Not only does bon appétit have some of the best food photos around, the overall coverage of foodie info is great. I love the clean simple design of the front cover, which has always pulled me in every month. The magazine also covers a range of foods I wouldn't normally look into. It helps me think of and plan great meals while keeping me in the know about all sorts of products and food services.

I'd also like to say that I ordered this magazine on July 5th and my first issue came today, July 17th. AMAZING.

A fancy food magazine. Interesting articles but odd recipes. It would be nice for those looking to really expand their cooking tastes but I found it not so useful for my kitchen.

I ordered subscriptions to both Bon Appetit and to Gourmet. I like this magazine much better! It has recipes more suited to my tastes and level of cooking. The pictures are beautiful and appetizing to gaze at, and the recipes are easy to follow.

No problem except that the new subscription started before the previous one ended resulting in duplicate copies being delivered and, no doubt, only eleven months benefit (or less) from the new subscription.

I used to adore Bon Appetit, but yesterday I received what is now the fourth issue since the magazine's mind-blowing overhaul. Let me tell you, I'm not at all wierd with change, but this new format is HORRIBLE. The font is microscopic and difficult to read, the photos look unappetizing, the quantity of recipes has decreased dramatically, and, most importantly, so has their quality. The magazine has become very difficult to read and is so not user-friendly. The last four issues have gone straight to the recycling bin.

It seems the magazine's quality in general has decreased since the late editor in chief, William Garry, passed on, and his replacement, Barbara Fairchild, took over. I am not alone in voicing my displeasure. Go over to the forums at Bon Appetit and check out how disgusted everyone is with these sudden and ridiculous changes.

I emailed the editor to express my opinion and have not heard back. If some of these issues are not resloved soon, I will let my subscription lapse for the first time in 11 years.

It sounds silly, but I feel like I've lost an old friend.

I sent this gift to my father who loves to cook. He really enjoys the ideas the magazine provides and the recipes aren't difficult.

This is great for folks who like to try out new recipes... also a good gift for someone who likes to cook. I have a friend who asks for a renewal every year for her birthday 'cause she loves it so much.

Magazine subscription was very easy and it has been sent as gift and already rec'd

Bon Apetit had always satisfied me. I hope this subscription is piggybacked to my previous one. The recipes, trade news, new products and chef's to watch have always been valuable to me as a food journalist. Love the special issues on regional cuisine. They have not abandoned their original format and kept the articles fresh and approachable.
Thanks, Joan Gordon
Restaurant reviewer for the Norwich Bulletin
Norwich, CT

NEW REVIEW! I take back what I said before about my sister liking this magazine. I mean, she likes it OK, but she says the articles are strange and only marginally cooking-related. She doesn't like how there are more ads than actual magazine content, and she was confused about the products being highlighted, as they are things even kitchen-gadget collectors (like my sister) kind of scratch their heads at.

Wish I could change the star rating to 2 stars.

I've subscribed to Bon Appetit for years now and I still love it. I collect favorite recipes from each magazine and keep them in a binder for future reference. I'm consistently pleased with the results of the recipes. The RSVP section, with requested recipes from restaurants, is great.

I recently ordered 3 subscriptions for 3 different individuals. 2 were new subscriptions while the other was an extension. I personally do not read Bon Appetit cover to cover but the 3 people who do love the magazine. Of course the recipients all enjoy cooking. From what I know, Bon Appetit focuses mostly on recipes while their secondary topics are restaurants and chefs from around the world. My girlfriend constantly shows me recipes from Bon Appetit that she wants to try...

Bon Appetit is a magazine devoted to those who want to cook "gourmet" (or at least delicious) meals at home. The recipes are creative, unique and tasty enough that even an expert or professional chef would enjoy them, yet the intermediate at-home cook will have no trouble finding the ingredients or preparing these lovely meals.
One of my favorite parts of this magazine is the recipes from popular restaurants. It is always exciting when a local eatery is featured in this area, and even if you don't have the option of eating out you can bring a little bit of fine dining into your home!
Bon Appetit is not full of advertising like some other cooking magazines. Yes, there are sections where cooking tools/pans/various dining items are discussed and reviewed, but for the most part these are actually helpful (as opposed to other magazines that blantantly advertise items the average person couldn't afford anyway!) and I always enjoy looking through them. Also, LOADS of color photos which is a big plus over even expensive cookbooks.
In short, if you like to cook and want lots and lots of new or seasonal recipes to look at each month, subscribe to Bon Appetit!

