• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, 4 hours ago

Gourmet, an epicurean magazine launched in 1940, was shuttered by Condé Nast in 2009, along with three other titles. 

Well, it’s back—after a fashion. Gourmet is being relaunched as a newsletter, only not by Condé Nast.

Incredible as it seems, Condé Nast either forgot or deliberately neglected to renew the Gourmet copyright in 2021. 

This oversight was discovered by Sam Dean, a former writer for Bon Appétit and the Los Angeles Times, according to The New York Times. 

So Gourmet will be reconstituted by five young publishing professionals, not by a media conglomerate, the Times writes. 

“If we wanted to try something, the time was now,” says Alex Tatusian, one of the five co-founders who serves as a creative director based in Los Angeles, the Times continues. “It was a bit of an ‘Oceans 11’ kind of moment after that.”

Gourmet's ad pages were down by 42.7% for the year 2009 to date when Condé Nast decided to fold it. 

Food writer Ruth Reichl wrote in a memoir that Gourmet’s test kitchen spent $100,000 per year to test recipes it featured. It also employed 12 cooks and three dishwashers. 

We hope Condé Nast will let well enough alone and not try to reclaim this proud brand.