And so, if I could, I’d paint this!
I have been collecting food magazines forever. As a matter of fact, I have boxes of Gourmet from the 70s in my attic that I moved here from our previous home 15 years ago. I have to admit that it gives me anxiety to think about parting with these as I consider them some form of my own personal library. People don’t throw away books from the library do they? Anyway, I got to thinking about this today and I have to say that my favorite defunct food publication is Waitrose Food Illustrated from Britain. I have long been a fan of British magazines – not just food but home and garden as well. I just think they do some things extremely well over across the pond, honestly, way better than we do (textiles, too!). That may seem somewhat contradictory since Food Illustrated is, in fact, defunct. But, haven’t we seen some great food publications go by the wayside for the wrong reasons in the past few years?
Anyway, one of my most favorite things about this magazine are the “illustrations” or watercolors by Emma Dibben which appeared in each issue. Here is a selection of those that I just love. Unfortunately, I have no talent in this regard, otherwise I would try to replicate these or at least try my hand at producing something interesting in this genre – but drawing and painting, well, let’s just say I didn’t get that gene. I can do camera, but not paintbrush. Aren’t these great?
Can’t someone get this back in business?
All of this goes by way of saying that food publications are a fickle thing – they seem to come and go and I guess you could say, they represent the changing times – but do they lead or follow? All of this leaves me with lingering questions – like, why did Bon Appetit survive and Gourmet left? I don’t get it, really.
So, as time has marched on and we now live in the time of “the death of print” and everyone is online all day – reading, shopping, socializing, researching, “talking”, stalking. But, the bottom line point here is this: we are more obsessed with media than ever, aren’t we? We carry around our smart phones and blackberries and check in for mail, news, facebook updates, messages, emails, voicemails, and then basically spend the rest of the day online in one form or another, or have the tv on in the background, the radio on in the car…. and then, we take pictures of things with our phones that in the past we would have not because we didn’t have a camera with us – but now we have a camera present all of the time – and can take videos, too! While my perspective is probably somewhat different – I was actually alive when tv first became “real” and have witnessed this evolution, I do find it fascinating to see what we do with all of this “live feed”.
As time has gone on, have we morphed or exploded? have we morphed AND exploded? This is just another one of those anthropological questions, I guess …. on one hand we now have a multitude of “Edible” publications, celebrating the local food movement across the country and growing as we speak – in places big and small – wonderful, yet, we can’t sustain the Waitrose Food Illustrated genre, which I, for one, think is incredibly valuable…… Hmmm… I guess this is all somewhat random. I for one, still love the tangible – the book, the magazine, the tactile satisfaction of the “hard copy”. But, at the same time I have 607 pictures saved on my phone. There are more cookbooks than ever online and in stores( – I have 4 that are coming out in late October on my “to order list”), hard copy and online, there are millions of food blogs and information about all elements of food issues everywhere. I don’t even have enough time to peruse all of these things. But, it begs the question, if all of these outlets are indeed generating income, otherwise they would be defunct as well, can’t we keep the best of the best alive? And so, the question, what is value, what is valuable, what is talent? Hate to use that over-used moniker, but…. Just food for thought……..
Just as an aside – I saw a recipe in last week’s People magazine for a lemon tart from Thomas Keller – it called for a store-bought graham cracker crust – seriously, does anyone believe that Thomas Keller has ever bought, used or thought about store-bought graham cracker crusts? The recipe looked great and I will try it, but, come on.
Have a lovely day……..weather is indeed inspiring!!!!!!!!