To You—A Lover of Good Food
We Introduce
GOURMET
The Magazine of Good Living
The name GOURMET is selected for this publication because it typifies the acme in appreciation of food perfection. In a broader sense, however, the word gourmet signifies far more than just food perfection. It is a synonym for the honest seeker of the summum bonum of living.
The art of being a gourmet has nothing to do with age, money, fame, or country. It can be found in a thrifty French housewife with her pot-au-feu or in a white-capped chef in a skyscraper hotel. But wherever it exists, the practitioner of this art will have the eye of an artist, the imagination of a poet, the rhythm of a musician, and the breadth of a sculptor. That is the subtle amalgam of which the true gourmet is compounded.
Never has there been a time more fitting for a magazine like GOURMET to come into being. Good food and good living have always been a great American tradition. At our very fingertips in this land of glorious plenty lie an abundance and variety of foods unequalled anywhere. And our native, unquenchable thirst for discovery is now leading us daily into new and exciting channels of exploration in the realm of fine food and drink.
But perhaps more important than all else today should be our recognition of that Biblical axiom, “Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” How much more significant this admonition is today when the mad hurly-burly of our modern daily existence forces us all to catch hold of the charged wire of noisy, strident living—and when the need to let go is the gravest task that faces us all! It is a wise person indeed who makes the satisfying of his palate an exciting, stimulating adventure—a time when he completely dissociates himself, if only temporarily, from the discordance of the world—a time when he responds to the sensuous enjoyment, not only of food but of its color and form and savor—a time when friend holds fellowship with friend—when ease (never the apathy of a glutted diner) promotes that delicious feeling of physical and aesthetic well-being. And when, for a brief moment, we recapture the mellow moods and manners of a bygone day which unashamedly followed the pursuit of happiness in such admirable fashion.
GOURMET seeks to connect this link of a gracious past with the tempo of today, and to initiate a healthy curiosity in those who have heretofore thought of eating as merely the satisfying of hunger. It hopes to start them on explorations into new bypaths of culinary delights, to whet their appetites and excite their senses so that they will strive for broader horizons in their dining and wining adventures—and so that this new enjoyment will soon become a part of their lives.
To those who would like to share a gourmet’s joie de vivre, GOURMET promises a policy dedicated to presenting the unusual in food, its sources, its combination in menus, exciting news of the coteries-that-make-news in diplomatic and society circles, of culinary hobbies and amusements. In short, GOURMET will speak that Esperanto of the palate that makes the whole world kin…good food, good drink, fine living…the universal language of the gourmet.
Pearl V. Metzelthin, Editor
Louis P. De Gouy, Chef
Earl R. MacAusland, Publisher
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