The 1970s: Stirred Up

The Domino Theory in Blue and White Napkin Rings, Lucey Bowen, 2012

     In the 1970s, Gourmet had to contend with turbulence and television.  In the search for "good living," the first is best ignored.  The turbulence in Asia, was war in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.  Nixon's overtures to mainland China served to discredit both the really-old-China-hands from the colonial era, and to marginalize the immigrant Nationalist Chinese perspectives.  
     And how to compete with television?  With food porn, of course.  Photo-essays replaced black and white drawings to accompany the writing.    To illustrate articles about India, Japan, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore, Gourmet obtained the service of Ronny Jacques, who captured mouthwatering images of food and people.  Lillian Langseth-Christiansen was the author. While there's no doubt about her writing and cooking chops,  Langseth-Christiansen might seem a curious choice for an Asian voice.   For the earlier issues of Gourmet, she recalled her youth in New York and Vienna as the daughter of a wealthy, opera-loving, gourmand and oenophile and his doting wife.  Her family and her governesses enculturated her palate, strengthening the ties of flavor and occasion.  She and her brother were periodically asked to recall the tastes of some marvelous meal in some fairy tale setting ordered by her father. 
     She determined, at age fourteen, to return to Vienna and attend Franz Hoffman's Wiener Werkstatte.  She had exquisite taste in all things. She provides a cosmopolitan, dare I say European, perspective on how to visit, shop and eat in the cities of the safe parts of Asia.