," Ruth Reichl, the magazine's editor in chief, said Monday afternoon on Twitter. "It means a lot. Sorry not to be posting now, but I'm packing. We're all stunned, sad."
The cuts come after a three-month study by McKinsey & Co., which looked at the publishing company's costs, the Times said.
In an e-mail obtained by Gawker, Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend said Gourmet will live on through television and books. "Gourmet magazine will cease monthly publication, but we will remain committed to the brand, retaining Gourmet's book publishing and television programming, and Gourmet recipes on Epicurious.com," he wrote. "We will concentrate our publishing activities in the epicurean category on Bon Appétit."
Drew Schutte, a senior vice president at Conde Nast Digital, said Gourmet.com would "remain up at least through the end of the year," Mediaite reports.
Sources tell Slashfood that staff has to be out of building by the end of day Tuesday.
Leave your thoughts about Gourmet's demise in the comments below.
In the savory round, watch Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez make zucchini shoestring "fries" as a decadent topping for a "zucchini three ways" salad and competitor Andrea Albin whip up some spicy zucchini fritters with basil-mayo dipping sauce. We'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not Albin's performance-enhancing drug -- bacon -- gave her an unfair advantage over her opponent.
In the sweets round Eriquez appeared to have a stronghold on Albin when she "pulled out the guns" with her zucchini whoopie pies. (Click the video to see how she pulled it off.) But what better way to wash down a zucchini whoopie pie -- or five -- than with Albin's zucchini lime tequila slushie?
Check out the video, vote for your favorite and let us know who you think won and why in the comments.
Couldn't swing a trip to Food & Wine Magazine's Classic in Aspen this year? S'okay -- we've got you covered. Kick back with a glass of bubbly and some schmancy nibbles, bookmark this post and keep on checking back for real-time Twitter coverage from the event. Keep up with pictures from the red carpet and around the festival here.
Another day, another list. This time, it's Anthony Bourdain's "13 Places to Eat Before You Die," which appears in the June issue of Men's Health. Bourdain's article shouts out restaurants and stores across the globe, from New York's smoked fish shrine Russ & Daughters to Spain's gourmand ground zero, elBulli.
Bourdain acknowledges that as "any seasoned traveler can tell you, the 'best' meals on the planet are the result of an ephemeral confluence of circumstances," and makes convincing arguments for each of his picks, which also include Kansas City, Kan.'s Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue, Tokyo's Sukiyabashi Jiro and London's St. John.
But even with the disclaimer and rationale behind Bourdain's choices, plenty are as likely to find fault with his logic (and apparently abundant frequent flier miles) as they are with a list proclaiming, say, the best pizza places in the U.S. We have the text of the article so you can weigh in on Bourdain's hits -- and misses -- after the jump.
"Loco for locavorism" might sound like some bizarro play on an old TV ad, but the phrase carries some heft these days, if the crowd at last night's Brooklyn Uncorked was any indication. The sip-and-nibble-fest in honor of local goods was jam-packed with tipsy oenophiles clutching wine glasses and munching on local pickles (garlicky!), rosé sorbet (brilliant!) and buzzed-about turkey meatloaf (by the time we got there, gone!). Dozens of local restaurants, wineries and producers were on the premises: as one sign bragged, no vinos were made more than a two-hour drive from Brooklyn.
Hyperlocalism isn't local to New York City, either. Edible Communities, whose Edible Brooklyn hosted the tasting, boasts more than 50 publications from Missoula, Wash., to Santa Fe, N.M. All feature the same bright, minimalistic food-focused design touting "local foods, season by season." If you believe that New York hearkens nationwide trends, well, like the Brooklyn Food Conference before it, this event was sold-out and about as crowded as could be.
We'll be live-Twittering tonight's James Beard Media Awards and Monday's Restaurant Awards, so follow along @slashfood. Meanwhile, snack on these links to the nominated articles, recipes, reviews, food sections, sites, blogs and books.
Journalism Awards
For articles published in English in 2008.
Newspaper Feature Writing About Restaurants And/Or Chefs
Yeah, it's a teensy bit Inside Baseball for the fooderati, but we got a big kick out of seeing our favorite Gourmet staffers (Wuzzap, Terrebonne? Lookin' fresh, Knauer and Houghtaling!) in a cute 'n campy Gourmet.com video sending up Editor-In-Chief Ruth Reichl's '90s tenure as an undercover restaurant critic for the New York Times.
