Food & Wine - History

History

Michael and Ariane Batterberry's early writing work on food included the 1973 book On the Town in New York, From 1776 to the Present, a culinary history of New York City that was republished in 1998 by Routledge in celebration of the book's 25th anniversary. The Batterberrys had first met an arts benefit on the roof of Manhattan's St. Regis Hotel and hadn't initially been food writers, with Michael working as a journalist and the couple working together as arts editors at Harper's Bazaar. They first conceived of the idea of writing a book about food all over the world after spending a weekend together with best-selling wine writer Hugh Johnson, who later dropped out of the writing project. The original edition of the book was described by The Washington Post as "the authoritative history of dining in the country's culinary capital". The Batterberry's saw "a big changeover at the moment we founded Food and Wine in the late 70's" from a time when "it was the little wife in the kitchen" to a period in which more men developed an interest in cooking.

With Robert and Lindy Kenyon covering the business side and with funding by Hugh Hefner, the Batterberrys started publishing The International Review of Food and Wine in 1978, which had a prototype issue published in Playboy. Later renamed simply Food & Wine, the magazine's mission was to be a more down-to-earth alternative to Gourmet and its "truffled pomposity", with the goal of appealing to both women and men as readers, and early issues featuring articles by such non-traditional food writers as George Plimpton and Wilfrid Sheed. When it was first published, a senior editor of Gourmet magazine scoffed at the new alternative, saying "We don't look at the others as competition. They look at us, try to copy us and fail miserably". By 1980, when it was sold to American Express, the magazine had circulation of 250,000 per issue, evenly split by gender, and was distributing 900,000 copies a month as of 2009. citing a decline in advertising sales and the changing tastes of its readers, Condé Nast Publications announced in October 2009 that Gourmet would cease publication by the end of that year. The magazine's style of simple meals, diet foods and easy-to-follow cooking instructions set a standard that became the model for a generation of cooking shows and publications. The Batterberrys went on to co-found Food Arts magazine, a publication aimed at restaurants and hotels.