After 68 years in publication, Gourmet magazine is calling it quits. The food journal that defined a generation is no more, a victim of the economy and technology. Why leaf through a magazine for recipes when you can get whatever recipe you want with just one key stroke or the click of a mouse? These days you can google everything from preparing a fruit salad to the finer points of whale blubber steak. Thus, Gourmet, as an entity, is no more.

Truth be told, I was never a partisan of Gourmet Magazine. My subscription lapsed years ago and I never renewed it. After a time I found the magazine rather snooty and condescending in its manner. It was food for those who were considered “my betters,” I thought. I found its recipes, for the most part, arcane, tine consuming and complicated. Who wants to spend a weekend cooking up a Black Forrest cake? There were much more venues out there for simplicity and economy.

Still, I’m sure Gourmet Magazine will be missed. Just one more fount on culinary information that is now gone. It seems like a generation is passing. Julia Childs is gone, James Beard is gone and, now, Gourmet. I shall mourn its passing.

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