Christopher Kimball on the Internet, Gourmet

Chris Kimball memorialized Gourmet in a NY Times op-ed and had a striking point towards the end:

Google “broccoli casserole” and make the first recipe you find. I guarantee it will be disappointing. The world needs fewer opinions and more thoughtful expertise — the kind that comes from real experience, the hard-won blood-on-the-floor kind. I like my reporters, my pilots, my pundits, my doctors, my teachers and my cooking instructors to have graduated from the school of hard knocks.

He’s right. Not that Gourmet was the only publication who could publish a good recipe, but in the age of everyone being an expert quality has suffered. The first hit for broccoli casserole includes brozen broccoli, canned soup, a pound of cheese and a package of Ritz crackers. No thanks.

I subscribe to Kimball’s wonderful Cook’s Illustrated website and you should too.