Gilt Taste

This weekend, food artisans from around the country are being honored in the second annual Good Food Awards, which celebrate American food producers who enhance the country's agricultural landscape and help to build community. While the awards are relatively new to the gastronomic landscape, they're already backed by some of the country's biggest food influencers, such as Whole Foods, and seminal culinary figures, like Ruth Reichl.
Ruth is currently the editorial adviser at Gilt Taste, another cosponsor of this weekend's Good Food Awards. The author, former New York Times food critic, and final Gourmet editor sat down with me over dinner at Mission Chinese Food to talk more about good food and future projects.

YumSugar: Tell me about the partnership between Gilt Taste and the Good Food Awards. How did it come about?
Ruth Reichl: I've known Sarah [Weiner, the director] for a long time, and we've been talking about this for a long time. When I went to Gilt Taste, it just seemed like a seamless, natural partnership, finding and supporting food artisans in America.

YS: You're the keynote speaker at this year's Good Food Awards. What kind of a legacy do these awards create?
RR: It's hard for younger people to understand how bad things were in America, a time when all food was essentially industrial. There were no farmers markets. I have an interview with Wolfgang Puck that I did in 1982 where he goes, "Six years ago, there was no decent food in America." Now, there's this explosion of farmers markets, and while so much of the world is abandoning their food heritage, Americans are reclaiming theirs before it gets lost . . . We have these two completely parallel, simultaneous, and opposite tracks: on the one hand, people with money who eat organic, sustainable, handmade food. But if you're a poor person, you're stuck eating stuff that's cheaper than food and that will kill you. Food safety in this country becomes a worse and worse issue; we import more and more food; 80 percent of the antibiotics in this country go to perfectly healthy animals. We have a real crisis on the one hand — and on the other hand, we have, for the first time, an awareness of it. Which is quite stunning.

I really do think American food is the best in the world right now, because of the people making the kind of food that goes to the Good Food Awards. We have to nurture it, and make sure that it doesn't just stay with us in this little enclave.

YS: There's movement toward eating a plant-based diet. What do you think of that?

To find out her answer, keep reading.

After hosting a launch party to celebrate the arrival of Gilt Taste in New York City, editorial advisor Ruth Reichl and her team headed to San Francisco where last night, they met with journalists and chefs to reveal more details about the venture. What you see now is only one-tenth of what it will be. More features, videos, a community, and a revolutionized recipe system are in the works. Although Gilt is known for being a daily deal site that offers consumers a discounted item or experience, Susan Lyne, chairman of the company, doesn't believe this concept can be applied to food, "it's hard to think of great deals as food because what's the discounted stuff? The food that's about to go bad?" she said. To get the scoop on what Gilt Taste hopes to be, keep reading.

Last night, Gilt, the megabrand behind luxurious online offers, launched Gilt Taste with Ruth Reichl officially on board as editorial advisor. Speculations about Francis Lam were correct, as he joins his former Gourmet editor in chief as features editor while recipes for Taste are being developed by Melissa Clark.

In the editor's letter, Reichl describes the site as "a new kind of magazine, one that has no ads and is supported solely by sales. We don't just want to sell you great products — we want to tell you the stories of the people who create them and inspire you with delicious new ways to use them." When it comes to the shopping side of Gilt Taste, there's a variety of artisan America products ranging from caved-aged cheese from Murray's Cheese to white truffle cream from Gourmet Attitude.

While I doubt that I'll be purchasing many of the groceries, I'm excited to try the recipes and read the informative and thought-provoking articles that are sure to be highlighted on Gilt Taste. What do you think of the website?

After Gourmet magazine folded in October 2009, everyone wondered what Editor in Chief Ruth Reichl's next move would be. She laid low for awhile, but now she's jumping back into the food industry in a big way. Not only is Reichl a judge on the upcoming third season of Top Chef Masters, but she's also involved with the Gilt Groupe's latest project, a new food website, Gilt Taste.

The site will be an "online market" that offers "exceptional artisan foods with stories and recipes from the experts." Old Gourmet senior writer Francis Lam, who currently oversees Salon's food site, is said to be joining Reichl at Gilt Taste. There's no doubt that power duo will create a buzz-worthy, excellently written and curated food site. I'm excited to check it out when it launches in late Spring.