Customer Reviews

Saveur (1-year)

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I say "fun" because food should
be a pleasure, as well as an
exploration of the new and
different. One of the great strengths
of this magazine is that you
can get most of the ingredients
without having to visit a particular
store somewhere in the depths of
New York City. The people creating
the recipes are making the effort
to make preparing the food easier
for American cooks.

"Coffee table" magazine? I don't
think so... "Food and Wine": now that
is a magazine more devoted to showing
breathless closeups of beautiful
food. You can't eat it, and you can't
find the ingredients, but it looks
lovely. Yes, the photography in
Saveur is very nice, but that
just enhances the experience for me.

I am a former subscriber to a LOT
of food magazines. Gourmet lost it
when they went PC, and you can never
find the very special ingredients
they mention, unless you live
on a particular street in NYC. F&W
already mentioned. Williams/Sonoma had a
nice magazine, but now sadly gone.

I also like the travel aspect to
the articles, which is generally
much more "real" travel than you get
in other food magazines. As an
example, Gourmet will send a reporter
to the most expensive hotel/restaurant
in Italy, while Saveur will explore the
wonderful food and drinks to be found in
the Italian countryside.

I think the best compliment is that
other food magazines are stealing
ideas from Saveur, in hopes of grabbing
the same audience. A theme shows
up in Saveur, only to be repeated
a month or two later in Food and
Wine.

Perfect? No, but Saveur is working
on it, having had some ups and
downs in the last few years. I
think that the patient is recovering
nicely at this time (6/03).

Nuts 'n Bolts opinion...you get what you pay for (apologies for ending the sentence with a preposition!). SAVEUR is quality, specific directions and very clear. Other competitive magazines have 80% ads throughout magazine. Saveur does not. Photos are superb. The recipes continue on next page (vs. continued 43 pages in the back), Editor's comments on availability, etc. are included. Paper is thick and high gloss. We spend more money each month on Starbucks. Treat yourself to a much less expensive luxury. Subscribe to SAVEUR.

Saveur isn't in the same genre as other cooking magazines, and it is for precisely that reason that I give it a five-star rating. While I love my Bon Appetit and Cooking Light, Saveur is a completely different way of looking at food and cooking. It's far more cultural and in-depth than any of these other magazines can possibly be, given their target audiences. If you really want to take an in-depth look at food and culture, I highly recommend Saveur. The recipes that are included are very cookable. But this is a magazine you'll certainly want to read as much as you cook from it. It's not going to have recipes that you make on a busy weeknight. Rather, these recipes are cultural investigations and weekend projects. They're great for entertaining if you have friends who are as curious about culture and food and who love to experiment as much as you do. After reading Saveur and trying the accompanying and well-chosen recipes, you'll have a much greater appreciation for culture and food. Saveur really gets to the heart of the spiritual joy of eating and sharing food. If you can't travel, Saveur truly is the next best thing, and in this respect, is a highly "accessible" resource.

To me, Saveur is almost more about travel than it is about food. The articles tend to be about cuisines set in the context of their geographic and cultural origins. Rich photography and personal stories give you a flavor of the people and places behind familiar and new dishes. Articles in Saveur have inspired me to take several trips, to places I would not have otherwise considered, and seek out amazing little hole in the wall shops and restaurants.

If you love to travel, cook, and eat, you will love Saveur!

I have received almost all of the cooking and travel magazines out there and have to say that Saveur is by far one of the best. Not only are the recipes unique and delicious, the beautifully written articles on the cities and countries where the recipes are from are mesmerizing. The photo essays capture the food and culture of the city of focus, bringing the reader closer to the experience of the recipes shared. Some months focus on a particular region, while others pick out an ingredient of the season (such as apples in the most recent addition). After living in Japan for many years, a recent article on Sumo brought back to life the exquisite culture and cuisine I once shared.

I was afraid that the ingredients might be difficult to find given that it is based on international locations, but I have not found this to be a problem. They even took the time to create an 'where to order the food' list at the back for ingredients that aren't at the corner store. This would make a perfect gift for the cook in your life who has an interest in international cuisine and culture.

I love this magazine because it gives the background and history of food. When I get the magazine each month,I have to read it right then and there. I finally found out where Salisbury Steak originated. In Ohio, by a doctor during the Civil War. Not in England. The photography is beautiful and some of the stories are memories of what the certain food means to them. They make you want to try everything in the magazine. Saveur is not pretentious as "Food and Wine" or "Gourmet." It is nice to read about regular people that make great food at reasonable expenses. Subscribe to this magazine!

