DawnWatch: Gourmet magazine features meatless main courses

[Guest guest]

This month, we see a beautiful sign of our movement's shift into the mainstream

as the

cover of the April 2007 Gourmet Magazine announces " Tips from a Vegetarian Chef

+ Amazing

Meatless Main Courses. " Further, the letter from the magazine's editor tells us

that

starting in May, " You'll find a monthly column in Gourmet Every Day featuring

vegetarian

main courses. " The recipes under " Mission: Meatless " starting on page 158 of the

current

April issue of Gourmet are mostly vegan. A couple call for optional

Parmigiano-Reggiano,

which can be substituted with vegan parmesan, which is a lot closer to the

original than

most vegan cheese.

 

The letter from the editor (Ruth Reichl) this month is headed, " The Occasional

Vegetarian. "

 

Reichl writes,

" Like many people of my generation I went through a vegetarian period. It was

early in the

70's, just after I'd read diet for a small planet and discovered how much more

food there

would be if we all ate vegetables instead of feeding the plants to the animals

and eating

their meat. That period didn't last very long. A vegetarian menu may be

virtuous, but for

a meat lover like me, it wasn't much fun.

 

" Time has marched on, and now it is becoming increasingly clear that we ought to

change

our ways. We live in a society that consumes more meat than any other group in

history.

There are currently more than three billion domesticated cattle, sheep and goats

in the

world - and that number does not include the 100 million pigs or the 9 million

chickens

that we consume every year in this country alone. Livestock grazing and feed

production

now use 30 percent of the surface of the planet, and that takes a toll on the

environment.

Eating so much meat takes a toll on us as well: Most health professionals agree

that we

would be better off if we consumed less meat and more vegetables. "

 

She goes on to write that traditionally, " meatless meals were seen as joyless "

but,

" Clearly, that is very old fashioned thinking. Isn't it time to put the joy back

into the

act of eating vegetables? Isn't it time we started to think of all the grains

and greens

that grow on the earth as a gift? And isn't it time that we realized that eating

vegetarian meals is neither penance nor virtue but simply another mealtime

option? "

 

She discusses great new pressure cookers that make cooking vegetarian food easy

and refers

us to the delicious meatless meal recipes in the issue of the magazine. She ends

with:

" Back in the 70's I thought it was all or nothing, but we've moved on. Being an

occasional

vegetarian suits me just fine. "

 

While it would be nice to see more than occasional vegetarianism, I don't think

we could

expect the editor of Gourmet magazine to start calling for all her readers to

immediately

go vegan. Meatless meals being her focus in this issue, with the promise that

they will

continue to be included, is a huge step forward.

 

Gourmet takes comments and publishes letters. Please send a quick appreciative

note at

http://www.epicurious.com/gourmet/contact/gour_questions

Notes from those who sometimes buy Gourmet will be especially helpful. The

magazine should

know that it is pleasing its readers.

 

My thanks to Teresa Hoxie-Keough for making sure we knew about this development.

 

Yours and the animals',

Karen Dawn

 

 

 

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