Ever wonder what the offices look like at food magazine???? Or where all your favorite magazine recipes get tested???? I was fortunate enough to get a tour of Fine Cooking Magazine recently here in Connecticut. Since my friends and family are SICK of hearing about it, I figured I’d write a quick blog post and tell all of YOU about it! I know other foodies would appreciate it! Unfortunately, I only had my small camera that I carry around in my purse so my apologies for the lack of quality pictures!
My dear cooking friend Anna from Cookie Madness was in town so we both headed up to Fine Cooking Magazine to meet with Anna’s friend, Lisa Waddle, Managing Editor at Fine Cooking. If you’ve never heard of the magazine, you should definitely check it out! The recipes are fabulous, pictures are incredible, and it’s a definite must read for any foodie! The offices are beautiful as you can imagine. One of our first stops was seeing how they layout the recipes and the magazine and we got a sneak peak of an upcoming issue. Let me tell you, the upcoming recipes are very creative and look so tasty I don’t know how I’m going to wait until later this year!
Next up was their cookbook library. The picture only shows PART of the room. What foodie wouldn’t love all those cookbooks to browse through??? I could have sat in there for hours (ummmm, make that DAYS)!
Then we headed over to see their test kitchen, photo studio, and storage areas. They have all sorts of props, kitchen gadgets, and anything else you could possibly imagine.
Back in the corner is where they take some photo shots for the magazine. Check out all the props and gadgets! I could spend hours in there looking around (make that DAYS too!)!
There were also a couple of test kitchens where everyone was busy testing recipes. They test, test, and TEST the same recipes over and over again so what you’re getting in the magazine is definitely a great recipe! The test kitchens look a lot like any home kitchen and even have a dishwasher. The amount of dishes they have to do on a daily basis is mind-boggling. I will never complain about emptying the dishwasher once a day EVERY again (or at least not to anyone who works in a test kitchen!)! To make the day even better, they had some extra food from all that testing so we got to eat lunch right there where they do their testing and discuss upcoming recipes. I probably can’t tell you what we had (I’m thinking it might be top-secret for upcoming magazines), but I will tell you it was really GOOD! However, I can probably tell you that we had some strawberry shortcake which is on their current cover. YUM!
More props, food, food gadgets, plates, cups, utensils and anything else you can think of was all there. Check out all that fabric in their storage area. I could get lost in all that fabric! Makes me think I need to make a trip to the fabric store for a little more fabric…
Overall, it was an incredible visit! Everyone at Fine Cooking was beyond generous (which includes answering all my stupid annoying questions and putting up with me totally being in awe!). Such a great group of people which would explain why the magazine is so great!! Too bad they don’t have a position open for Fine Cooking GROUPIE because I’d be the first to apply!
SallyBR says
Just found your blog today, wonderful!
Fine Cooking is my favorite magazine, I loved your write up, and wish I could get to know their headquarters one day
Wendy from Wendys Hat says
Lucky you! How fun!