Life and leisure for the uber rich and glossy food magazines
Apologies for the crummy picture here. It's newsprint, I obviously didn't get it straight on my scanner and neither could I fit it in. Nevertheless I hope it gives you an idea of what kind of magazine this is.
This morning for my breakfast reading I was given (as I always am at the weekend) the AFR's Life and Leisure Magazine. It comes with their weekend paper. This is the front cover. Lovely photograph of a whale, but really it's all about the huge yacht in the background and the Patek Philippe watch from an expensive watch shop, being advertised at the bottom. For this is a magazine for the uber rich. It generally takes me a couple of minutes to flick through it, mostly with disbelief - well not disbelief - horror really, but sometimes to pick up something on food that I could write about on this blog. And sometimes there is something - as there was today.
It is never clearer that this is not a magazine aimed at me - and indeed, most of the population - than the first spread inside called SPEND. We are shown a range of items that we could buy. Well - can you afford an unmistakably beautiful Armani coat for $11,000, or perhaps some Tiffany earrings for $24,400, maybe a handbag for $4,290 or some Chanel red boots for $1920? Honestly who is this magazine aimed at. And I should say that each month they also produce a glossy and thicker version of this magazine called Luxury, which does very occasionally have longer articles of interest on subjects associated with the arts, but is mostly even more decadent - for, yes, I think that's the word that should be used with respect to these kind of magazines.
Back to Life and Leisure though. This weekend's edition was focussed on the Hamilton Island yacht racing - although it did talk a fair bit about how Hamilton Island had recovered from cyclone Debbie. There were articles on Positano, a very expensive hotel in Paris, the life of a model, exclusive helicopter holidays in Tasmania, expensive perfumes with a scent of the sea - most of which even the writer did not seem to like, wool shoes, concrete architecture (quite interesting), whether to unplug from the internet on holiday (also quite interesting) a super car review, a review of a smart watch - and on the back, ads for some very expensive houses. What amazes me is that they name the owners of these places and most of them are not known names. There are obviously a lot of really rich people around.
None of the above has anything to do with food but there is always a food related story and this week's was about eating at home - the options. It didn't quite go as far down the social ladder to pizza takeaway, but it did mention those food delivery services. Anyway I kept the article for another time, as there was something in it that captured my attention.
And I have long wanted to vent about this magazine. Who is it for - really. Is it for the rich or is it for the rest of us and if so why? To make us envious and unsatisfied. I would love to be able to afford that Armani coat but I suspect that even if I did have the money I don't think I could bring myself to spend that much on a coat. Is it to encourage people to buy beyond their means? Or is it to encourage us to work hard to make money to be able to do all these things? Or is it just a vicarious pleasure? Why do I read it at all?
And then this afternoon I was flicking through some glossy food magazines - pretty old ones - to see if I wanted to retain any of the recipes, and there again were all the trappings of the uber rich. Beautiful and I mean beautiful - they were works of art in themselves - full page ads for expensive things - see below (click on them and you will see them full size) - and gossip about fine dining restaurants, and exotic foods.
They were mostly Gourmet Traveller and I obviously bought a few of them. I think this might have been just before delicious came on to the scene so there were probably only basic women't magazines as an alternative. Whatever the reason it made me think more about this emphasis on the unattainable in these publications. For unattainable they are - the food too. The dish on the cover here is pretty simple and is possible, but it looks so exquisite that I wouldn't attempt it. I could never make it look as good even if I could make it taste as good. There were very few recipes I decided to keep by the way. Most of them were either for things that did not appeal because they were too extreme, expensive or fancy - or else they were just long and complicated. I don't cook like that anymore.
Nevertheless it gave me pleasure flicking through and enjoying the beauty of it all. A bit like going to a Van Gogh exhibition and knowing you can't have one. Although you can have a cheap print of Van Gogh. And I guess you can have cheap versions of the luxury goods on display in these luxury magazines. There is quite an industry out there providing them. Don't know about the food though. It just doesn't seem possible to find 'haute cuisine' food at a bargain basement price. Unless you do it yourself. And that takes skill I don't have.
