Sayonara Gourmet, Baka Yarou Chris Kimball
October 8th, 2009 Posted in Miscellaneous
By now everyone is probably tired of hearing about the demise of Gourmet magazine. I don’t really have much of an opinion on it, other to say it never appealed to me in the first place; I found it tame, full of the commonest of notions on culinary wisdom, full of travel stories of places that, if I did manage to visit there, my visit would have zero in common with whatever unaffordable direction they inevitably took it. I’m actually amazed it lasted as long as it did, with their custom of sending teams of stylists, photographers, writers, and editors for extended assignments in every nook of the globe.
What prompts me to say something about it is the execrable op-ed in today’s NY Times by Christopher Kimball on the demise of Gourmet. Kimball, the publisher Cook’s Illustrated and bow-tied caricature of a Vermont marm-pedant, somehow imagines that food writers on the internet, including bloggers “without the need for credentials or paid membership,” to be responsible for Conde Nast pulling the plug on Gourmet. Internet scribes, according to Kimball, have not only mortally wounded the fine writers at Gourmet, they have dumbed down ALL food writing.
He is the Gatekeeper, the Scribe, who is not at all happy about the direction food writing has taken. Kimball loathes the everyman, the noncredentialed, those not in the Club, where standards for membership are awfully rigorous. Quite remarkably, he even speaks laudably of those with “good breeding.” Yikes! Incredible as it sounds, he seems to imagine the food writing world as a sort of culinary Princeton or Harvard, of several generations ago, where only the “right” students — the patricians — could even hope for membership.
I was prepared to just write off the op-ed as a jumbled muddle of incoherence and move on to something more interesting, but Kimball had to bring Julia Child, through supertortured logic, into his fold:
“Julia Child, one of my Boston neighbors, epitomized this old-school notion of apprenticeship. As her dinner companion one evening, I watched as she became frustrated by the restaurant’s dim lighting, grabbed a huge watchman’s flashlight from her pendulous satchel and proceeded to illuminate her main course. She wanted to investigate her food before eating it, the waiter’s recommendations notwithstanding. This act of spontaneous journalism evolved from a lifetime love of education and reverence for true expertise. Her first question upon meeting a young chef was always, “And where did you train, dear?”
At which point I started to get upset. Julia, of all people, epitomized as a blue-blood! I don’t think so! She was almost single-handedly responsible for the wake-up of American home cooking, the one who encouraged EVERYONE to give good (French) food a try at home. Her “training” consisted of a short stint at Cordon Blue to escape her drudgery as a housewife to a diplomat. The “training” Kimball attempts to invoke through Julia would actually resemble a hardcore apprenticeship of sadistic chefs at starred restaurants, the French equivalent of Japan’s own form of culinary sado-masochism: sweeping floors, scrubbing pots, and sharpening knives for a twelve-year (or so) span before being allowed to actually cook food. Julia did none of that, and had no aspirations toward chefdom; she was a home cook!
Stick to seven-page explanations on why your fried chicken is the absolute, nay, the ONLY way to properly cook fried chicken, won’t you, Chris? If somebody — especially someone unqualified — showed you an actual better way, you wouldn’t hear it anyway.
25 Responses to “Sayonara Gourmet, Baka Yarou Chris Kimball”
By
@cookingwithamy on Oct 9, 2009
I loved Gourmet, it inspired me, but I was thoroughly disgusted by Kimball's op-ed piece. It was self-serving, smug and just wrong on so many levels. He tried to point out the need for experts but his brand of "expertise" is a joke he plays on people willing to be played.
By
fotobear on Oct 9, 2009
What's also particularly galling is that the goofs at Cook's Illustrated want to charge you $30 per annum for the content on their website. Does that include a subscription to their glorious magazine? No, it does not. It is all for the privilege of perusing their archives. Does epicurious.com charge a fee? No. Mr Kimball can kiss my democratic blogging chef's ass.
By
Stephanie on Oct 9, 2009
Aptly described Eric, I too see a war between "blue bloods" (entitled old media types) and newcomers who simply refuse to pay arbitrary dues to an outdated system. The thing that gets me about this web vs. print war is that there is this assumption that old media is entitled to succeed, and these new, web people are troublesome disrupters. Why? I see it the other way around entirely. If anything "media executives" like Chris Kimball have languished too long in their roles as controllers of content and its past due for some fresh talent to take the lead. I can imagine some food writers a few years back thinking, "Heck, if I can't get published then I'm just gonna publish myself!". I mean, who didn't see this coming at least 3 years ago? And why are the bloggers the bad guys? Kimball asks himself, “Will I have a job next year?” – Shouldn't an executive be able to answer his own question?
