my mailbox, my tastebuds, my curiousity and love of food will miss the monthly addiction called Gourmet, thank you one & all at Gourmet for years and years of satifying meals, tasty photography and well done writing
It's so sad. But thanks for these imags. And thanks, ssoooooo many, to the whoe Gourmet staff, fo these intense and beautyfull. I don't know hoew but I still hope You'll all be back soon... :-)
Such beautiful, sometimes haunting photos. The ones of the kitchen are particularly great. I found myself looking for captions so we could put faces to the names of the people who worked so hard to create such an amazing piece of history. Thank you!
Romulo Yanes was one of the first photographers in NYC to give me a chance as an assistant three years ago. I have fond memories of working in the studio and test kitchens. I learned a lot while I was there. Gourment will be missed.
while I wish no magazine had to cease production, I feel Conde Nast really picked the wrong one. Gourmet is already missed. I hope you all land great jobs and your new employees appreciate you for your talent, skill and brains.
Hey Kev, thanks for posting these. If I had been thinking straight, I would've done something like this over on our side. Hope your doing well in the aftermath...
I live in a small town in Texas, close to a large city, I have been blessed to travel to many places in the U.S. and outside the country on many occasions. I love to cook and to eat good food, Gourmet has been such and inspiration and an education about fine food and wine and the big wide world out there. Thanks, Gourmet, you will be missed!
Very moving. Thank you for sharing and thank you to the team at Gourmet for sharing their passions which changed the way I looked at food forever. Best of luck to everyone, you will be sorely missed.
A sad time revisited indeed. Gourmet will be missed. Such an incredible mag. It really came as a shock on some levels and expected on others... Thanks for the incredible photos!
Still so sad. I think this was such a bad decision on the part of Conde Nast. It is so good that you took a record of these days and I thank you for sharing it. My best to you all from a long-time reader, MAV
Thank you for sharing these. They're beautiful and sad and could make an exhibit all their own.
I'm surprised how much the scenes remind me of the last days of my old newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. We were also a maze of boxes, cubicles, books, junk food, heads in hands. I guess loss is universal.
Popped over from In(side) the Loop. Very poignant photos. You should all be very proud of the work that you did for Gourmet. you will be sorely missed.
This moved me more than all the articles I've read. Thanks so much for taking the photos and posting them. It was painful enough to look at this photo essay. I can't imagine the heartache for the people involved.
Thank you for sharing, Kevin. The loss of Gourmet means a loss of the relevant, stimulating and educated discussion about food and how we think about experiencing culture through it. Having been a subscriber since Ruth Reichl took over the editorship, I have been continually been impressed by the aesthetic and art direction the magazine has honed, particularly over the past few years. Gorgeous photography -- the kind that compelled you to really gaze meaningfully into the pages, and linger -- clean and inviting layouts, thoughtful type, well organized. Thank you for making a contribution to my fond memories of a great publication.
I loved Gourmet Magazine and many recipes I adapted from its pages have become my signature dishes to bring to friends when we are sharing the preparation of a meal. I would read the issues from cover to cover.
oh, the sharp echo of an unfinished pizza and the lonely bag of skittles, the bite of the fancy soda that will go undrunk, the despair of the many boxes full of paper and pens. these photos are so trite and conceited.
Forgot to add that its nice to see the faces that made things happen. I guess thats why am sad about this one magazine considering all that have fallen.
Its a very real way to see what's happening in our industry.
Again good luck.
p.s. I am hoping you all get some of that wine. :)
Kevin, you really captured the moment. I am a tabletop prop stylist (have worked with Sara since her Cooking Live days at Food Network) and have always held Gourmet as the pinnacle publication of the food world. So sad they closed shop.
BUT
As my grandmother would say ....Onward and Upward! Go do something extraordinary!
CHEFS GO CHEAP (Poem of lines taken from the last printed issue of Gourmet, October 2009) by Katharine Showalter
I love salt To say chef Riper is buttery, briny is an understatement Desperate sampling led to swooning The result? I don't know exactly But it will be anything convivial
More here: http://www.asininepoetry.com/hopin/1545
Oh but these photos made me tear up. So stark, so sad. I can't imagine how sad it is for those who were part of making the magazine magic happen each month. Your work became part of people's lives, in the kitchen and at the dinner table. It is all sorely missed.
