I HEART magazines

Well who would have thought that there was a credit crunch with all these magazine launches around. Over the past week or so I have read numerous stories about publications that are hitting the racks in the new year. It goes to show that no matter how harsh times get people still need their luxuries.

Well lets start with the newest kid on the block; Jamie magazine. Master chef and lead campaigner for healthy meals in schools, Jamie Oliver has gone and launched his own self titled, magazine. He has the TV shows, books, websites and now he has gone that one step further. Roll over Martha Stewart and Oprah, Mr Oliver is in town. Jamie magazine is a food and lifestyle publication that features over 100 recipes from Jamie himself and other top chefs around the world. Aesthetically, the publication is wonderful to look at with an amazing layout and wonderful photography. However, if it had just been an ordinary magazine I would not have given it a second look. This is for hard core foodie only or Jamie fans. Jamie is a bi-monthly publication.

Those who were unfortunate to catch Peaches Geldof's lame performance on her MTV documentary, Disappear Here might be interested to know that she has secured funding for the magazine. The documentary aired a few months back (read my blog about it here) and showed Ms Geldof launching a 'cool' urban magazine that covers in pop culture. With a mentor in James Brown, former Editor of the iconic, Loaded, Peaches launched the magazine earlier this month. Disappear Here is co-owned by James Brown, Bob Geldof and Peaches' manager, Andy Varley.

Another launch that is getting headlines by the hour is the cutely named, Love. Any mag with a name as cheesy as that (and I love my cheese) would be doomed by the start, however when you have the legend that is Katie Grand giving birth to you then anything is possible. Grand who brought us the phenomenal, Pop magazine was snapped up by Conde Nast a few months back to work on a title that was edgy and experimental. Love launches in February and the last I heard they had hired, former Heat editor, Mark Frith to be editorial consultant. Love will be a bi-annual publication.

Forget diamonds because it is apparent that magazines are a person's best friend.

Image from Creative Review

Single Women Can't Cook

I was watching that new series that started last week called Brothers and Sisters. It is a drama starring Calista Flockhart, she of Ally McBeal fame who plays Kitty Walker, a hard driven career woman. Brothers and Sisters is an ok drama, nothing remarkable apart from one scene where Kitty is making dinner for her boyfriend. She is on the phone and then we see her rush to the oven and take out some burnt dinner. Yep, girlfriend might kick ass as a TV host but she is totally wack in the kitchen. If that scene sounds familiar then it is probably because you have seen it a thousand times before. How many times have we seen single career women on TV being portrayed as undomesticated and unable to boil an egg? Let me see there was the tough DC Jane Tennison played by Helen Mirren in the award winning Prime Suspect who lived on recipe dishes. So lame was she in the culinary stakes that her boyfriend who was also a Policeman had to come round and rustle up a tasty dish for her after witnessing the sad contents of her fridge. Funny how he managed to cook and hold down a career at the same time. As much as I loved Sex and the City that show also let me down in the kitchen as well. Neither of my gals could cook to save their lives and in fact a couple of them seemed proud of it. The closest Miranda ever got to the kitchen was when she was putting her Chinese takeaway onto her fancy plates and Samantha only seem to go into her kitchen when she was looking for the wine corker. The hopeless Susan from Desperate Housewives couldn't cook either, oh and neither could Bridget Jones - the ultimate singleton. I once saw a documentary a few years ago about modern relationships where a bunch of guys where discussing the perils of the modern lady. One of them said that if you went to a young lady's home and you looked in her fridge you wouldn't see any food but you could bet on finding a couple of bottles of wine in there. How cheeky!!


I am a single woman but I can cook, in fact if I couldn't cook I would probably starve as there would be no-one else to cook for me. Either that or I would go bankrupt from eating out all the time. I am sure there are lots of single woman who cannot cook but there also are loads that can and I think it is ludicrous and harmful to consistently present single ladies who do not know one end of the kitchen to another. Most of the women I know simply adore cooking and love trying out new dishes and the majority of them have fantastic kitchens to cook in. With food being the new black and chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey now household names it is time TV bosses got real and started portraying single women in a realistic view. Great in the boardroom and fabulous in the kitchen. Thank god for Nigella Lawson with her wonderful foodie programmes, as well as the delightful programme, Dish it Up which features singers and best chums, Neneh Cherry and Andrea Oliver.