Thank You, Gourmet

A class visit this past spring led to an interview, which led to the call of every food writing student’s dream: “We’d like to offer you a summer internship.” This moment should have made me anxious, but I didn’t at all feel the pressures I had expected. I felt as if I were about to join people who saw the world as it was. This half floor of Condé Nast was a safe, sane place—devoid of devils in Prada, unrealistic expectations, and flashy consumer-driven agendas. A place for the sharing and swapping of stories and recipes. Of debating and supporting and goofing around with one another—a composite of attitudes you’d find in someone’s home and the ‘back of the house.’

Ruth Reichl seemed to have created an atmosphere with every possible personality type, staffers deriving from very different backgrounds—educations, career paths, cultures. Literary types mixed with culinary experts. Editors who’d been there way before Ruth and those who’d joined just a year ago. Texas, New Orleans, California, Tennessee could all be traced back as hometowns. Part-time farmers, former chefs, and even a former man-of-Wall Street.

Business casual was very interpretive. I went in with the pencil skirt and preppy, bow-tied sweater, but quickly learned that jeans and a simple button-down made more sense. One editor, a former poet and culinary school grad, mostly wore band t-shirts. He could write, fast and well, and he knew food. Honest, with a sense of humor. And that’s what mattered.

Downstairs, in the kitchens, it was chef coats all the way, but the food was anything but straight-laced. A new web feature, The Test Kitchen Challenge, had the test kitchen chefs facing off to create both a savory and a sweet dish for a specially chosen ingredient. The first, avocado, was mixed with agar agar, set into straws, and sent to the freezer to make avocado pasta, topped with onions and tomato—an appetizer of deconstructed guacamole. “Sweeet,” the chef’s voice inclined, excited as the avocado squeezed smoothly out of the straw to form a perfect noodle. The second dish involved an avocado mouse that was set to a creamy, airy crème brulée.

As an intern this summer, I worked under the supervision of their Special Projects Editor, Jacqueline Terrebonne. Along with overseeing major public relations, her main job was manning the Gourmet Cookbook Club and the new public television show, Gourmet’s Adventures with Ruth (premiered October 17th and scheduled to continue). Picking cookbooks for the Cookbook Club was a complete democratic decision. Everyone took the selections home—not just the test kitchen chefs, but the food editors, interns, editorial assistants. Everyone. And if everyone didn’t love them, they didn’t make it.

The same went for the recipes developed for the magazine. When the test kitchen chefs felt like they were on to something, a “taste” would be called. We’d get a phone call upstairs to come on down, grab a plate and hash it out. Good? Cross-test it, and we’ll try it again. Each station was set up exactly like a home kitchen, with the technical capacity of a tiny apartment and only ingredients the average home cook could easily access.

Jacqueline gave me more than a window’s view. I was able to research for the show and test recipes for the cookbooks. But besides the technical experience, she led an example for good work ethic. Before getting down to business, she will always ask you how things are going, how you’re doing. Over the phone, she’ll ask colleagues how their family is doing. And when it comes down to deadline, she’s completely clear-eyed, allowing for the productivity of a major magazine with the heart of a small one. I have so much to thank her for. To thank all of them for.
Ruth was in and out of the office all summer, traveling for the new show. But upon her arrivals, she always had something to share. Back from Tennessee, she gave Ian Knauer, one of the food editors, a packet of heirloom corn seeds for his garden. This was the day he introduced himself and offered me some as well. “I heard bunnies got to your crop of corn.” They had. He opened the packet and poured out a handful.

Daily tales of foraging, traveling, farming and straight home cooking were posted on the web—editors sharing their true love for food in all its intricacies, wonders and, sometimes, frustrations (e.g., cooking eggplant so that it doesn’t shred, brown or mush). That’s probably what I’ll miss most—getting behind the food, in every way.

My internship had ended in late August and I was back in upstate New York, finishing out my last semester at Ithaca College, when I got a disconcerting text message, “Did you hear about Gourmet?” I ran to a computer, found the Times article, and began to read the news. It was like reading an obituary.

Within days, the office was emptied out and the website was taken over—the subscribe button removed, ads added, and a message posted of Condé Nast’s plans to cease its publication. The fate of the website was left undetermined, recipes would be moved to epicurious.com, and subscriptions would automatically be switched to Bon Appétit—a gesture that could only be read as a slap in the face. I began copying my favorite recipes and articles from the web to keep my own archive.

Just walking in the offices of Gourmet this summer, you could feel an energy and an understanding for the way things are and the ways things could be. The way to get them done, and done right—not perfectly, but authentically, honestly. I never once felt like an outsider, unable to hang out with the editors. These are just people who love food and believe in its power. My mind boggled as I thought that all their work and plans, that a 68-year run, would be shut down to a halt, screeching from its pull on mid-2010. Just imagining my former supervisor’s face. No, there won’t be any Christmas cookies this year and there won’t be any more recipe testing. The major political story on tomato growers of March 2009 will be the last major political story they can share with the public.

