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Gorgeous Food

Bon Appetit has been a regular addition to my cooking arsenal since its inception. It is simply a gorgeous magazine, with beautifully laid out photography and excellent features. This is a magazine for the person who loves to cook.

Unlike other food publications, Bon Appetit offers earthy robust recipes and features that appeal to the everyday cook. I love in particular: Cooking For Two, Cooking Light and the section devoted to bringing recipes from well known restaurants around the country. In this section, readers write in and request a recipe from a restaurant that really impressed them. It's fun, informative and often amazing how really uncomplex some of the dishes are.

Underneath all the good looking dishes and witty dialogue, lies the heart of Bon Appetit. It's about home and very basic values, which I think accounts for its huge popularity. Through my reading this magazine, I've come to appreciate the homely root vegetables, to keep a well stocked pantry, and to avoid costly mistakes in buying cookware.

I think it makes a lovely gift for a young bride, who might be nervous about cooking and entertaining. With it's no nonsense approach to cuisine, plus the support of a stellar online community-Epicurious.com, it is a very nice package for anyone who wants to simply cook creatively and well.

Really good recipes
When I was going through my old cooking magazines a few years ago before a major move to another state, I found to my surprise that the recipes I most wanted to keep were in Bon Appetit. Although I also enjoyed reading Gourmet, I realized that I had cooked relatively few of the recipes in that magazine. I am ready to make another magazine purge, and I expect the same thing to happen. Gourmet is fun and interesting, but Bon Appetit is a keeper.

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Everyday Food is extraordinary!
As an author and food historian at www.CookingUpHistory.com I collect and read dozens of foodie magazines. This is a favorite because it pertains to how real people eat...meaning the kinds of foods we like to eat on a daily basis. Yet, there is enough variety of recipes and how-to's to keep it inetresting. Great as a gift for a host or hostess.

BEST Magazine ever!
On a friends recomendation, I got a subscription to this magazine. I LOVE IT! I am always looking forward to new issues.

When I first subscribed, I thought it would take a long time to get an issue. I received one within a month, and then another in a week. (they sent me the current, and then following issue)
I was in heaven!

I go through them all, and put sticky notes on the recipes that I like for easy access. This entire weeks dinners have come out of their menus.

As for the Adobo Chili girl, it took me awhile to find them, but once I did I understood why they always use them. What a great flavor!

A great magazine for someone that can cook, or someone that is kitchen inept. I have recently gotten a friend addicted that could burn a pot of water, and now she is using recipes and calling me all proud.

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I liked it!
I am new to vegetarianism and at a loss for what to eat.I picked up this magazine and enjoyed it cover to cover.Nice recipes, lots of health info.I don't feel so lost.I don't want a militant magazine.I don't want to read shocking, alarming things.I already get the idea, which is why I picked up this magazine to begin with.I want to know how to get enough protein, nice dishes that I can get my carnivorous husband to eat.Hopefully, I'll be able to cajole him into going vegatarian, too, by pleasant example and health benefits.I liked it.

Not worth the paper it's on
I subscribed to this magazine, in its new format, for a year and found maybe one original, inspiring recipe.The rest of the recipes could be found in even the smallest collection of vegetarian cookbooks.If you have a few veggie cookbooks, don't bother with this subscription.The articles aren't interesting or well-written either.

not very useful unless you want recipes
Personally, after a year's subscription I got virtually no use or entertainment out of this magazine at all. It might depend on what you're looking for though. First of all, there's no true journalism in this magazine at all. For example, I would've liked to see some in-depth articles about what various advertizing terms actually tell you about animal treatment, what the full picture was on various nutritional contraversies regarding veg*anism, etc. They never have that sort of thing at all though.

The other thing is that, like the majority of veg*ans, I have a lot of problems with underweightedness and (occasionally) inadequate nutrition. VT, however, caters almost exclusively to those who are overweight and/or have eating disorders. Once, they even had an article about being an Atkin's vegan (I don't know how they can sleep at night advocating a diet that suicidal). I never saw a single VT article about how to gain weight, and hardly saw any passing mention of omega 3's, B12, or other nutrients that are severely lacking in an unsuplimented vegan diet. Overall, their conception of health is limited to weight loss, bizarre dietary obsessions, and yoga classes.

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The Magazine That Created The Modern Wine Snob
Used to be on the most pretentious types walked around talking about vintages and vinyards and things like nose and legs and such. Thanks to Robert Parker and The Wine Spectator, now every pretentious yuppie with a few bucks can be heard to go on and on about "roasted plum scent" and "tobacco undertones" and other such pretentious rot. Stores have contributed to this mess, too; go into any wine shop or grocery and you'll see bottles with tags saying "Wine Spectator 87! Rasberries and Citrus!" and other nonsense.