The cook wanting to elevate home cuisine beyond take-out or stand-by casseroles will find Bon Appetit a fun and exciting journey into "foodie-ism." With its slick, colorful spreads and do-able recipes, it melds gourmet with the everyday. It's easy to become hooked when dinner guests rave over a dish -- an event commonly occurring in our household after our latest issue of Bon Appetit has arrived. Even if you don't love to cook, this magazine is a wonderful "escape" read, with articles on travel, entertainment, wine, and the latest helpful culinary gadgets. We all have our old favorite recipes but there is much to be said for delving into exciting food discoveries. Bon Appetit will take you there!

The Step Dynamic: A Powerful Strategy for Successfully Growing Your Business

I ordered magazine subscriptions from Amazon over 3 months ago as Christmas gifts and they still have not arrived! Furthermore, Amazon never takes the responsability and simply pushes you on to the publishers. Why even provide the service then?

This subscription came very quickly, the next month after I ordered it. The price was the same as ordering it directly and the service was a lot faster. The biggest reason I ordered it was due to the fact that I wanted to buy a one-year subscription as a gift. If you try to order it directly from Bon Appetit you do not have that option for they will automatically renew it every year and keep your credit card on file. I did not want the burden of having to remember to cancel it in a year or having them keep my credit card number. I didn't even know you could get a magazine subscription from [...] so I was very pleased! Bon Appetit is a great magazine, I saw the first issue that just arrived and it was packed with delicious recipes.

My Son in Law looks forward each time to new recipes. he is a great cook and used it cover to cover

I got this magazine hoping for some new, innovative recipes, but instead, end up flipping through the magazine without saving any recipes at all. None of the recipes look that great, and they call for ingredients that you just can't find anywhere, even in specialty stores. I love the beautiful pictures, but as far as recipes, they just aren't for everyday cooks, adventurous or not.

The coverage always seems nice and varied -- there are the elaborate, "took me a week to prepare" meals alongside the quick throw-together meals, and helpful side notes about products and ingredients. I also like the tangential coverage for dining out, wine, and travel (to good food places!)

First of all, I have to note that this magazine is beautiful. The articles and food photography are off the charts. But for a college student like me, I felt the magazine left me feeling a bit of an "outsider" ... if you're well off and fancy the finer things in life, then this magazine is right up your ally. But if you're just an everyday, ordinary girl like me who loves food and cooking, fast and easy, and healthy, then Cooking Light may be a better choice.

A friend of mine used to subscribe to Bon Appetit and flipping through the magazine I found so many interesting recipes.

This was a very good price for a very good magazine. I saved $3 - $5 over
the normal subscription rate!

A friend of mine got me a subscription to this magazine because I like Cooks Illustrated. This magazine is nothing but ads for snazzy expensive foods and restaurants. There are so few recipies in it I wouldn't call it a 'cooking' magazine. What few recipies they do have don't explain why they chose the ingredients used or give much detail at all.

If you consider yourself a 'foodie' who likes to go to fancy restaurants and likes to know what's hip on the latest gourmet food and wine, then this magazine might be for you. If, however, you like to cook and know what you are doing and why you are doing it, try Cooks Illustrated instead.

... but not so good I would subscribe to this.

This magazine is much like Gourmet. Same ads, though not as many, same layout. It's almost like another version of Gourmet.

However, I enjoyed the articles more as well as the recipes than Gourmet. There were a few that I am intrigued enough to try. The recipes themselves were more fancy than say, Everyday Food.

Then again, I like Everyday Food more because that's the type of food I eat.

