Posted on: Wednesday, December 12, 2001

Food for Thought
'80s magazines bring back taste of past

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Living in Hawai'i's small spaces forces us to make hard choices at times. Last week, for example, I had to choose between some drawer space I really needed and a treasured stack of Cuisine magazines from the early 1980s.

I had always meant to go through these, but never found the time. A rainy Sunday seemed right for the task, but as I flipped pages and clipped recipes and stories, I found myself increasingly reluctant to say goodbye to Cuisine, a magazine that respected home cooks.

Also, I was forcibly struck by what a seminal period the early 1980s was for contemporary American cooking. The writers in these magazines today are considered masters, authors of cookbook classics: Anne Willan, Marian Burros, Perla Meyers, Barbara Tropp, Paula Wolfert, Lynne Rosetto Kasper, Evan Jones, Diana Kennedy, Pierre Franey, Elizabeth Schneider, Sharon Tyler Herbst, Judith Olney.

The books reviewed included Alice Waters' "Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook" (which sold for $16.95 in hardback then!). Reviewer Richard Sax presciently called it "one of the few unquestionably brilliant books on food to appear in years." It is difficult to explain to today's young chefs and home cooks how revolutionary it was to read about a restaurant whose owner was so insistent on fresh produce that she grew it herself.

Cuisine was characterized by a wealth of solid information, a serious-but-never-pretentious tone and more recipes than any magazine today would even think of publishing — 10 or more long, multi-ingredient recipes per article. Every issue, it seemed, included a recipe for chicken stock; their philosophy was, if it's called for in a recipe, we'll tell you how to make it.

The other thing that struck me was how au courant the magazine seemed. Or are we just going around in circles?

Even as we're reading today about the revival of the cocktail, I found a January 1982 piece on setting up a proper bar. Even as wine writers today are defending rosé as legitimate but little understood in America, rosé was on the cover of the June 1981 issue. In July 1982, chevre, now a staple in many kitchens, was the focus of a multi-page story.

The magazines have been dismembered now, except for a precious few that I just couldn't stand to let go of. I'll miss them.