Thank you. Those images were sad, funny, real and they really put me in sync with that time in your transition. Thank you for that. They were very touching.
.... Conde' Nast, you chose the wrong one to close down .... too bad you chose the way of corporate idiocracy ... Gourmet was a valuable art form and you just missed it ... and so it goes, good luck on your next venture, "Popular Vacuume Cleaners"....
who cares, what a bunch of fat, self obsessed phony people you guys WERE. typical magazine creeps: writing about all this expensive food for pretentious snobs, then eating junk food all day long. who freaking cares. get a real job. do some work now. move back home to Connecticuit. Conde Nast is so OVER.
I really cherished your magazine! It took me places, taught me useful skills and allowed me the chance to make exotic dishes I might never have known about. I read it voraciously even as a child and pored through my mom's old mags to look for something fun and new to cook for my family. I live in Tokyo and bought your last issue for 2000¥ roughly 20$ I was soo desperate to get ahold of one. I love you all for putting your hearts and souls into this magazine! Thank you for letting me into your office in the final days it was exciting seeing where all this talent came together to create such a food bible! Best to you all!
p.s Ruth I loved reading your books I was v. excited when I found out you were to become Gourmet's editor! You kept it just as it was supposed to be adding your own special flair ! Thank you!
My love of food, cooking and culinary journalism was enhanced at an early age by 'stealing' my aunt's "Gourmet" back issues. She still hordes them, I still 'steal' them when she's not looking. Thanks for this. As sad as it is, was and shall be to witness the passing of the great food rag, your work, and that of the entire staff, will be remembered. Cheers!
Thank you so much, your photos are beautiful - and of such a sad thing. Gourmet has been a long-time favorite, and I am so very sad that it is no longer. I am so so so glad that I hung on to every issue I ever got in the mail.
This is very sad. I thought your team was doing an amazing job of bringing the magazine into the 21st century while still respecting its history. Best of luck to all the staff.
One question though: is that a cat box under someone's desk?
Gourmet was one of my first introductions to fine food that I can remember, it is truly a sad day....... can I have that crate of wine and one of the utensil racks?
I am a fan of Gourmet magazine and I was really sad when I heard you guys were closing. Some really beautiful and touching photographs. Good luck and godspeed
You made me nostalgic for a place I'd never seen before. I laughed at the utensils, magazine ready themselves, and had pangs looking out the window and at the elevator. You were all lucky to have worked there; we were lucky to have enjoyed your work every month. We, your readers, appreciated all of you. Thanks for this goodbye.
Broken Hearted about Gourmet. Still have the older issues all saved for reference, and look forward to the next great work all of you will be doing in the future. Chin up.!
Give me an effing break. Yes, people losing their jobs is indeed sad. But let's face it - photographs of kitchenware and mousepads isn't exactly an exposition of the human experience. Please. Grow a pair people.
For a magazine that specialized in fine cuisine, it's a little ironic to see all the junk food lying around the Gourmet magazine cubicle farm. Perhaps that's why upscale magazines are shutting down - because the refined, exquisite world they project is completely detached from reality?
35 years ago looking at Romulo Yanes photographs I knew I wanted to be a food photographer for the last 29 I have been doing just that at Cottage, Coastal & Southern Living and now I fear my big day is coming too. Your images reminded me of a short film about the 1st closing of Life Magazine. I find it hard to believe the presses can just stop on all of us. I will miss you all very much. I can still see a cover with just grey strands of woven garlic bulbs...and that was 30 years ago...I guess the fun is really all over now
Thank you for posting these very moving images. I love magazines, i have worked with and for them all my life, so it feels like a funeral in the family. Good luck, and thanks for the wonderful work.
I still have a hard time believing this magazine will be gone. It's like a huge pillar of our culture crashing to the ground (don't roll your eyes, Anonymous-- it's true). I just keep hoping that someone will rush in to put together a new and solvent Gourmet.
