The Art of Eating

The Art of Eating is a quarterly publication by Edward Behr, and it is my favorite food periodical. There are recipes in it, although I've never actually made one. And there are restaurant reviews, sort of. But mostly it's just a deeply contemplative look at food. Each issue has feature article that looks closely at a particular food or place. One recent issue included an in-depth look at Comte cheese - how and where it's made, the people who make it, what you can do with it. The next issue (pictured here) was all about the wines and winemakers of the Jura region where Comte is made. Earlier this year, the feature article was a near poetic ode to the Olympia Oyster. And recent "place" themed issues have talked about restaurants and food producers in Montreal and Beaujolais.

The feature articles are generally quite dense - this isn't a magazine to read while your mind is really somewhere else. It requires - and rewards - concentration and focus.

Each issue also contains a handful of briefer articles, and usually a number of book reviews for both cookbooks and other writing about food. At $39/year for a 4-issue subscription, it's not cheap, but I find myself resubscribing every year anyway.