BON APPETIT – MY FAVORITE FOOD MAGAZINE

As a typical foodie, I spend most of my days thinking about, reading about, eating or preparing food.  My food-obsessed life wouldn’t be complete wihtout food magazines to read while traveling, waiting and during other quiet times.  They point me to new food trends, area restaurants and great recipes.  Some mags that I’ve subscribed to in the past but have not renewed are:

Martha Stewart’s Living – It’s large and full, but just not for me.
Food Network Magazine -- a good mag with great photos, but I can only read so much and wanted to branch out,
Cooking Light – a good mag, but I’m moving on to try new things.

This year, my subscriptions include Bon Appetit, Eating Well, Good Housekeeping and Southern Living.  My top fave is Bon Appetit.  The magazine is small and thin compared to Food Network Magazine.  But I literally hang on every page, sometimes reading articles a second and maybe even a third time.  It’s one of the most well-written magazines that I’ve had the pleasure to read.  New editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport has overseen a redesign that speaks to me.  The newly redesigned BA  tells you what to cook, how to cook it, and why to cook it, now.  In Rapoport’s own words, “...Everyone on this staff, from the creative director to the research editor, loves to cook, eats with conviction,and never hesitates to tell you where he or she ate last weekend.  Food matters to us…”  I’m the first to admit that the staff of BA is light years ahead of me in culinary skills and expression.  Which is exactly why I love to read what they have to say.

I love their r.s.v.p. column – letters written by readers that have visited restaurants, fallen in love with a dish, can’t get the recipe pried from the chef, and hope that BA can get it for them.  Many times, the chef will release the recipe when BA asks.  When they won’t release it, BA comes up with a copy-cat version. 

Molly Wizenberg, award-winning blogger and author of “A Homemade Life,” is a regular contributor and I always look forward to her column.  Molly has the uncanny ability to make you fall in love with a food that you’ve never tried.  When she wrote about green papaya salad, I felt compelled to make it.  No matter what she writes about, I want to try it. 

Restaurant and Drinks Editor Andrew Knowlton keeps readers up to date on food trends and area restaurants that are worth visiting.  Andrew is definitely worth listening to, IMHO.

Prep School, in the back of BA,  gives easy to follow, step-by-step pictorial instruction to accompany recipes that may have difficult procedures for novice cooks.

A Recipe Index is included in case you want to keep your magazine and use it like a cookbook. 
And if you don’t know where to buy some of the ingredients, Sourcebook, also in the back, lists shopping info.  I love that BA has given me sources for wild salmon.  I’ll definitely be ordering some. 

So why am I telling you all this?  Because in these uncertain economic times, magazines are struggling.  Remember what happened to Gourmet, another great –er, used-to-be-great -- food magazine?  Please don’t let it happen to Bon Appetit.  A one-year subscription (12 issues) is only $12.