Truth of the matter is 90% of the wines found in The Wine Spectator will never be found in your local wine shop, so all these reviews are just fodder for pretentious yuppies. And in any case, wine is a personal and subjective matter that cannot be reduced to a simple number. Save the money you'd spend on this, and instead make friends with your loal wine merchant. He or seh will give you far better advice. Unless, that it, he or she is a fan of Parker....

Review of the Decade, 100 points!Oh please...
Wine Spectator is the most prominent and widely available wine criticism magazine and as such it has been endlessly pilloried.Well, they deserve it - one recent issue's cover story was "Danny DeVito and Rhea Pearlman, Hollywood Power Couple!"How ridiculous can you get?The pages are littered with articles devoted to wealthy Californians and their extensive cellars; one recently spent an entire article on a rich man who helps his rich friends by cataloguing their cellars on, gasp, a spreadsheet!Yeah, it's like that.

Wine Spectator has also been criticized for the way it uses hyperbole to the extent that no one believes them when they're right anymore.Oenophiles now wait for Robert Parker (Wine Advocate) to back them up before believing it."Best Vintage since 1961" and "Vintage of the Century" and "Vintage of the Decade" are far too common copy, coming once a year or so.

The vintner profiles hold some interest, but don't fool yourself, you read this magazine for the scoring.Wine Spectator has the resources to taste more wines than any other English language publication (that I know of) and despite some strange results, are generally good at evaluating the bottles in question.As I've noted elsewhere, in spite of the hyperbolic headlines, the Spectator is stingier than Robert Parker for rating wines "Outstanding."The caveat is that a lot of wines get bunched up in the 84-86 point range, although I suppose that matches my experience.

By comparison to the Wine Advocate, I find Wine Spectator scores much more inconsistent.This makes sense because the Spectator has a larger staff and it's difficult to establish a common benchmark across all of the offices and tasting panels.In their favor, they do review a fair number of lower priced wines, more than their aforementioned colleague, and their reactions are more or less in the ballpark as to where I'd put them if I were doing the reviews.But know when using the Spectator to allow some give on either side, a confidence interval, if you will.

It might be terrible that a magazine wastes its first three quarters of every issue on mindless fodder for social climbers.It might be tasteless that they spend so much time promoting the notion that wine is an investment, instead of an immensely enjoyable consumable commodity.But those of us with big brains and modest credit ratings know that there is much to be salvaged from the back of each issue.We also know that Parker is the first point of reference.

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Great Home Brewer Mag.
I love it and read it cover to cover every month. I am a avid home brewer and Liek the information they provide. It caters to the little guy doing extract batches on the stove top to people like me who do all grain in converted Keg systems.
I would not wait any longer sign up now.

allgrainbrews

Cheers!!
An excellent 'every-man' (or woman) mag about the fine art of homebrewing.I've been a homebrewer for over 20 years and have seen a lot of stuff come and go, yet I still get good ideas out of each issue (and not just recipes, although the Szamatulski's contributions are usually good).Typically, in the area of gadgets.

So you wanna learn to brew?Get one of Papazian's books, and a subscription to this magazine, and your off to a good start (Papazian's magazine 'Zymurgy' is good, too -- but can be a little overly 'techie' for my tastes)

I don't know what would make me give this a 5-star, it just seems like there's room for improvement.Although I can't put my finger on exactly what.

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Okay for the price, but could use some improvements
Wine Enthusiast is an average, decently priced, magazine about, of all things, wine. Less of a lifestyle magazine than Wine Spectator, and less serious in tone than Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast has its merit in that it focuses solidly on wine without the pretentious rambling that sometimes diminishes its competitors. Most of its articles are mostly accurate, if in a rudimentary way. Wine Enthusiast does not seem to rate as many wines as its competitors, which can be a problem for vertical comparisons of certain wines, including some well-known examples from Bordeaux and Burgundy. As such, I would probably not recommend Wine Enthusiast to the serious collector. Nonetheless, for its price, Wine Enthusiast offers value and adequate ratings and reviews of many wines, although I have some questions as to how they choose which wines to rate when they leave out many Sauternes in favor of white zinfandels.

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A great magazine
This is one of the most fun food magazines I have ever come across.It has plenty of good recipes that are relatively accessible to the average cook, but it also has lots of articles that are both informative & entertaining.

The primary focus (of course) is on hot and spicy foods, but it also concentrates on any number of regional cuisines that are not necessarily scorching hot.A issue highlighting salsas, for example, will have a fair number of high-Scoville recipes, but will also include flavorful salsas that are intended to enhance a main course rather bring beads of sweat to your forehead.A neophyte will better understand that a salsa isn't necessarily a hot sauce but actually covers a much wider spectrum.The same would apply to their issues on barbeque as well as cuisines from Mexico, Thailand & India, among others.

If you want to know how to grow peppers, you will also find this magazine informative, as it addresses many different aspects of pepper horticulture.There is also plenty of information on the frighteningly extensive array of hot sauces that are commercially available.If you come from a region where it isn't easy to grow your own peppers, finding a resource for peppers is important, and this magazine definitely helps.

