Super Chef notes with sadness the news that venerable Gourmet will discontinue publication after the November 2009 issue.

Super Chef attributes publisher CondeNast’s decision to a combination of factors, in particular the current economic down compounded by competition with online publications.

Super Chef asked food writer Colette Rossant to comment on Gourmet‘s demise. She recalled:

I was planning a trip to Puerto Rico in the 1990s and happened to look through an issue from the 1960s. I read a wonderful story about a hotel on the island and called the place up. It was 25 years later, and the hotel had become a private house. The owner was so pleased and excited by my phone call that she invited me to stay. She roasted a pig in the fireplace. There was a wonderful swimming pool with mosaics of frogs. It was one of the best trips I ever took – thanks to Gourmet.

Certain sections I really enjoyed, like reader’s letters. Gourmet always managed to get recipes for readers from restaurants: all the recipes really worked.

For the past decade I found the magazine too precious and a bit too snobby, but I am definitely going to miss it. .

RIP, Gourmet Magazine.

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