Monday, January 22, 2007

food magazine addicts anonymous


Hello. My name is Yunyoung and I am addicted to food magazines. I subscribe to 3 publications (Saveur, Bon Appetit, & Gourmet) and the rest I buy off the rack, monthly or bi-monthly; 4 are printed abroad (U.K. and Australia) so I pay an arm and leg for them. I started dabbling in it 2 years ago and have been a chronic user for a year. This particular problem started around the time I was brainstorming ways to expand my culinary knowledge. I had just finished a 20-week culinary arts program with L'Academie de Cuisine; fueling my ambitions of becoming a master in the kitchen. But thinking back, it may have begun when I saw The Naked Chef for the first time on television. The cute British boy having fun in his kitchen, cooking! I couldn't get enough of him, or his cookbooks (6 and counting.) My addiction has now extended to food/travel memoirs. I was introduced to this style of writing with Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone and Comfort me with Apples. I was instantly hooked. So it began: Anthony Bourdain, M.F.K. Fisher, Michael Ruhlman, Peter Mayle, Frances Mayes and the likes. Every time I'd step inside a used bookstore, I would head straight to the cookbook section and scan the shelves for something that would satisfy my appetite. When I find a plastic-wrapped Saveur waiting for me in my mailbox or eye a new issue of Delicious or Olive at Barnes and Noble, I smile slyly; keeping my happiness a secret. Maybe it's the glossy covers and pretty pictures in the magazines, the mouthwatering recipes in the cookbooks, or romanticizing about writing a memoir myself someday that makes me go back looking for more. I'd like to choose "D": all of the above, spurring from the passion I have for food and anything related. This is one addiction I won't give up.

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