Another thing these people don't realize is that the web is a big open, conversation. I find a lot of old-school thinkers don't really *want* to have a conversation with others, they're more comfortable talking AT people than with people. Kimball claims that expertise is more important than technology (I guess you're not an expert Eric), and then goes on to reveal that he doesn't understand a thing about how technology fuels ANY conversation. If Gourmet magazine was listening to readers (like you read these comments on your blog) then it would be giving readers more of what they want, and not closing down.
For the record, I liked Gourmet, like any food magazine.
By
Zora on Oct 9, 2009
What Kimball wrote about the demise of expertise struck a chord for me, because it also applies to the other field I'm in, travel writing. And I owe Cook's Illustrated big-time–it's basically how I learned to cook. Is Kimball a pompous ass? Yes, indeedy. Do I want to stab my eyes out every time I accidentally start reading his editor's letter in CI? Yes, a thousand times yes. But I do think he's right that training, experience and well-honed judgment don't count for as much as they used to, which is a loss.
By
lmc on Oct 9, 2009
i completely agree, eric. well written.
By
C. on Oct 9, 2009
I couldn't have said it better my self. Way to go Eric. Illuminating, to say the least. Power to the People..!
By
debbieann on Oct 9, 2009
send a letter to the NYT! this column. he can't have Julia.
By
breakawaycook on Oct 9, 2009
Thanks everyone. I rarely get worked up about stuff like this but it was just too painful to read and not say anything.
Zora, I really think cooking and food writing is different from travel writing, and indeed almost all writing, in that there's less at stake. Flub up a dinner based on some recipe you found on the net, and oh well, there's always tomorrow. You get three chances a day to improve. But if I'm relying on info when I'm traveling, I really want it to be deep, nuanced, and experty. Do I want my New Yorker to be filled with non NYer writers? No, of course not. I expect the best from them. But food is different: there are SO many ways to cook well. I really don't buy, or even get, the idea that CI/Kimball are definitive about *anything,* which is the entire premise of the magazine. I, and only I, know my own palate, my own likes and dislikes, better than anyone, by definition — I like bright, vibrant, light ,herby flavors, which I rarely get from reading Kimball and other "experts"; if someone can help me achieve these types of flavors, I'm not interested in where they trained, how much experience they have, or anything else about them. It's the ideas I'm interested in and learn from, not the writer per se. Virtually none of the world's great home cooks have any training, they just got to know their own palates (and shaped those of their families) really, really well.
For those of you who don't know Zora: she has a new book out called Forking Fantastic that's really good — hundreds of useful cooking tips and practices, great advice on how NOT to let a tiny kitchen get in the way of having great dinner parties. Breakaway cooks should definitely check it out.
By
breakawaycook on Oct 9, 2009
Thanks everyone. I rarely get worked up about stuff like this but it was just too painful to read and not say anything.
Zora, I really think cooking and food writing are different from travel writing, and indeed almost all writing, in that there's less at stake. Flub up a dinner based on some recipe you found on the net, and oh well, there's always tomorrow. You get three chances a day to improve. But if I'm relying on info when I'm traveling, I really want it to be deep, nuanced, and experty. Do I want my New Yorker to be filled with non NYer writers? No, of course not. I expect the best from them. But food is different: there are SO many ways to cook well. I really don't buy, or even get, the idea that CI/Kimball are definitive about *anything,* which is the entire premise of the magazine. I, and only I, know my own palate, my own likes and dislikes, better than anyone, by definition — I like bright, vibrant, light ,herby flavors, which I rarely get from reading Kimball and other "experts"; if someone can help me achieve these types of flavors, I'm not interested in where they trained, how much experience they have, or anything else about them. It's the ideas I'm interested in and learn from, not the writer per se. Virtually none of the world's great home cooks have any training, they just got to know their own palates (and shaped those of their families) really, really well.
