Thank You, Gourmet!
foto: thankyougourmet.com/simply breakfast
(English translation follows at the bottom of the post.)
Wenn alte Freunde sich verabschieden, hilft es die Erinnerungen zu sammeln. Für sich, fürs Gemüt und für die Ewigkeit. Sicherlich ist eine Zeitschrift kein wahrer “Freund”, aber die Website Thank You, Gourmet der amerikanischen Food-Autorin Renee Schettler, zeigt deutlich dass vielen Menschen auch eine Zeitschrift besonders ans Herz wachsen kann. Auf der Website sammelt Schettler Erinnerungen und manchmal melancholische Blicke zurück für die Unendlichkeit. Ich glaube, dass Gourmet, das 68 Jahre lang zum guten Geschmack beigetragen hat, eine solche Sammlung verdient. Auch von mir hier ein “Danke schön, Gourmet” für all die Jahre die ich mit dem Heft verbracht habe. Und ich danke der Chefredakteurin Ruth Reichl, für den Mut die Zeitschrift zum Führer der lokalen Landwirtschaftsbewegung zu machen, auch wenn die Großindustrie als Werbepartner davon sicherlich alles andere als begeistert war, und sie somit vielleicht ungwollt zum Ende der Zeitschrift beigetragen hat. Laut dem Verlag Condé Nast waren es nämlich die um 47% eingebrochenen Anzeigenverkäufe die letztlich zum Ende des Hefts geführt haben. Es ist schwer zu glauben, dass ein Heft das solange auf dem Markt war, so schnell aufgegeben werden kann.
Der ehemalige Gourmet-Autor Francis Lam hat auf Thank you Gourmet folgende Worte (u.a.) als Gedanken hinterlassen.
Mehr muss nicht gesagt werden.
I had sort of a strange position at Gourmet, writing for the magazine
from home. I went into the office that afternoon, to say hello and to
say sorry and to offer, dumbly, to help my friends pack their offices.
I’d lost my job just as much as they’d lost theirs, but as I walked
around and heard the sobbing and the brave, cold gallows humor, I
realized that they were losing so much more than me. 34 years, 23
years, 18 years: this is the scope of time we’re talking about. So
many people worked there with such talent and dedication and, over
time, love for one another.So I hurt for them. But at the same time, it occurred to me that our
culture suffers for this, too. There are other great food magazines,
but which of them, I wonder, would run a story on slave labor in
tomato fields, on industrial chicken slaughter, on how unglamorous a
life in food can be? Let alone—and this is not insignificant—pay
for that kind of reporting? Sure, other magazines might do that—
upstairs, at the New Yorker, for instance—but I think it was
especially meaningful that an “elitist, luxury food magazine” would do
that. This was the true luxury of Gourmet: that it had the confidence
and the resources to try to challenge its readers.
When old friends depart, it helps to collect the memories. For one’s self, for the soul and for eternity. Surely a magazine cannot be considered a true „friend“ but the tribute website Thank You, Gourmet by american food writer Renee Schettler, shows clearly that many people can hold a magazine dear to their heart. On the site, Schettler collects memories and sometimes melancholy looks back, for posterity. I beleive that Gourmet, which had shown us for 68 years what good taste is all about, deserves such a collection. From me here also a heartfelt Thank you, Gourmet, for all the years I was lucky to spend with the magazine. And my thanks to former editor-in-chief, Ruth Reichl for the courage to spearhead the locavore movement, even at the risk of losing industrial food corporation ads, since these companies could not have been to happy with this development. According to Condé Nast it was after all, the loss of 47% of ad revenue which led to the magazine’s demise. It is hard to believe that a magazine which had been on the market for so long, be given up so quickly.
Former Gourmet writer Francis Lam had the following to say on Thank you, Gourmet. I believe no more needs to be added.
Schlagworte: ende, gourmet, thankyougourmet.com, zeitschriften
