rip gourmet.

i have been waiting.....hoping...waiting.....yearning....waiting...for this to change and there is no changing the reality that the november issue was the last of gourmet magazine, the vogue of the food world is going night night. every single month there were photographs you wanted to frame, there were recipes i couldn't wait to try, stories connecting us to places far away that made it into my kitchen. the layouts were beautiful, doable & inspiring...the pages were gorgeous and it was so so fancy. it brought fancy into the kitchen. AND FANCY IS ESSENTIAL in the kitchen & in our lives....a teaspoon of fancy is exactly what you need to keep going. what makes me most sad is there is nothing fancy about bon appetit. i haven't seen it. i will look again. i will try to find it. fancy was in the bones, the genes, the chromosomes of gourmet magazine. fancy = gourmet. the dna of the magazine showed us that we can have beauty anywhere we are... we don't need to buy something to be fancy... it's just here inside you. inside your kitchen. maybe we need to redefine fancy. i am not talking patent leather shoes and pressed pants.

fancy is pulling carrots out of the ground.

fancy is finding an heirloom tea cup in the back of your cabinet that still smells like your grandmother.

fancy is bringing out the silver just because.

fancy is having nothing and creating something.

there is a lot of fancy and we can find it in every kitchen.

this is what gourmet did.....naturally.

mediocrity is winning to keep it short and simple. i want to cry all over my wooden spoons. i will not. i will stand strong with love. my heart beating through every copper pot i covet and can't wait to celebrate in my kitchen. what happened to wanting the best? to knowing you can have it even if it's a piece of special thread or a penny found on the ground. the excitement & the joy in something sacred, meaningful. something that moves you, shifts your perspective, creates that cozy place that bookmarks the feeling of beauty, celebration, something different, creative expression, inspiration, ambition....

it's definitely a job for the renaissance mama. we are all about fancy, finding it deep, inside the layers of tupperware & tea cups, mothers & grandmothers, between the swans down & the can of tuna fish...we will find the fancy and bring it back hard core...the new york times and conde naste say that the money is with mediocrity. everybody wants a pal instead of ruth reichl....well the renaissance mama is here to stay and i am bringing fancy and love and silver spoons with wooden bowls into your kitchen whether it's as big as a shoe box or smaller than a castle. and ruth is going to be with me all the way....bring it on & see you in the ktichenxxx