Saveur got a new Editor-in-Chief in 2006, when Colman Andrews (one of the original founding crew from the magazine's inception) stepped down after long-running battles with the new corporate ownership (World Publications out of Winter Park Florida.) Andrews was a curmudgeon, and a brilliant iconoclast. For years, he refused to run an image of a turkey on the cover of the November issue, to the displeasure of the newsstand sales dept. He was replaced by James Oseland, a contributor and Associate Editor at the magazine (one of his first acts was to run a picture of a turkey on the cover of the November issue - get it?) Saveur has fallen on tough times. Since most ad budgets for the food category are gobbled up by Rachel Ray, Gourmet, BonAppetit, Food and Wine and the like, Saveur is left with table scraps, and issues are skinny. Photography and art direction have always been first rate, and Oseland builds on this tradition with his passion for food photos that border on pornography, they are so luscious) But a shift in focus from Andrews' euro-centric vision to Oseland's more pan-asian outlook (he is the author of an excellent book on Indonesian cuisine, "Spice Islands") leaves something in translation as these themes don't resonate as heartily with Saveur's core audience. But he does seem to be attracting some younger, more urban readers. (Somehow, images of sweaty, grimy cooks behind-the-scene in a Bombay restaurant doesn't stir my soul for Indian food, though.) There is one bright spot - a greater focus on Asia has lightened up Saveur's previous artery-clogging fare. The editorial staff write for themselves mainly, so if you share their vision, then you'll love Saveur. (A special issue in 2007 was all about Chicago for instance, which happens to be Oseland's home town.) And other reviewers are spot-on about the recipes - if you don't live in NYC, you'll have trouble handily finding ingredients such as chicken feet, although they do reference websites for you to source things via mail-order. Wine coverage since Andrews left is scattershot and cursory - Oseland isn't a wine drinker, and wine stories compete for precious editorial space in these lean times for magazine advertising. I give Saveur high marks for uniqueness. If you do subscribe, pair Saveur's mineral, flinty undertones with a more practical, off-dry recipe holder such as Everyday with Rachel Ray or Southern Living.

I have over 35 classy cookbooks and, over the years, have subscribed to most of the best "foodie" magazines such as Gourmet, Bon Apetite,Taste, Food and Wine, etc.
Saveur, without a doubt, is absolutely the best. Not one recipe tried has ever failed me and I get raves from friends and family alike. I am a fairly accomplished cook/chef but always learn from Saveur.
For those of you who have not tried to make a true Italian Lasagne as opposed to the typical "ricota" cheese lasagne, please look into making the "Bolognese Lasagne". This takes quite a while to put together and I suggest doing at least once on a small scale. Then, double the Bolognese Sauce only on the next attempt and you may freeze the extra. This saves a lot of time. This is outstanding and very different from our standard idea of a lasagne. I used fresh lasagne purchased locally instead of making my own.
Reading the articles that actually mate with the recipes are very interesting and you get the feeling of having really produced something authentic.
As a last note: I recently wanted to make a recipe which i could not immediately locate in all of the Saveur Magazines I have. I sent an Email to Saveur requesting the recipe and it was copied and mailed to me the same day....talk about customer service!

C E M

SAVEUR has been a guilty pleasure for me for some time. Guilty because it is hard to take serious a magazine with such a hoity sounding name... and admittedly some of the travel-and-food stories are just on the edge of self-indulgent, self-concious behaviour. They laugh at me at home (or used to) for reading it.

What makes it good is the content. The cover story each issue is usually a "destination" article, focused on a particular area and its food (cuisine is the wrong word here), written in a personal vein, with beautiful photos, and this is the heart of the magazine. But the other content is equally beautiful and it is amazing how many of the recipes actually are useful and have become mainstays for me... not just something good looking.

Hide the cover if you must, but I think this is the best "foodie" magazine.

In Christmas of 2005 I decided I wanted the most interesting and best cooking magazines out there. But which ones to pick? After buying one here and there I found three that I absolutely love.

Saveur was one. The recipes are nice though some I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole (ethnic ingredients that don't appeal to me). But the stories and the pictures... they aren't just amazing, they're astounding! Where National Geographic talks about certain things or places, Saveur takes you to different places and shows you what's there and how they eat.

They showed me Ireland and I even made Colcannon (a mashed potato and cabbage dish) everyone loved it. I made a french dish last night that was amazing. It was a little time consuming but worth it!

I do have admit I was a little disappointed with my first issue I received from them with my subscription. It looked like a dog ate it then ran through the water with it. It's readable but I wasn't happy. They also promise two exclusive magazines for new subscribers. I've never seen them. But I have been getting my magazines and they look good.

I was thinking about it the other night, my three magazines I picked... one was articles and recipes about healthy eating (Eating Well), one was easier recipes with no articles (Everyday Food), and then Saveur. If I could only pick one to keep... it would be Saveur. It's really that good of a read.