Cheap Gourmet [2-year subscription] (Magazine) Price

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Customer Reviews of Gourmet [2-year subscription]

3 and a half really. Not the best culinary or travel content.
`Gourmet', under the editorship of Ruth Reichl over the last few years, has the reputation of being the country's leading culinary magazine, deftly positioned there by its publisher, Conde Nast, which also happens to publish it's closest competitor, `Bon Appetit'. <
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>Acting under that assumption, I subscribed to `Gourmet' a few years ago, and in contrast to its literary Conde Nast stablemate, `The New Yorker', `Gourmet' arrives monthly and remains largely unread at my house. Part of the problem, of course, is that I get plenty of culinary satisfaction from reading, cooking from, and reviewing cookbooks. But, there are some more substantial reasons for my neglecting the magazine. <
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>First, in the arena of pure cooking technique, `Fine Cooking' and `Cooks Illustrated' are each in their own way preferable to `Gourmet'. Both give better in depth advice on cooking techniques, equipment, and products. Both succeed primarily by staying close to their basic charter. I may even go so far as to say that Rachael Ray's new magazine has better cooking advice, at least for the classic '30 Minute Meal' audience. <
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>Second, in the area of culinary tourism, I think `Saveur' is a better publication. Their choice of recipes, photographs, and features seem just a bit more `in depth' than the `Gourmet' tourist treatment. Oddly, `Saveur's longtime editor, Coleman Andrews now writes for `Gourmet'. Of course, `Gourmet' does have columns from bad boy Tony Bourdain and roadside travelers, Jane and Michael Stern. But I will invariably buy Bourdain's books, which will contain all his `Gourmet' articles, augmented with additional observations. <
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>Third, in the world of `lifestyle' publications, I take a guilty pleasure in `Martha Stewart Living', which seems to be just a bit more in tune with my stay at home lifestyle, which still likes to indulge in better decorations, collectibles, cooking tools, and baking techniques. <
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>Lastly, I am always disappointed when `Gourmet' reviews anything, especially restaurants and cookbooks. There are so few national magazines which are in a position to do a good job of reviewing, I'm surprised with the twaddle I read in `Gourmet's reviews of cookbooks. They do very few, they tend to limit themselves to only the `safe' titles, and tend to give the impression that the reviewer has barely read the publisher's copy on the book. Even more surprising are their creampuff restaurant reviews, especially considering Reichl's previous job as restaurant reviewer for `The New York Times'. In four years, I've barely seen one or two negative reviews. <
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>This brings me to the one feature in `Gourmet' which I always read. This is Ms. Ruth's `Editor-in-Chief' introductory column. Reichl is the past master of the culinary memoir, and every issue has another little installment of Ms. Ruth's life in the big city. This makes a delightful counterpoint to the similar column in `Cooks Illustrated' by Maine backcountry resident, Christopher Kimball. It is also more soulful than similar columns by Miss Martha or her Editor-in-Chief', Margaret Roach. <
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>If I spent more time traveling, entertaining, or wine-buying, `Gourmet' would be much more valuable to me, but as a purely culinary magazine, others are better. <
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Fun to read
The recipes are great and so is the travel advice for those seeking a good meal while traveling. I get great ideas for presentation and entertaining at home. If you enjoy fine dining, or just reading about it, then this magazine is worth a subscription and would make a nice holiday gift that will keep giving year round

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Ugh - an aggressive catalog with a few bizarre recipes
After falling in love with Gourmet's yellow cookbook, I subscribed to Gourmet, hoping for the same great classic recipes and commonsense commentary. Wow, what a disappointment. I have just received my second issue and, as another reviewer said, it is about 90% ads for high-end luxury goods like jewelry and cars. The 6-page "Special Advertisement Section" stops being so special when there are 20 of them in one issue! What happened, Ruth Reichl? The few recipes that one can find are unattractive and/or too difficult for even weekend cooking. <
>For those cooks looking for a great cooking magazine, I highly recommend Bon Appetit over Gourmet: the majority of the magazine is recipes and cooking tips, with only interspersed ads. I will be calling to see if I can get my subscription switched tomorrow.