I got thinking about food mags today because I really don’t buy them anymore.  Not that I rely solely on the internet to get all my food news, but I’ve just been turned off by so many of them.

The one I do love — my favorite — is Cook’s Illustrated.  I always see it as the Consumer Reports of food mags: unbiased and refreshingly honest in its discovery of how to make the perfect (insert dish here) or in its reviews of equipment.  And the illustrations used are practically artwork themselves.  Blown up, they’d be frameable for the kitchen.

Their sister publication, Cook’s Country, is a bit more down-homey and less technical, although quite a nice mag to read.

Gourmet is gone now, which is a shame.  My aunt used to have a bunch of old copies lying around for archival use; I tend to do the same thing now with my Cook’s Illustrated backissues.  Gourmet would appeal to me on occasion (usually the “holiday editions” for Thanksgiving and such) but reading about travel and other subjects that weren’t so food-related…it fell off my radar, pretty much.

Bon Appetit lost me a long while back.  I used to get miffed at their “Entertaining In Style” sections, where they would profile some high-class family who ate off plates that cost more than what I pull in weekly.  Dining and entertaining in ways that I could not afford, nor do I think I would particularly care to execute.  It just didn’t reach me.  I suppose they have these features for people that also love watching British royalty on television and that buy magazines profiling celebrities.  However, living (and eating) vicariously through others is not enough to get me to buy your magazine.

I know a lot of folks like the Food Network magazine.  I think I would dig that more if it wasn’t so plastered with Food Network personalities.  I know the recipes are good.  I just have a hard time getting past that.  It’s a personal thing.

Saveur and Food & Wine tend to be almost identical to me.  Although, were you to press me on it, I’d reach for Saveur first.  They’re more accessible versions of what Gourmet was, with the exception being that Food & Wine seems (to me) to be more laden with advertising.  I can only presume this is due to their massive tie-in with Top Chef.  Saveur also seems to have better writing; again, this is just my opinion.