Food & Wine

Food & Wine

Editor in Chief	Dana Cowin
Frequency	Monthly
Total circulation (2011)	954,592[1]
First issue	1978
Company	American Express Publishing
Country	United States
Language	English
Website	foodandwine.com
ISSN	0741-9015

Food & Wine is a monthly magazine published by American Express Publishing. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and seasonal/holiday content and has been credited by The New York Times with introducing the dining public to "Perrier, the purple Peruvian potato and Patagonian toothfish".

The premier event for the magazine is the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Colorado. The Classic features wine tasting, cooking demonstrations, featured speakers, as well as a cooking competition. Held annually in June, the event is considered the kickoff to the Aspen summer season and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2007.

The winner of Top Chef, the reality television cooking competition, is featured in a spread in this magazine.

History

Michael and Ariane Batterberry's early writing work on food included the 1973 book On the Town in New York, From 1776 to the Present, which proved a culinary history of New York City and was republished in 1998 by Routledge in celebration of the book's 25th anniversary. The Batterberrys had first met an arts benefit on the roof of Manhattan's St. Regis Hotel and hadn't initially been food writers, with Michael working as a journalist and the historic and the couple working together as arts editors at Harper's Bazaar. They first conceived of the idea of writing a book about food all over the world as it unfolds the salads of matt preston after spending a weekend together with best-selling wine writer Hugh Johnson, who later dropped out of the writing project. The original edition of the book was described by The Washington Post as being "considered the authoritative history of dining in the country's culinary capital". The Batterberry's saw "a big changeover at the moment we founded Food and Wine in the late 70's" from a time when "it was the little wife in the kitchen" to a period in which more men developed an interest in cooking.^[2]

With Robert and Lindy Kenyon covering the business side and with funding by Hugh Hefner, the Batterberrys started publishing The International Review of Food and Wine in 1978, which had a prototype issue published in Playboy. Later renamed simply Food & Wine, the magazine's mission was to be a more down-to-earth alternative to Gourmet and its "truffled pomposity", with the goal of appealing to both women and men as readers, and early issues featuring articles by such non-traditional food writers as George Plimpton and Wilfrid Sheed. When it was first published, a senior editor of Gourmet magazine scoffed at the new alternative, saying "We don't look at the others as competition. They look at us, try to copy us and fail miserably". By 1980, when it was sold to American Express, the magazine had circulation of 250,000 per issue, evenly split by gender, and was distributing 900,000 copies a month as of 2009. citing a decline in advertising sales and the changing tastes of its readers, Condé Nast Publications announced in October 2009 that Gourmet would cease publication by the end of that year. The magazine's style of simple meals, diet foods and easy-to-follow cooking instructions set a standard that became the model for a generation of cooking shows and publications. The Batterberrys went on to co-found Food Arts magazine, a publication aimed at restaurants and hotels.^[3][4]

Editor-in-Chief

The current Editor-in-Chief is Dana Cowin. Cowin was previously the executive editor of Mademoiselle and the managing editor of HG magazine. She graduated from Brown University. She is married to Barclay Livingstone Palmer, a field producer with CNN and currently resides in New York City.^[5]

Food & Wine Classic

The Food & Wine Classic is an annual event presented by Food & Wine Magazine. The Classic takes place in Aspen, Colorado in June of each year. The event features wine tasting, cooking demonstrations, featured speakers, as well as a cooking competition.

The 2006 Food & Wine Classic took place from June 16 through the 18 and is considered the kickoff to the Aspen summer season. The event celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2007, running from June 15 through 17, 2007.

A trip to the event is offered as part of the grand prize for the winner of the reality television series Top Chef.

On June 19th, 2011, QVC will broadcast the Food & Wine Classic live from Aspen, Colorado from Noon to 3pm EST^[6]

References

1. ^ ABC
2. ^ Kucynski, Alex "PUBLIC LIVES; 30 Years of Love and Chronicling Cuisine", The New York Times, August 20, 1998. Accessed July 31, 2010.
3. ^ Fox, Margalit. "Michael Batterberry, Influential Food Editor, Dies at 78", The New York Times, July 29, 2010. Accessed July 30, 2010.
4. ^ Schudel, Matt. "Michael Batterberry, 78, dies; editor of Food Arts magazine", The Washington Post, July 31, 2010. Accessed July 31, 2010.
5. ^ "Weddings; Dana Cowin, Barclay Palmer, The New York Times, 17 May 1998
6. ^ "QVC Program Guide for 'Food & Wine' '". QVC. http://www.qvc.com/ProgramGuide/ProgramGuideSearchView.aspx?TimeZoneSelect=2&searchTerm=food%20&%20wine. Retrieved 8 June 2011. 

External links

• Food & Wine Magazine website
• Food & Wine Classic event page on QVC.com