By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY
Dawn Jackson Blatner of Chicago has been reading Gourmet magazine for several years and was sad to hear that the November issue will be the last one.
But the truth is, when she wants to find a new recipe these days, she often goes online. Just the other day she searched the Internet for a simple tomato soup recipe. "Out popped a million entries," she says.
Bonnie Taub-Dix, a New York City mother of three who loves to cook, says she reads "cooking magazines and cookbooks like other people read novels." She devours her favorites from cover to cover. But she, too, surfs the Net for recipes and information.
Last week, Condé Nast announced that it would stop publishing Gourmet, which was launched in 1941 and has been the darling of food devotees for decades. Throughout its history, the magazine focused on America's unfolding culinary scene, pitching articles toward an upscale audience.
Today's economy and dwindling advertising revenue were at work against Gourmet, but the bigger picture is that the food world has changed. People such as Blatner and Taub-Dix who love to cook now have a dizzying array of choices when they're looking for information and recipes. They can search online, watch cooking shows, flip through personality-driven magazines, read food blogs.
It's a world of celebrity chefs, social networking and recipe cyber-swapping, specialized niche websites and blogs, ingredients of all sorts easily ordered online.
Television has been one of the most powerful forces in this new world, rocketing to stardom such cooking gurus as Rachael Ray, Sandra Lee, Paula Deen, Christopher Kimball, Bobby Flay and Buddy Valastro, the Cake Boss.
"The Food Network is like MTV was in the '80s," says Lee, host of Sandra's Money Saving Meals and Semi-Homemade Cooking With Sandra Lee.
Just good eating
The TV chefs and their shows have distinct personalities that appeal to their particular fans.
For instance, Ray, bubbly host of the Food Network's 30 Minute Meals With Rachael Ray and editorial director of her own magazine, Every Day With Rachael Ray, says she believes fans of her cooking show are attracted to it because of its accessibility and her "can do" attitude.
"We want people to be successful with recipes and not intimidated by their kitchens," she says. "When you are done with a recipe from our shows or magazine, it should look like the picture. Our recipes are that easy, and you don't need any specific skills to make them."
And Deen, down-home star of the Food Network's Paula's Best Dishes and Paula's Home Cooking and editor of her own magazine, says viewers are attracted to her shows because she's "not fancy and more like their neighbor and family. I cook real-people food. I like to talk about issues that affect the everyday person who is trying to keep it together for their family."
Kimball takes an almost scientific approach. The bow-tied host of PBS' America's Test Kitchen and founder and editor of Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines says the challenge for food magazines and TV shows in this new world "is to create a brand that is unique."
His focus is on testing recipes to make the best possible dish. Some recipes are tried 50 times or more. The magazines also give test-kitchen tips, explanations of why the chefs prepared the dish the way they did and make-ahead advice.
Kimball says the goal is to make great food and explain where things can go wrong. "We explain why bad things can happen to good recipes. Our readers want to understand why we are doing things."
Michael Clinton of Hearst Magazines, which publishes the Food Network Magazine, says he was amazed by the star power of the celebrity chefs at a recent food and wine festival.
"When Bobby Flay walked in, you would have thought Sting arrived. When Paula Deen walked in, you would have thought Elizabeth Taylor arrived."
When Lee meets fans, they often ask to have their photo taken with her, and they pepper her with questions, she says. "When people walk up to me, I'm expecting them to ask me for some information. In grocery stores they do. They want to know — if I don't have X, can I use Y? If I don't have Y, can I use Z? They'll say, 'My son doesn't like this kind of cheese. What could I use instead of it in that recipe?"
One reason there has been such an explosion of food information is that today "everybody is a foodie," says Lee, who also is editor of her own magazine and author of three new cookbooks.
And it's all more personal now. There's a wide range of publications, TV shows and websites because there's a wide range of opinions and tastes, she says.
Make it fast, make it healthy
So what do foodies today want? "They want it quick, and they want it healthy," Lee says. "We have a triple A factor: It has to be aspirational, accessible and affordable."
Lisa Gosselin, editorial director of EatingWell magazine, says nutrition has become increasingly important to many consumers, and the amount of time they have to prepare meals has shortened considerably.
"For many people," she says, "cooking has become 'What is going to be good for me, what is going to be good for my family and how can I prepare something that is going to be fresh, quick and healthy?' "
Most of EatingWell's recipes take less than 45 minutes to make and use about 12 ingredients, she says.
"What Gourmet covered and the recipes they presented might have represented what was the forefront of a trend but may not be what you cook for dinner on a Tuesday night."
People want practical food preparation, so EatingWell's recipe testers grocery-shop for their own ingredients so they know which things might be hard to find, Gosselin says.
Then there's money. Ray says budget is a major factor for her readers and viewers.
"Right now we are strongly focusing on value and stretching a buck," she says. "We want people to get quality meals for their money. I think value will continue to be very important."
Deen says the economy "is definitely having an impact on how people cook for their families. People want good healthy meals at a good value. Everyone is watching the bottom line."
From farm to table
Readers today are much more aware of where their food is coming from, too, and they want their food to be from local sources as much as possible, says Barbara Fairchild, editor of Bon Appétit. "Our readers have always shopped farmers markets and what I like to call the 'fringes' of the supermarket for fresh produce, fresh fish, dairy."
People everywhere are realizing the importance of seasonality, she says. "So they want recipes and information that show working with fresh ingredients doesn't have to be any more difficult or time-consuming than using ready-made food."
Ray agrees. "Farm to table is very popular right now, and I think that trend will continue … helping put the focus back on where food is coming from."
In general, Fairchild says, what's exciting about the food world now is it's changing all the time. She says people are interested in the full range of the food experience.
That certainly applies to Chicago's Blatner, who finds the new world an exciting place where a wealth of information is available to her whenever she wants it.
"For someone like me who loves to eat food, prepare food, read about food and talk about food," she says, "it's great to have so many resources right at my fingertips."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2009-10-11-recipe-for-change_N.htm
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