Customer Rating:
Summary: GOURMET FOOD WITHOUT BEING INTIMIDATING
Comment: I will be brief. I received this as a gift and am not a hobby or any other type of gourmet cook. However, I am impressed. It is well put together- great articles, supported by high quality photography and recipes that so surprisingly, are not intimidating. My college age daughter, now ever so sensitive to good quality food versus poor quality food was drawn to the magazine. I have ordered her a subscription for Christmas. Don't tell. :)

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The person I purchased this magazine for says...
Comment: Amazon offered me a deal I just couldn't refuse. Even though I wasn't personally interested in Gourmet Magazine, I knew someone who was. And this was an inexpensive way to show her my appreciation. And this is what she had to say when I asked her for a short review:

"I have enjoyed this magazine but the recipes are over my head. I am going to try one of the cheesecake desserts - has blackberries on it but it uses more expensive ingredients than what I am used to. For example, mascarpone cheese rather than cream cheese. I have enjoyed the articles and getting the chance to enjoy the issues I did receive so far!!! :-) 'Two Thumbs Up'"

Now this was from a person who is a cooking enthusiast, and good at it, even though she is a school teacher by profession.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: More Advertising Than Writing and Recipes
Comment: I have been a Ruth Reichl fan since her days at the LA Times (and her three autobiographies are exceptionally written), but I do not understand what she has done with this magazine. My chief complaint is the number of pages of advertising vs. the number of pages of writing and recipes. After finishing an issue, I feel assaulted by multi-page adver-torials from wine companies, cruise ships, and anyone else willing to fork over big $$$ to convince me how environmentally responsible they are. I never come away excited about food or ingredients or culture or a new dinner idea. Bon Appetit, on the other hand, has modernized and stylized its page layout, coverage and relationship with the reader. Yes, they, too, have a ton of ad pages, but I can overlook them better when almost every page of content is a joy. BA, I will be renewing my sub next year!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Textbook Case of Why The Magazine Is Dead
Comment: Gourmet- it's the food magazine that you don't want to be seen reading. It's precious, pedantic, and short on prose. The energy that came with editor Ruth Reichl was palpable a few years ago. Heads rolled, and after a few surprises , it has now settled into horribly written articles, pious editorials, unappealing recipes and a virtual altar for foodies. It is not relevant or interesting except to a very narrowly focused group of food intelligentsia. If a magazine is not capable of surprising you, teaching you, or exposing you to the world we live in, what's the point? If someone reads Gourmet fifty years from now, they will have no idea of what kind of culture we live in. Fear and hatred of food, smart foods, packaged dinners, frozen food, unaffordable food...the list goes on. Gourmet is in a bubble of their own making. Maybe they actually want to attend the staged parties they create in every issue complete with models vainly attempting to eat a sparerib.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not quite what I expected
Comment: Although this magazine has beautiful pictures of food, the recipes are a little over my head. I wanted something a little simpler and not quite so - well, what the magazine is called - GOURMET. This would be good for someone who has a lot of time to cook and appreciates gourmet dishes.

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