If you're looking for something a little more elegant without so many ads this isn't a bad one. I do think that Fine Cooking might be more your cup of tea. With fewer ads and more recipes.

I've recently been trying to de-clutter my house. As part of that project, I've been going through 20 years of Bon Apetit magazines, culling recipes that I remember fondly and recalling a few food disasters. I've also noticed how the magazine has changed over the years.

Photography is and always has been a strong point for this magazine. I rarely get a new copy without seeing a beautiful picture of something I just have to try making. I've cut out hundreds of dessert recipes - I find pictures of chocolate cakes much more evocative than pictures of steamed vegetables. A large number of the recipes in Bon Apetit come with photos, and I find that helpful in deciding whether I want to try them.

The recipes usually turn out very well. I've made some wonderful desserts, and my wife was stunned (favorably) by some black bean cakes I made for her birthday. The writing is clear and I'm not often left wondering what exactly is meant by the instructions. A few recipes haven't turned out well, and I'm an experienced enough cook to believe that it wasn't my fault, but over 20 years and out of hundreds of recipes, that isn't at all bad. There have been more than a few recipes that simply didn't sound good, but the magazine staff has generally avoided strange food combinations just for the sake of novelty.

My complaint is that the ratio of recipes to other stuff has fallen over the years. Bon Apetit has become more of a lifestyle magazine, and the lifestyle isn't mine. It seems aimed at young and fabulous singles, footloose young couples, and retired couples who don't have young children. After reading some of the party, travel, and buying features I come away with the vague sense that my own kitchen and lifestyle would be found wanting by the editorial staff. I find that very annoying. I sometimes wish that the editors showed more recognition of the fact that not all readers are organized and fabulous and possessed of vast amounts of unused storage space. Some of us are harried, insanely busy, and couldn't find the nutmeg grater if the childrens' lives depended on it. How about occasional restaurant, vacation, and purchasing tips for the unfabulous?

The magazine generally includes several recipes that are easy and fast. My wife and I usually like them a lot; the kids squinch up their faces and act like we're poisoning them. I guess we'll stick to the desserts. I still like this magazine, but I'm afraid I don't like it nearly as much as I used to. We've grown apart, I'm sad to say. I think I've been left behind for people with ovens that can cook wonderful intimate meals for their 50 closest friends and grills that crank out enough BTUs to melt the polar ice caps.

I've been a subscriber to Bon Appetit for several years now, and while I like the magazine I have found the quality of the recipes lack consistency. Some are good. Some quite poor. I'm always a little hesitant to rely on a recipe from this magazine for a dinner unless I've tested it first and seen that it worked well for me. Bon Appetit recipes can be quite complicated and its a disappointment to spend so much time cooking a meal and have it turn out bland.

Overall, while I will continue to subscribe to Bon Appetit, I suggest using caution on relying on their recipes too much. Also, I feel the adverts, interviews, and other "Filler" material is beginning to lean a bit towards the elitist side of the cooking market and is becoming less accessible to the average non-pro cook.

I love to cook. I am not a professional by all means but I do enjoy the concept of preparing food. Other than tv, "Bon Appetit" is one of my main sources I refer to that inspires me to create my next meal. I have been an on and off again subscriber to the magazine for several years now. I have to admit I don't necessary use the recipes in the magazine but they and the ingredients that I read definitely leads me to come up with my own ideas. Some of my favorite issues includes the topics of barbecue (I love some of the ribs recipes they have printed over the years) and Thanksgiving. What I am not so wild about is that a lot of the recipes over the years have become so high end. From my point of view, a lot of these meals are not every day meals you would make. I am blessed to live in a big city where I can find most of the ingredients but if I lived in a smaller city or town, it probably would be difficult to find. These recipes are not geared for single people or families who have mouths to feed. All in all, I still enjoy reading "Bon Appetit" and being inspired by the magazine.

