I agree with every single review here that gives Fine Cooking five stars. It was always my favorite food magazine -with the focus on proper technique, rather than upon fancy pictures put together by food "stylists," rather than cooks.
"Was" is the operative word though. This year Fine Cooking felt it had to "fix" something that was nowhere near "broke" and they turned FC into exactly the "food stylist" type of magazine that had sent me into the arms of Fine Cooking to begin with. The new format is all style over substance; indeed, there are so many "pretty" stylized pictures that it is now difficult to read -the text gets lost.
FC also lost the unique personal style from the original FC -the old format had these simple articles, oftentimes with a cook giving you the take on a single technique or ingredient. The cook was right there with you, with their hands on the food, and their smiling face beaming at you the beginning of the article. It looked like real food being cooked in front of you by a real person, rather than stylized food being glossed up with shellac before a hot camera.
Alas, that is all gone now. There are still a few good recipes, such as the excellent "Grill Braising" article by Bruce Aidells (my guess is that Bruce was under contract before they changed the format). But why wasn't Bruce in the shots, instead of these picture-perfect creations? And why did the text have to be so difficult to read?
I can say I am not alone in my disdain; others I know here were also heartbroken when the format changed, and the online blogs and FC's own blog included many angered by the change. Some did like it -but then there are lots of people who do like these "stylized" publications, I'm just not one of them. Its just not what I looked for in Fine Cooking. My subscription has now lapsed, although I hope they bring back the old format (my guess is that they lost many subscribers).
In any event -I thought that this review was necessary to give fair warning to those reading the OLD reviews about the OLD FC format. "New" is not always necessarily "improved."
UPDATE: Alas, FC remains ruined, but I found a great way to stoke my old flame: I started buying back issues of FC on eBay starting from February 1994. I had only started reading FC in 2000, so now I have 6 years of back issues. What a joy, they still pop with timeless articles showcasing fine food and techniques. But here is the real reason for my upgraded post. In the very first issue, the Publisher Jan Wahlin set out the "mission statement" of Fine Cooking and it is telling:
"[A]s you can see from this first issue, Fine Cooking is not just another food magazine. Its about the _hows_, and more importantly, the _whys_ of cooking. Its written by cooks, for cooks like you. The photos are not just pretty pictures taken on a set, using props to accent finished dishes. These are photos of real cooks in real kitchen." FC, No. 1, Feb/March 1994, at 4 (emphasis in original)
If only the present editors would read that mission statement and return to FC's roots. I really wish Alice Waters, or someone else, would buy the franchise and bring it back to its old glory. Bengoshi
This is one of the few magazines that I read EVERY article. I always find multiple recipes to use, often times heading to the kitchen, before I've even made it through the magazine. What few ads there are, are relevant, and have made me head to the internet to find out more info about the products advertised. I've given this magazine as a gift to many friends and family members.
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I have been buying this magazine for years now and have not found an issue that I do not like. I found this magazine focuses on useful tips and strategies to make cooking much easier. Some (a few) of the recipes call for ingredients not readily available in my kitchen but overall I can either find the ingredients or find substitutes. Also, in most of the issues the staff rates different appliances (this month is steak knives, and graters). Overall I recommend this magazine to both all my friends and family.
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I agree with the others who commented on how the magazine has changed from its previous format. I used to enjoy Fine Cooking and when it would arrive I'd sit down to read the articles. The emphasis on teaching technique and learning how to cook and bake with your five senses is now gone. There's actually very little to read! Gone are the feature articles written by the chefs and cooks themselves. It's just large, photos of perfectly photo-styled food (no graphics showing you dishes in progress) and recipes. I'm very disappointed. I learned so much from the likes of Joanne Chang, Alice Medrich, Abby Dodge and others in the magazine since we started subscribing over a decade ago. Now it's just another lightweight glossy with little substance. Aren't there already enough of those? Come back, old Fine Cooking.
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I purchased a fine cooking magazine from our local bookstore as I was going to find a special occasion recipe for a "Wow dessert". I decided to pick up their holiday edition and was sad to say that this magazine is riddled with errors. I found multiple recipes where pictures and instructions were missing.
An example: Chocolate Mousse Layer Cake. This is a layer cake with chocolate mousse filling / topping. Errors in this recipe include:
A. No picture or instruction that tells the reader that they will need to cut the cake in half to make the layer cake or split the filling into two pans. The recipe referred to the cake "pan" as a singular and it was very confusing. It was not until I went to the site to verify the recipe did it include the proper pictures / instruction.
B. Missing ingredients from the list. I don't know who edits this magazine, but it really is horrendous to exclude ingredients. The above chocolate mousse layer cake recipe requires that the wet and dry ingredients be added together, then additional water needs to be added. There is no reference in the magazine to the amount of water that needs to be added. On the website for the magazine the recipe was corrected.
I'm okay with a minor error or instruction, it happens, but to have such HUGE RECIPE ERRORS really is unprofessional and frustrating.
I personally will never reference Finecooking again for any recipe. There are better, more reliable sources out there.
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As the name suggests the magazine is a collection of speeches (though not always vital they are varied and have a wide appeal). There is no advertising, no photography, only a collection of 5-9 different speeches which can cover topics from education to nuclear energy to the banking system to the practice of non-violence to ... well just about anything.
