Closing of Gourmet not the end for foodies

Reichl

Don't tell former Gourmet editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl the closing of the venerable food magazine reflects on the food elite.

"It's one of the things that drives me crazy," Reichl said in a phone interview while promoting the now-shuttered magazine's latest cookbook, "Gourmet Today."

"People keep talking about it as this sort of high-end place for rich people when we were the magazine that did articles about tomato workers being slaves and problems with how chickens were being killed," she said. "We were running a lot of very serious journalism."

Blaming the tough economy, Conde Nast Publications said last week that it was closing Gourmet, along with Modern Bride, Elegant Bride and parenting magazine Cookie. Conde Nast said it will focus its food publishing on Gourmet's sister magazine, Bon Appetit.

As news of the closure spread, one refrain spread fast -- the company's decision to retain the more recipe-driven Bon Appetit was indicative of Gourmet being out of touch with how Americans eat.

Reichl disputes that. Gourmet's circulation -- around 980,000 -- was up. It was ad pages that were down. That makes her feel the decision was an economic one, not based on reader disaffection.

What does the closing mean for the food scene?

"There are plenty of other epicurean magazines still around," Reichl said. "I don't think this is it for the foodies."

For now, she will continue promoting the cookbook -- more than 1,000 pages and five years in the making. "I love this book and it deserves its best shot and people deserve to have it," she said.

Meanwhile, there's a new public television show, "Gourmet's Adventures With Ruth," debuting this week. Although it's not scheduled to air in the Richmond area, you can preview it at http://www.gourmet.com and download episodes from iTunes.