I shifted from confusion to anger, from sadness to bewilderment, to hope. Because talent, passion, and prestige like this would find other outlets. They just wouldn’t be able to do it as a family.

You can find more Gourmet tributes at thankyougourmet.com.

Book Review: Pattern Factory

Painted lace, paisley with skulls, inkblot glassware, and a numerically-wrapped one-seater sofa. Pattern Factory (released yesterday) reads like a museum of design, exhibiting a menagerie of sketches and graphics applied to our most contemporary garb and decor (i.e. the iconic Louis Vuitton bag).

You'll also find a chapter featuring Q&As with artists and pattern-makers in their studios. And at the end of the book, if you feel so inspired, there's a CD-ROM with 85 original, royalty-free patterns to fill your think tank.

Top Street Food in NY

I stand corrected. This week at Gourmet, it's Street Food Week. And here are the best street vendors in New York. They've also tackled Philadelphia, Seattle, and Portland, OR. (Not Portland, ME, which was just highlighted in Bon Appétit and the New York Times, for its growing potential as the foodiest small town in America.)

Portland, ME vs. Portland, OR? The tough judging, I think, will come for the best street food in Southeast Asia (check back Thursday); the area's food is based on not much else, so pinpointing the best will not be easy.

(image via Gourmet.com)

Best Part of Summer

The rain this summer has been such a killer for tomatoes, but somehow with this streak of sunny weather, they turned out just fine. Actually, I ended up with too many and decided to make sauce. And the surprise crop was...
Sunflowers! I still can't believe their size--seems to defy gravity.

How to Cook in a Hotel

So, once upon a time, British comedian George Egg thought it a great idea to prove he could cook better than the fully-staffed room-service kitchen down below, and made himself dinner and breakfast using some resourceful tools found in his hotel room.
(via Serious Eats)

The Selby Paris Book

Remember the Housing Works bookstore? Great, because it just received signed copies of Todd Selby's book, The Selby Paris, featuring his best Paris photos. This would be the book's second edition (only 600 copies printed in NYC); the first edition was released in Paris back in April.

Just like anything sold in Housing Works, proceeds for this will go to support AIDS relief. You can also buy it online, if you're not in New York.

Not Becoming My Mother

On the last day of the internship at Gourmet, my mentor handed me a copy of editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl's new book, Not Becoming My Mother. Whether because of its petit, diary-like size or the notoriously frank and endearing voice of its writer, I finished the book in a single afternoon.

It mainly works to (1) tell her mother's story and (2) tell the story of so many other women of her mother's generation--bored, intelligent women with no available outlet. But no matter the time period, there is something universal in deciding whether to abide or avoid your mother's advice; to use her life as a model or a cautionary tale.

And Reichl does something we all wish we could do: envision our mothers pre-motherhood and learn to respect and understand their choices, whether we agree with them or not. An impression grounded from childhood, she notes, is hard to shake. Ain't it the truth?

The Moonwalk Tee

I rarely buy tees, and I hardly buy anything considered "merchandise," but doesn't this shirt have a nice understated, respectful feeling to it? Sheer white jersey with black and white crystals, honoring the moment Jackson moonwalked live on stage for the first time.

(via Leigh)

Mad Men Premiere

From the start, we knew this show would be big. With a writer from the Sopranos as its creator and the indulgently addictive time period of the 60s as its main character, how could it not? And now it's entering it's third season, tonight (AMC, 10pm).

To celebrate, Vanity Fair did a great spread in their September issue that bottles that smoky, vibrant tension between the leading couple--credit of Annie Leibovitz, of course. And you can also get a look behind the shoot.

P.S. Pair the premiere with one of these 1960s-style cocktails.

(via joanne)

Good to the Last

It's my last week interning at Gourmet (crazy), but there's plenty to look forward to in September, like these recipes from the next issue--provolone popovers, pies, and peppercorn-roasted pork with vermouth. (Getting a theme here? More to say soon.)

P.S. Bartenders who farm.

The Sartorialist Book

Street-fashion photographer, Scott Schuman (better known as The Sartorialist) has been working on a collective book to consolidate the best of his media- and fan-obsessed blog. And it finally hits bookstores, today. Pick up a copy or flip through this preview on A Cup of Jo.

Included are tidbits about the cultures he's captured (New York, India, and Sweden to name a few) and quotes from the people he's photographed (models, ex-drug dealers, polka dancers). More than just a great coffee table book.

(via A Cup of Jo)

Summer Snapshots

Lori over on Automatism has a great, summer-long project going. Every Thursday (through September) she's featuring snapshots from other bloggers that illustrate summer at its best. Yesterday was my turn; you can check it out right here, if you'd like.

Enjoy your weekends! Any plans? This Sunday, I'm planning to do some free kayaking on the Hudson River. (Thanks for the tip, Joanna!)