Reichl's penchant for wearing outlandish disguises to protect her dwindling anonymity was the underpinning of her 2005 memoir Garlic and Sapphires, but somehow we doubt even she would have the quenelles to stomp into the Four Seasons' Pool Room wearing quite this much codpiece.
As if molecular gastronomy wasn't sci-fi enough, Dwell magazine now ponders the kitchens of the future, with engrossing photos and interviews. San Francisco chef Daniel Patterson envisions a place where sous vide coexists happily with medieval touches like an open fireplace and a root cellar, whereas designer Scott Hudson foresees "unified systems" instead of unrelated bits and pieces (no hodgepodge appliances and fixtures for him!).
It's a fanciful and fascinating survey of ideas, and while we're wowed by the idea of laser-carved countertops and Pacojets, we're warmed by architect and interior designer Antonio Citterio's insistence that a futuristic kitchen shouldn't be a cold and clinical one: "To cook is to make a mess," he says. "Life is messy!"
We'll tip our tomato sauce-splattered caps to that.
You do follow our Twitter @slashfood, don'tcha? The Food & Wine Magazine's Best New Chefs festivities commence at 6:30 p.m. on April 1, and Food & Wine Editor-In-Chief Dana Cowin has been dropping devilish little hints about the winners via Twitter all day long. First person to solve the mystery wins two tickets to tomorrow night's event.
Won't you Tweet with us? If we're really lucky, we'll even post some red-hot guest chef David Chang or "Top Chef" winner Harold Dieterle cell-phone camera action.
Twit-tip: Follow all Best New Chefs posts using #BNC
Writing on Spirits, Wine, or Beer: Jon Bonné (San Francisco Chronicle), Jay McInerney (Men's Vogue), Alan Richman (GQ)
Food-Related Columns: Dorie Greenspan (Bon Appétit), Corby Kummer (The Atlantic) and Laura Shapiro (Gourmet.com)
Nutrition/Food-Related Issues: Barry Estabrook (Gourmet), Mark Adams, et al (New York Magazine), Rachael Moeller Gorman (EatingWell)
Restaurant Reviews: Jonathan Gold (LA Weekly), Adam Platt (New York Magazine) and Tom Sietsema (The Washington Post)
Magazine Feature Writing w/o Recipes: Alan Richman (GQ), Patricia Sharpe (Texas Monthly), Monique Truong (Gourmet) Magazine Feature with Recipes: Edna Lewis (Gourmet)*published posthumously, David Dobbs and John Ash (EatingWell), James Peterson (Saveur)
Magazine Feature Writing about Restaurants and/or Chefs: Ruth Reichl (Gourmet), Alan Richman (Departures), Anya von Bremzen (Food & Wine)
Newspaper Food Section: Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and The Washington Post
Newspaper Feature w/ Recipes: Rebekah Denn (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), David Leite (New York Times), Kathleen Purvis (Charlotte Observer)
Newspaper Feature w/o Recipes: Monica Eng (Chicago Tribune), Kristen Hinman (Riverfront Times) and Craig LaBan (The Philadelphia Inquirer) Newspaper Feature about Restaurants and/or Chefs: Monica Eng/Phil Vettel(Chicago Trib), Katy McLaughlin (WSJ), Tom Sietsema (The Wash Post)
MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award: Celia Barbour (O, The Oprah Magazine), Aleksandra Crapanzano (Gourmet), Alan Richman (GQ) Restaurant, Cookbook and Media Awards nominees are after the jump.
Making buttermilk mashed potatoes can easily go wrong. The buttermilk can curdle, and too much butter can obscure the buttermilk flavor. Check out these easy tactics to prevent such problems.
"Loco for locavorism" might sound like some bizarro play on an old TV ad, but the phrase carries some heft these days, if the crowd at last night's Brooklyn Uncorked was any indication. The sip-and-nibble-fest in honor of local goods was jam-packed with tipsy oenophiles clutching wine glasses and munching on local pickles (garlicky!), rosé sorbet (brilliant!) and buzzed-about turkey meatloaf (by the time we got there, gone!). Dozens of local restaurants, wineries and producers were on the premises: as one sign bragged, no vinos were made more than a two-hour drive from Brooklyn. 
We'll be live-Twittering tonight's James Beard Media Awards and Monday's Restaurant Awards, so follow along @slashfood. Meanwhile, snack on these links to the nominated articles, recipes, reviews, food sections, sites, blogs and books.
What Can I Get You Folks? - Server Revenge
Reality-Show Celebrities Serve Up Chef Curtis Stone's 'Hundred-Dollar Burger'
Foods Celebrity Chefs Hate