For those of you who don't know Zora: she has a new book out called Forking Fantastic that's really good — hundreds of useful cooking tips and practices, great advice on how NOT to let a tiny kitchen get in the way of having great dinner parties. Breakaway cooks should definitely check it out.
By
@KitchenM on Oct 9, 2009
Wow, I never thought that he was such an elitist. I agree with debbieann, you should submit this to the NYT.
By
Karena on Oct 10, 2009
If I am baking a cake for a party, I turn to Cook's Illustrated because I know their pastry recipes are foolproof. But I don't refer to them for anything else because they take all the joy and spontaneity out of cooking! They might be the only food professionals who can take all the warmth out of a grandma-esque dish like mole poblano and reduce it to a list of clinically precise measurements. (Who measures ancho in multiples of 1/8's? Lordy!)
And call me catty, but bloggers and the interwebs hardly dumbed down food writing on their own. I believe some of that credit should go to Rachael Ray, a member of Kimball's print media club.
By
Rachelle on Oct 10, 2009
yes, well said!
By
Chef Anahata on Oct 11, 2009
IMHO as a chef: Gourmet was self indulgent to the point of being repugnant. COOKS is just simply boring.
Eric said: "Kimball loathes the everyman, the noncredentialed, those not in the Club, where standards for membership are awfully rigorous." What Kimball loathes, like the rest of us, is the reflection of ourselves we have not learned to love. We loathe that which we refuse to acknowledge lives inside of ourselves. Someday, when we awaken we we'll all be much happier–and the food will probably taste better too.
By
Jeff on Oct 13, 2009
Eric, your "baka yarou" comment cracked me up, and got me to read not only your blog entry, but Kimball's too.
Thanks for your take on his article. Being a newbie in the kitchen, I could have read Kimball's op-ed and run to Dairy Queen with my tail between my legs, because according to him I don't have the good breeding or the fancy titles to spin my way through a recipe (according to him).
I do want to point out, however, a couple of things from his NY Times article that are worth reiterating:
1. Experience is helpful. I do believe that PART of what he's saying is that experience and know-how have weight in the kitchen, and I agree. I just don't think you have to have a degree from Fancy Schmancy Culinary Academy (FSCA) to get said experience, or to go out and write about it. It starts, as they say, at home.
2. Kimball is scared. He comes from an elitist writing/food background that is bound to get upset by the egalitarianism of the internet. It sounds like he just figured out yesterday that print may be threatened by the web, which in my book casts aspersions on his ability to stay in touch with the modern world. But more to the point, he mentions that media executives are wondering, "Will I have a job next year?" and I can't help but wonder if he's secretly including himself in said group. When he goes on to say…"To survive, those of us who believe that inexperience rarely leads to wisdom need to swim against the tide, better define our brands, prove our worth, ask to be paid for what we do…" I realize that he sees his rank and privilege as possibly coming to an end, and when this happens, rarely does it occur a la bloodless coup. He will fight tooth and silver-spooned nail to keep the rest of us from enjoying the kitchen power he and his cronies have held for years. I say let 'em eat cake (which isn't a very easy dessert to make, as I discovered recently after making my first one at my own house in my proletariat kitchen with a recipe from the internet)
By
dick on Oct 13, 2009
I read this and it made me think of Anthony Bourdain and his writing about the food he ate on his travels. He could eat Chris Kimball for lunch at both cooking and writing and what I like is that he does not look for all meals to match the CIA or Gourmet or Cooks Illustrated way of thinking. He appreciates outstanding chefs just as we all would but he also does not think they are necessary to make good meals. I think Julia would agree with him on that as well in the long run. The problem with Chris Kimball is he never got the other part of the equation right and it shows.
Personally CI lost me when they sent out a list of the stuff you needed in your pantry including the brand. I find that I don't agree with a lot of their brand choices which made me take a second look at their recipes. What it reminds me of is the restaurants on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where they tell us that the latest thing in food is Americana and here is how you have to make your meatloaf or fry your chicken to be the read thing. I grew up in flyover country and the cooks there would spit on the UWS chefs and their meatloaf recipes. Same with Gourmet and Chris Kimball.
By
breakawaycook on Oct 13, 2009
Thanks Jeff. There is no question that practice makes one a better cook — that part of his message wasn't the part that rankled. It was the idea one must be certified (ideally by the editors of CI) to cook well. No Dairy Queen for you!
