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One of my favorite shows on basic cable is the Food Network's "Iron Chef America." I love the exotic combinations of ingredients, the blow-by-blow of cooking techniques, and the often crisp descriptions from the judges as they savor each bite.
Of course, I burn everything I try to cook, so this really does become a spectator sport more than anything. But if I can't taste it, smell it, or even imagine touching it, what the heck do I get out of these hour-long epicurean battles?
Food Network Magazine might have the answer. According to Mediabistro.com, the monthly isn't only surviving the present print economy, but it's actually predicting sizable increases in subscriptions over the next year.
FNM was ballsy enough to take on the print gauntlet in late 2008 when USA Today and the New York Times reported on "sharp circulation drop[s]" among newspapers. Yet somehow, like Ludacris, it wasn't scared.
Is it that the secret to a man's heart has turned out to also be the secret to a woman's? There's a reason why chocolates are a popular Valentine's Day gift for women. Maybe it's just that the Food Network TV personalities aren't stick thin and gorgeous, but rather friendly and normal looking, so that you don't feel guilty about eating food (or reading about it). Or maybe they've replaced all those smelly perfume samples with scratch and sniff panels that emanate aromas of bacon bleu cheese burgers or gulf shrimp fettucini with truffle oil. Please?
If it isn't that last one, perhaps it is that food is justifiable on a tight budget. It's the one thing you won't cut completely from your spending. If you think about it, a food magazine could squeeze its way into that exception, as well. While a fashion mag or an editorial weekly will stay timely for a bit, recipes never go out of style.
Especially ones with bleu cheese or truffle oil. Mmm...scratch & sniff...
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