Brush up on your technique!

This is a really useful cooking publication. Unlike Gourmet, it has no filler stuff on travel or hotels. It doesn't assume that you know how to do everything, or how to use everything.

Instead, most articles are about a technique, or a type of preparation - i.e. how to roast a chicken, how to make several different but related baked fruit desserts, how to make breadsticks in a variety of flavors.

The presentation of the information is such that, once the basic technique is mastered, you can alter the recipe to suit your tastes and your available ingredients. Gourmet (as example) is much more rigid in both ingredients and techniques.

The design of the magazine is attractive and easy to navigate - the articles never "jump" to a remote section in the back.

The back page is always a mini photo essay of an artisanal food maker - it almost always makes me drool and want to seek the place out.

I find it very useful and I look forward to its arrival in the mail.