Gather Journal, Spring/Summer 2013 issue.
About their wonderful publication launched just about a year ago, Michele Outland and Fiorella Valdesolo say: “We started Gather because of a shared love of food and cooking, and a desire to create a magazine with staying power on your bookshelf; one that you could return to again and again for inspiration. If we can, with our recipes, words, and images, inspire a great meal and maybe a smile, then we are satisfied.”
Janet Leigh’s legendary shower scene in “Psycho,” inspiration for the pie above.
I’m satisfied. After seeing a mention in the Instagram feed of a favorite LA chef, I picked up the latest issue: a film-inspired “Rough Cut” edition.
The cover photo is a pie recipe tableau inspired by the shower scene in Hitchcock’s “Psycho.”
Beautiful photography, whimsical and delicious-sounding recipes inspired by films as diverse as “Lord of the Flies,” “Do The Right Thing,” “Dirty Dancing,” and “Goodfellas,” and reflections on why food is so central to our experience of memory and happiness.
The latest edition is about food and movies:
Specifically, summer movies—all their various sub-genres (the road trip, the summer romance, the beach idyll, and the summer in the city) inspired an assortment of recipes as eclectic as the films themselves. We pay homage to the oeuvres of two directors (Alfred Hitchcock and Wes Anderson) admired for their distinctive, albeit very different, visual approaches; we recall memories of summer camp food, both personal and fictional; we re-imagine famous cinematic food scenes; and we laud the everlasting power of the movie soundtrack.
Check ’em out online, but pick up a print copy, they’re lovely objects. $20 ordered online or at these stores. On the Gather blog, watch clips “from the movies that inspired the recipes and our contributors.”
In one post on the Gather blog, Richard Kuo, executive chef at New York’s Pearl & Ash—”home of the frequently lauded Fernet Branca ice cream sandwich”—talks about his favorite film food moment, starring Michael Douglas.
“One of my favorite moments is from the movie Falling Down starring Michael Douglas, where the main character is at Whammy Burger and orders a sandwich from the menu. Upon receiving the sandwich, he becomes aggravated and compares the product at hand to the advertisement. This scene is especially impactful to me as I have become particularly sensitive to the consistency of every dish that is delivered to customers as well as the overall philosophy of under-promising and over-delivering. Great cooks can produce great dishes, but a great chef can produce the same great dish every single time. It’s always about consistency.” —Richard Kuo, executive chef of Pearl and Ash in New York, NY
