Art of Eating, Number 76
Ed Behr’s quarterly, The Art of Eating, distinguishes itself from other food and wine publications in a number of ways: quality of writing/editing, depth of research, and lack of ads. But perhaps the most unusual aspect is a seeming lack of word count requirements. Ed, like Cheryl at Edible East Bay, feels that stories have a natural length, and he clearly doesn’t want a writer to leave something out because it doesn’t fit in some arbitrary box. I don’t think I’ve ever had Ed tell me anything more than a very rough number, and I ignore, with him, my usual rule of hitting within one percent of a publisher’s word limits. (Though I recognize the value of self-editing a 1,300-word draft down to 800 words.)
As a result of this quirky editorial philosophy, articles in The Art of Eating can sprawl across tens of pages if Ed feels they should. His feature about Beaujolais, which came out about four or five years ago, is a great example. I think I once heard him say that it’s 20,000 words, 7-10 times the size of a standard magazine feature.
I consider myself fairly geeky about wine, but if you had asked me about Aglianico del Vulture, I probably would have guessed that it’s from southern Italy, and I might have remembered that it’s a red. Even in Saveur, the closest glossy mag you can find to AoE, you might — might — find three pages about the wine. Compare that to this issue of AoE, which devotes 24 pages to the area: the wine, the food, the culture, and more.
This is why you should be subscribing to The Art of Eating.
As an aside, I have a small feature in this issue about rabbit. I really came to appreciate this meat as I researched the article. I used to only eat it at restaurants, but now I cook it at home when I can. To accompany the article, Melissa took pictures of Taylor, from Fatted Calf, breaking down a bunny, since few cookbooks show you the process: They just describe it. James MacGuire contributed most of the recipes.
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