Dick, the exact same thing happened to me. It was as if CI said, "you no longer have to think for yourself. We'll tell you what tools to buy, what to cook, and how, precisely, it should be cooked. It's a hyperballsy proposition, and I'm amazed that millions of people go for it. Not only are you supposed to outsource your palate to Those In The Know, you're supposed to outsource your entire cooking brain.
By
dick on Oct 13, 2009
Saw this on another website about this posting and he made sense to me:
as a person who is a chef who did not go to a culinary institute but was
rather trained in the front lines of actual restaurants i deplore snobbery
in the kitchen (a teensy bit of pretension is OK, though). i learned the
most from a johnson and wales graduate and i am willing to bet i got as near
a complete education as he did. (we didn't do baking – i have no desire to
make any more than the simplest things in that field.) one day he took me
aside and said, "you know wayne… i don't think there's much more i can
teach you. what you don't know at this point you are smart enough to hunt
down. you should feel free to call yourself a WORKING chef." so even there
he made the distinction between him and me. i seldom use my "proper" title.
too few people even knows what it means and explaining is tedious.
- wayne.
By
Wakeford on Oct 13, 2009
If Gourmet magazine was useless then it deserved its demise. On the subject of food writing, all of it can be considered opinion or editorial. However, not all people's opinions are equally informative or valid. An "educated" opinion is in all probability more useful and enlightening. That is not to say that everyone who writes has to have some kind of advanced degree. Julia Child is for the most part self-educated. She spent her life investigating ways of making things in the best possible way. She is knowledgeable on the subject about which she is writing. Citizen journalists and bloggers are a great addition to our democracy. But they should not be allowed to supplant traditional media entirely. The main reasons are professionalism and accountability.
By
Zora on Oct 13, 2009
Eric, you're right that the stakes are lower with cooking–that's a very good point. And a freakin' relief. But the Cook's Ill articles are useful if you've never cooked something before–those poor, suffering bastards in "America's Test Kitchen" have gone to the trouble of trying some ridiculous things and mentioning whether they did or didn't work (within the rubric of what "works" at Cook's Ill). Even if your taste is different, you at least come away with a better understanding of technique.
It's a dreary kind of journalism, but journalism nonetheless, and few bloggers are as invested in explaining _why_ something works. I know if I had to learn to cook just from blogs, I wouldn't know quite where to start.
But just so you don't think I'm an agent of the devil, >a href=" http://rovinggastronome.com/mainblog/2004/04/05/c... am on record against Kimball and his "right" attitude!
And thanks for the shout-out on the book! It is absolutely unlike an issue of Cook's Illustrated, I can say that for sure. (Oh–except there are a few line drawings…)
By
JAMinTokyo on Oct 14, 2009
When a well-spoken gent such as yourself says Baka Yarou, I sit up and listen! Informative AND entertaining.
By
anthony on Oct 14, 2009
but dick, either titles mean something or they don't. A book keeper isn't an accountant. A nurse isn't a doctor. Either we accept chefs as professionals with skills and knowledge that need to be learned and standards to be maintained or we let any old Dunning-Kruger sufferer with an oven run around saying they're a chef. And if we do the latter, then we've devalued the term and, ultimately, the job itself.
Professional kitchens (like the military) are inherently heirarchical and, by extension, elitist. This used to be through an apprenticeship and now it involves formal education. They've also always provided a career and prospects for the underpriveleged and marginalised; recognising skills,effort and learning. This recognition shouldn't be white-anted in a way that no middle class profession would accept.
By
Velops on Oct 19, 2009
I tend to think there is a misconception about the difference between a chef and a cook. Chefs do more than just cooks meals. Unless it is an extremely small restaurant, they have to manage a team so that dishes get to the tables in a timely fashion. They place grocery orders with suppliers so that the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer are adequately stocked. There are numerous business-oriented tasks that come with being a chef.
By
Velops on Oct 19, 2009
I don't understand why so many people in print media are threatened by bloggers. People who are familiar with the internet know that the information and opinions expressed in blogs should not be automatically trusted at face value. The gatekeepers of traditional media actually have several stepping stones to making a big impact on the internet. They already have brand recognition and trust at their disposal. Bloggers have to fight an uphill battle to gain such credentials.
By
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