Thanks for the great work Kevin and everyone else did with this magazine
Kevin, your photos captured the ache and the disbelief when a magazine folds. I also went through the same thing , and these images brought it all home. These images confirm that our generation is probably the last to have lived the hey day of magazines. Good luck
I am so sorry. What a loss. I was at Cottage Living from the first issue to when it closed, and it still hurts. After a period of grief, some retail therapy, and a new opportunity presenting itself, I am better. I learned that it's dangerous to have your identity so tied to the workplace. There are many much more important things in life. I hope you channel your talents into new beginnings. God bless!
I am the editor of a food blog in Toronto (Daily Dish, at Toronto Life) and I am hoping to get in touch with you to ask if I can use one of your photographs in a blog post we are planning about Last Days of Gourmet.
Could you drop me a quick line and let me know if this is feasible? It's great work.
As a freelance writer, foodfreak and person who subscribed to Gourmet even when I made a less-than poverty-level salary ... I have been saddened by this loss for weeks, but excited for all of these talented folks' next steps, which I hope involves a culinary Phoenix rising from these ashes.
say it isn't so. I'ved enjoyed Gourmet mag for over 20 years. Made some fantastic meals and dined while traveling based on what I read in it's pages. Made a birthday cake for my daughter that was 'controversial'? because it was on the cover one month. this mag will be missed. i don't get it, it has such a following. Great idea to photograph the last days. it hope you all rise from the ashes and go on to things great. mary ann k
thanks very much for this. i somehow found it comforting. never thought i could feel so sad for the loss of a magazine but this really is incredibly sad. i loved reading gourmet and it look me on so many wonderful journeys.
thank you to everyone at gourmet who enriched my culinary and travel life - which is to say, my life.
This is absolutely great. Some pictures are so powerful!! Is it possible to add them to the Facebook Page "Save Gourmet"? Isabelle at isabelle@intelegia.com
So sorry guys! Anyway...there's a picture here of leftover pizza and take out boxes... ummm is that the reason for your demise? :) Hope you'll find new beginnings very soon!
It's a heartbreak. Just leafed through my 30 November issues, and that was very sobering. I am especially sad because I hoped, one day to be IN Gourmet. Thank you for so much yummy beauty and my very best to all of you!
Beautiful set, excellent documentation. Will miss the mag, and it's clear you all should be working again soon. But unfortunately, it won't be together.
this makes me want to cry. my grandparents were subscribers for years and years. i have a sweet memory of a visit to their house and upon opening a hall closet revealed a stash of magazines piled higher than my waist. All titles Gourmet. i've been a lover of the magazine since my early days as well. Goodbye sweet love.
Worked with Gourmet only once, I was lucky enough to photograph a cover in probably 2000, with Rocco DiSpirito. LOVE Gourmet and I am shocked that this great magazine is now gone... Hope that all the talented people who worked on it will find jobs soon... for bigger and better things !
Wow, I just stumbled apon this and was so surprised. I have fond memories of thumbing through the magazine around Thanksgiving because my mom was always trying something new in those pages. Sorry to hear it is gone now.
I can tell who the copy editor must have been -- who else would have all those dictionaries? I will miss this beautiful, well-edited magazine. The world needs publications like these and the talents of people like you and your co-workers.
Your photos bring a tear to my eye. It is so sad to see yet another institution brought down by this economy. Gourmet will be missed by so many. I wish all of you the best in your future endeavors.
Ridiculous that I feel a void without the mag but I do. Thanks to all who worked so hard to put such an excellent book together each month. Great pics.
Thank you for the photos, it helps to bring completion. It hurts to see the magazine gone, and lives turned upside down. Conde couldn't figure a way to save a magazine with 1 million subscribers?
I've been looking through single and bound Gourmet copies going back 30-40 years, and it's sad to know Gourmet is no more. I hve long enjoyed reading the well written articles, so unlike the drivel often written today.
