Calvin Trillin is always puzzled by financial decisions about writing.

Question: Were you surprised by Gourmet magazine closing?

Calvin Trillin: I was totally surprised by its closing, and although I’ve written for Gourmet I wasn’t ever a reader of Gourmet or of any other food magazine. I’m really not that interested in the subject or actually not interested at all in the subject of food and cooking, and I don’t cook so the recipes were not of any use to me, but as people have been saying since the announcement was made, it really was sort of an icon Gourmet, and I ran into a chef I know in my neighborhood yesterday. And he just said he was heartbroken by it. It was what they looked up to. I only know what I read in the papers that the theory was that Bon Appetit owned by Conde Nast as well was a sort of middle brow version, and that the decision was essentially Gourmet is for the elite and this is for the middle class, and we’ll go with these sort of people who like certain kind of meat and potatoes recipes and need to cook at home and want to know about various things and save money and things, and so you know again it’s one of those financial decisions for people who are actually doing the writing are always totally puzzling.

Recorded on:  October 8, 2009