Some conclude from the closing of Gourmet magazine that foodies have disappeared. I'm think there are more foodies than ever. As it closed, Gourmet still had almost a million subscribers. Millions more watch the Food Channel, visit farmers' markets, or buy into local farms to get just-picked veggies. They patronize ethnic restaurants and shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Wegmans, Kroger, Publix, Nob Hill, and 1,000 other stores that offer wonderful sauces, cheeses, meats, soups, pesto, fresh produce, and increasingly local crops. Their grocery stores offer ethnic specialties and international flavors that stretch palates, while responding to the needs of changing demographics. Showing interest in basmati rice and rice noodles, a new generation of foodies is exploring the cuisines of distant lands and exotic vegetables from local farm plots. They are reading Michael Pollan as well as cookbooks, following the careers of celebrity chefs and the rise and fall of restaurants, and eating Indian, Cuban, Creole, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern, and even French. Yes, in spite of the economy, new French restaurants are sprouting up around the U.S. and in Europe and generating buzz and lines. People in Philadelphia Panerai Replica Watches are singing the praises of Bibou (their mushroom appetizers really are heavenly), and revisiting the one and only Le Bec Fin thanks to a relaxed dress code and creative price promotional offers including a gamble on patrons' ability to appreciate quality: "Pay what you think it's worth." I did some focus groups for Le Bec Fin this summer and heard many locals say that it was the stiff dress code and high beverage prices more than the high food prices that kept them away. Celebrating occasions with authentic and wonderful food still has wide appeal, but wines at $100 a bottle are out of step with today's anxious marketplace. In New York, a French steakhouse called Le Relais de Venise, also called L'Entrecote, is joining two branches in London and one each in Barcelona and Bahrain.
It's ironic that Gourmet magazine should be shut down when French Ring Style food is reflowering and Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking remains on the best seller list. One of our panelists wrote that "everything is out of whack." I haven't heard "out of whack" in a long time, but it seems like an apt description of the anxious and wacky world we live in.