I have been subscribing to Bon Appetit for close to 10 years and I decided to write this review because I feel the magazine has really changed...for the worse...over the last 2 years. I used to love BA because the recipes were fantastic, ideal for entertaining, mostly easy and/or fast, with a few exceptions, and not too "fancy" with hard to find ingredients and things that a lot of people, just don't cook. It seems like the magazine has become much more "high end", more like Gourmet , which I don't like. I love to cook but I don't like to spend hours and hours searching for ingredients and standing over the stove everytime I decide to do so.

To whomever is interested in cooking and wanting to learn more about it, this magazine is for you. It is packed with info varying from restaurants across the US to recipes sent in by readers. It also has recipes by chefs such as Bobby Flay and others. It gives a lot of ideas and it is not pretentious like others.

Bon Appetit has been a regular addition to my cooking arsenal since its inception. It is simply a gorgeous magazine, with beautifully laid out photography and excellent features. This is a magazine for the person who loves to cook.

Unlike other food publications, Bon Appetit offers earthy robust recipes and features that appeal to the everyday cook. I love in particular: Cooking For Two, Cooking Light and the section devoted to bringing recipes from well known restaurants around the country. In this section, readers write in and request a recipe from a restaurant that really impressed them. It's fun, informative and often amazing how really uncomplex some of the dishes are.

Underneath all the good looking dishes and witty dialogue, lies the heart of Bon Appetit. It's about home and very basic values, which I think accounts for its huge popularity. Through my reading this magazine, I've come to appreciate the homely root vegetables, to keep a well stocked pantry, and to avoid costly mistakes in buying cookware.

I think it makes a lovely gift for a young bride, who might be nervous about cooking and entertaining. With it's no nonsense approach to cuisine, plus the support of a stellar online community-Epicurious.com, it is a very nice package for anyone who wants to simply cook creatively and well.

When I was going through my old cooking magazines a few years ago before a major move to another state, I found to my surprise that the recipes I most wanted to keep were in Bon Appetit. Although I also enjoyed reading Gourmet, I realized that I had cooked relatively few of the recipes in that magazine. I am ready to make another magazine purge, and I expect the same thing to happen. Gourmet is fun and interesting, but Bon Appetit is a keeper.

I've recently started reading my Bon Appetit from cover to cover just because everything is so good (pictures, recipes, articles, etc...). Having three small busy children, my time is limited for meals during the week and my favorite section of this book is "Fast Easy Fresh". I can always find a few recipes that are easy to make yet edible in the eyes of my children. My second favorite section is "Readers' Timesaving Recipes". These readers seem to share the same type of lifestyle as me (limited kitchen time) and they submit very yummy, quick recipes that I can whip up in no time.

My husband and I believe that dinnertime as a family is so important to the well-being of our children that making meals that require endless preparation and cooking just isn't a priority for us.

I also love to entertain and have dinner parties so the new column that begins in the April 2005 issue entitled "Party Improv" is a great addition. I like that they give big, delicious ideas with little effort... including suggestions for table settings, cocktail concoctions, music, wine and a complete menu for your party!!! They thought of it all!

I highly suggest getting your subscription today so you don't miss out on any future issues!

Its the only subscription that hasn't been cancelled in 15 years. Some issues seem to have been designed for our tastes, but even those that may not cater to our palate (hey, variety is the spice of life - and we're pretty close to omnivorous, but we have our favorites)include at least a couple of dishes that call our name. We understand that advertising helps to pay the bills, but unlike some of the others, the majority of this magazine's content is recipes. For that we are grateful.

I have had several subscriptions to different cooking magazines during my marriage and this is the best middle ground for my family. I love Gourmet. I like to cook Gourmet, but my family refuses to eat Gourmet. My family prefers Taste of Home. I have found that Bon Appetit is a nice middle ground. It allows me to cook the interesting recipes I want while still being able to get my family to eat it.

Spent quite a few issues comparing Bon Apetit to Gourmet and Food & Wine and I felt that Bon Apetit was by far the third horse in this field. The writing is mediocre and the pictures show food the way you've seen it a million times. Very little special, what tried to be editorially special read more pretentious to me. I know it's been around for a long time but I didn't find much to give me any interest to buy it again.