Shuttered Gourmet Magazine executive chef Sara Moulton - exclusive interview on the closing

Executive Chef Sara Moulton is known not only for her twenty five years at Gourmet Magazine but as a Food Network star for her Cooking Live, Cooking Live Primetime shows, food editor/executive chef for Good Morning America and multiple cookbook author. Sara’s Weeknight Meals is her most recent television endeavor on Public Broadcasting with a companion cookbook. Way before we all heard the news about Gourmet Magazine shuttering their doors, executive chef, Sara Moulton and I had a luncheon date set for the end of October.

 A bit of background

Sara and I have been friendly acquaintances since food styling for her at a local event. She is what you see; talented, sincere, passionate, knowledgeable and approachable. We have remained in contact, whether seeing her dashing through the Fancy Food Show looking for new products for the Good Morning America segments, at Women Chefs and Restaurateurs events, donating a recipe to my cookbook or honorary chair at the Ovarian Cancer fundraiser this past winter in Washington, D.C..

We had lunch scheduled at New York City’s Cookshop where Sara and I caught up on what her children were doing and family life. Good news, everyone is healthy and happy. The petite chef is so youthful in appearance it is hard to believe she has grown children, one in college and one recently graduated. I broached the subject of the closing of Conde Nast’s Gourmet Magazine which was the elephant in the room, the uninvited guest at our table. Sara was very candid about the situation. Today’s story is about Sara Moulton’s views and experiences with the closing of the 68-year-old Gourmet Magazine.

 Sara called it "the perfect storm"

 Chef Moulton said that three years ago Gourmet, like the American economy as a whole, was doing very well. Just around that time the magazine’s sitting publisher left for Architectural Digest and took some talented staffers with him. During the next two years Gourmet hired and replaced two new publishers, neither of whom was a great fit for the job. Morale was declining when Nancy Cardone, the publisher of Allure, was named Gourmet’s publisher in May of 2008. Cardone began to turn things around at the magazine, but couldn’t do anything about the crisis in the economy. Two of Gourmet’s most dependable advertiser categories – the auto industry and financial services – were especially hard hit, and ad pages declined. “Unfortunately,” Sara said, “It was the perfect storm.”

“Conde Nast has always appreciated and published quality products,” she continued. “Their support for the New Yorker never wavered although it operated in the red for years. I think if the current economy were stronger, Conde Nast might’ve been able to keep Gourmet alive.”

 Monday, October 5th – Breaking News: Gourmet is shutting down

Sara was shopping at the Farmers Market when Jenn Day, her chef de cuisine, called from the office at around nine-thirty on Monday morning, Oct. 5. “She was crying, and said, ‘I have some very bad news.’ I thought she was going to tell me that someone had died or that one of my dear friends at the magazine had been let go. But when she told me they were going to shut down the magazine. I was really shocked. There were a ton of positive things already set up. I asked her if we were still going to do the Gourmet Institute, and whether we were making the trip to Hawaii.

“Finally around 1 p.m., I got a call from my immediate boss. She said, ‘You’d better get in here. We’ve been told to clean out our desks by tomorrow at five.’ Well, that’s the Conde Nast way; when they shut down a magazine, there are no long goodbyes. It’s always seemed pretty brutal to me, but I’m not remotely mad at them. I think they did the best they could to try make this work."

 "I got my ass over the office, downloaded everything I needed from my computer, and put together my last expense report. After awhile I’d had enough of it and went home to regroup.”

Tuesday, October 6th – Packing it all up

 “@saramoulton: It's a sad day. Got to clean out my office at Gourmet after 25 years. 8:16 AM Oct 6th from Twitter”

 “When I went back the next day, my biggest task was packing up the library of cookbooks I’ve put together during the last 25 years. Luckily, I had my husband with me. He’s a die-hard bibliophile. To him, packing up the books was an important rescue mission. It took him six hours to do the work. When he was finished there were 35 big boxes full of cookbooks."

 “The saddest moment of the last day was saying goodbye to Jenn Day. We’ve worked together for the last eight years, and cooking lunches with her had become my favorite part of the job. It also made me sad to take the pictures of my family off the wall of my office. But I did it and then I went home".

“Now that I’ve had a month to absorb it, I’m personally feeling sort of happy. I would never have left Gourmet on my own, but suddenly I realized, ‘Wow, now I can do something different.’ Of course, it was always a tremendous pleasure and honor to work for Gourmet. It was a great pioneering brand of American food journalism. I mean, they been publishing since 1941! But there were some restrictions on me. For one thing, obviously, I couldn’t work for other magazines. More recently, I couldn’t even be quoted in other magazines. So I’m sorry for the world that there will be no more Gourmet, but I’m excited for me.”

 @saramoulton: Moved out of my office. packed up 35 boxes of mostly cookbooks! tomorrow is a new day. 5:55 PM Oct 6th from Twitter

 The hereafter

 @saramoulton: up early. going to start beating the bushes to find out what is out there jobwise. happy to spend more time at home. 6:59 AM Oct 7th from Twitter

“The 2nd day home we sat down at the family dinner discussed why it was good that Gourmet shut down for me.”

@saramoulton: first day without a job wasn't so bad. sort of excited about new opportunities. the weather helps. 9:45 PM Oct 7th from Twitter

@saramoulton: helping my daughter with an art project for her design class. nice article by chris kimball in the times today about gourmet. check it out. 4:25 PM Oct 8th from Twitter

@saramoulton: back to the grind of retesting recipes for my cookbook. tonight it is spanish burgers. 4:36 PM Oct 10th from Twitter

@saramoulton: heard this morning there is going to be a new food network. it is going to be called the food channel. wonder what that means. 6:34 PM Oct 10th from Twitter

@saramoulton: a week later I am even sadder about Gourmet. It took awhile to sink in. making creamy chicken soup with lavasch croutons for dinner. 5:40 PM Oct 12th from Twitter

 As Sara stated during our interview the end of October, “Second acts are more fulfilling.”

More about Sara Moulton and bringing her back to LIVE television

During the nine years Sara was with the Food Network she hosted over 1500 shows and the majority of them were LIVE. Compare her numbers to those of a regular television show of 24 episodes a year and Sara's numbers are staggering. When the Food Network went from culinary talent to personalities, many, many people were saddened to lose her live cooking programs, and for a while she was doing two a night. For the Sara Moulton fans who want to see her back on LIVE television with her cooking program, a small group of fans, including me, have created a Bring Sara Moulton back to Live television page on Facebook. We hope you will join. With the Food Network starting a new channel, we have high hopes that if our group numbers are large, we might just get Sara back doing what she does best - live television.

This is part one of four stories from my lunch with Sara Moulton.

For those of you who haven't seen Sara and those who have watch her video on Good Morning America on preparing your Thanksgiving food. Bring Sara back!