In the history of Gourmet there have been , in my opinion, defining moments that elevated this magazine to a plane far above its competitors, and, indeed, far above most other periodicals. Many of these moments have occurred under the editorship of Ms Reichl. I first sensed that Gourmet had reached an unmatched level of achievement and connection with its readership with the publication of "Fair shares for all", which I feel is a nearly perfect recognition of the role of food as a glue that defines and binds cultures and individuals.
your photographs expressed only sadness, quite approprite for the final days. but I also would have liked to see other photos, from much happier times, if only for the expression of the extreme contrast. I will miss you. My first Gourmet magazines were retrived from trash by a dear friend in 1977 when I lived in LA - and he knew that I liked to experiment with cooking. I still have all those "LA issues". best regards Urszula
Why do we care so much about the magazine business. Why do the powers that control this business treat it so casually? Why does harm come to those who labor so hard for their leaders while they get away unscathed from the bad decisions they have made. I will never understand this.
My thanks to you and everyone who worked on Gourmet for the years of delicious wonderfulness. It will feel very sad to go to the mailbox without you. Gourmet will be missed.
Also, thank you for sharing the final moments with us. Your photos are so beautiful and so sad. Just please know there are many of us out here who appreciated your work and the work of your colleagues.
Thank your for these photos. I can't imagine not sifting through an issue of gourmet with my daughter in 10 years. It's truly, cliche but so fitting, the end of an era. Thank you Gourmet for having been a witness to so many family dinners and special occasions over the past decades. You will be an empty chair at the dinner table.
thank you for posting these. this is so sad, so wrong. gourmet was the very first magazine i chose to subscribe to when i first graduated from college and had a paying job. within a couple of months of my starting to subscribe, what luck - one of my fave food writers ever, ruth reichl, took over as editor-in-chief. not only that, she brought jonathan gold with her - my #1 fave food writer! i was on cloud nine. those first few years of being an "adult", with gourmet at my side, were magical. the places i was able to go with food - gourmet not only taught me how to cook, but how to eat, which is really how to live.
a few years ago i began grad school, and i stopped my gourmet subscription - not because i couldn't afford it - it'd be the last thing i'd cut for lack of funds - but because i didn't have the time. i couldn't bear to get the magazine every month but not have the time to actually cook the recipes. i'd fall behind on grad school if i subscribed, basically! i finished just recently and was so excited to begin my gourmet subscription again... only to have it be killed.
shocked does not describe it. it's like a knife to my heart. i agree w/ many others that conde nast chose the wrong food magazine to cut. bon appetit was started by pillsbury, for criss'sake. and what seems to me even worse is that they didn't even try to sell it to another publisher - because they wanted to keep the brand going for their website and a couple of other things. so there's no chance of the glorious gourmet masthead reppearing again, ever, unless conde nast realizes what idiots they were. but of course, now it's too late. if it had been sold, perhaps there'd have been a chance - the staff could have stayed, etc.
anyway. this is truly, truly sad, and i just want to thank you for creating a place where we gourmet fans can mourn this loss.
I am so very upset by Condé Nast's decision to cease publication of Gourmet Magazine, that I have decided to allow all of my other subscriptions to their publications to expire, and not renew any of them! That's my way of retaliating against these greedy moguls for killing off my favorite food magazine, and adversely impacting the lives of so many people; both loyal employees and devoted readers. Bon Appétit will never be the equal of Gourmet!! Although, I immediately bought your last book, it will never be as comforting as the real deal. I will always remember and long for the excitement and the pleasure I felt every month, when I opened the most current issue of Gourmet. Through iTunes, I've downloaded every episode of Dairy of a Foodie, and I watch at least one of them every few days. I'm a fabulous gourmet cook, in many significant ways, because of Gourmet. Thank you for so many years of exceptional issues; you and they will be sorely missed.
Beautiful, Kevin. I am so glad to see your work, even as sad as this is. Your images capture the emptiness so eloquently and forlornly. The sheets ripped from the walls, the chef's jackets limply hanging on chairs. I remember the bustle and buoyancy of those kitchens- the cries of "food!" when it was time for each chef to leave her area and hustle over for a tasting. I went there to paint some portraits for an assignment and was thrilled by the camaraderie and level of excellence- in every aspect. Ruth led a wonderful ship in full sail- brave and provocative articles that related to all aspects of life - not just the food that sustains it. I know that each of you continue to contribute in ways that are informed by your tenure there.
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