Even if you aren't a pepper-head, there is plenty within this magazine that you will find useful.

Some like it hot!
Love this magazine. Whish it had more "how to do" articles though.

Everything for Chili-heads!
This is THE magazine for those who like it hot.

While there is plenty of coverage of the so-hot-it-will-burn-your-face-off items, the bulk of the magazine covers mouth watering cooking that will be sure to please at any level of heat. Each issue includes about 50-75 recipes, all of which are high quality, useful, and practical. A recipe index in the front of the magazine lists all the recipes by category.

Chili Pepper is printed on glossy paper and contains loads of beautiful photographs. In fact, the ads are also exceptionally beautiful and colorful, and in no way detract from the overall aesthetics of the magazine. Hot sauces, salsa, powders, kitchen gadgets, pepper plants, and a host of other things can be found in the ads.

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Disapointing at best.
If finally decided to try out this magazine. What a disappointment. This magazine is like 90% ads. And for so many pages you would expect more pictures of the recipes. Some recipes don't even have a picture or will have a tiny one in the corner. Yes many of the recipes are great and you learn a lot about traveling (like if this were a traveling mag.), but you will be better off buying their books. Skip this one, it's not worth it.

Magazine needs help
I agree this magazine has gotten worse through the years.
Also too many ads.

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Saveur is far and away the best magazine for food lovers
Delicious recipes, color photos, travel background, ingredients sources, well written articles and the ads are not designed to make you rip the magazine apart like a certain 'no ads' magazine.

Sometimes the contributing authors are a little full of themselves, but overall the writing is excellent and the food is authentic to the region being written about.Its a touch expensive direct from Saveur, but a good deal on Amazon.

Great Read!! Cover to Cover
I love this magazine because it gives the background and history of food. When I get the magazine each month,I have to read it right then and there. I finally found out where Salisbury Steak originated. In Ohio, by a doctor during the Civil War. Not in England. The photography is beautiful and some of the stories are memories of what the certain food means to them. They make you want to try everything in the magazine. Saveur is not pretentious as "Food and Wine" or "Gourmet." It is nice to read about regular people that make great food at reasonable expenses. Subscribe to this magazine!

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A great magazine even for the culinarily-challenged
"Cook's Illustrated" serves as a mentor to me and others who refused to learn the art and science of cookery in the kitchens of their loved ones.I did take a home economics class in high school, but my main memory of it is my teacher's repeated iteration of "Oh mercy, Elaine.Mercy."It took a long diet of college jello and Spanish Rice, and then a marriage in which neither of us fathomed the mysteries of the kitchen to get me interested in the art of cooking for myself and others.

Most of the other magazines in the culinary market don't seem to cater to the cooking-challenged.For instance, the seemingly simple instruction "beat enough sugar into the meringue to stiffen it" caused me to set the oven on fire.I added cups and cups of sugar to my three egg whites and the darn meringue finally got grainy, which I figured was the equivalent of 'stiff.'Not so.Once enough heat was applied, the meringue flooded over the sides of the pie plate and set the oven ablaze.It was not easy explaining my culinary mishap to a sceptical fireman.

My inadvertent attempt at incendiarism wouldn't have happened if I had been following a recipe in "Cook's Illustrated."Here the recipes are lovingly detailed, and there diagrams on 'simple' techniques such as How to Slice an Onion.Most of you probably learned about such matters at your mother's knee, but I was more interested in Astronomy than Onions back in the good old days when someone cooked for me.As a consequence, I've been slicing onions incorrectly until the December 2004 "Cook's Illustrated" hit the newstand.

The contributors to this magazine test their recipes multiple times, varying the ingredients, using different cooking utensils, until they get what they consider to be the perfect outcome.For instance, in the article on "Balsamic Braised Chicken," John Olson writes:"At that point, I stopped my tests with the high-end vinegar.Simmering such a vinegar might well be considered high crime in Italy.All the time and effort expended to create its subtle flavor balance would be wasted, as boiling destroys it. (This is not a problem with the cheap stuff.)"

"Cook's Illustrated" recipes are adventures into a mysterious art, as well as producers of wonderful dishes.The editors don't accept advertisements, so you can trust their ingredient and product recommendations.If you are a fan of the show, "America's Test Kitchen" on public television, then you'll definitely love the magazine that details this program's favorite recipes.Also check out their website at cooksillustrated.com for eleven years worth of recipes.

The Best Cooking Magazine out there
Some people don't care why the food came out great or why it came out horrible.I do, and that's why I love this magazine.I enjoy reading what the author/cook went through to arrive at the printed recipe. I also enjoy the colorful covers and the back page with beautiful drawings of a "topic" food, such as a variety of tomotoes, hams, etc.Great magazine.However, I'm not crazy about their website.