Tradition. More often than not, the best food and wine are traditional, created when people had more time and when food was more central to happiness than it is today. We look for the logic of geography, methods, and culture that make good food good — that give character and the finest flavor.

We visit passionate growers to understand why some raw materials are so much better than others. We seek the most accomplished artisans to understand their methods. Their best products, rare as many have become, still set the standards of excellence by which even mass-produced food and drink are judged. Besides superior foodstuffs, We seek exceptional time-honored recipes, the products of generations of cooks.

Not that everything old is good. The Art of Eating is also about the new when it’s better.

Simplicity. On the farm and in workshops and kitchens, what is treated least usually tastes best. Gentle, minimal treatment produces the clearest, fullest flavor.

The best vegetables are in most cases the very freshest, not stored at all but cooked as soon as possible after they are picked. The best olive oil is wholly unrefined. The best hams are patiently dry-cured. The most delicate fresh cheese is made on the farm with raw milk, and the curd is hand-ladled into molds, so it is broken as little as possible. The most flavorful honey is not only unheated but still in the cells of the comb, sealed by the bees under wax. Grapes for the finest wine are pressed, and the maker interferes as little as possible with the natural process after that.

In the kitchen, too, the best dishes are generally simple. In the words of the great French critic Curnonsky, "Cooking! That’s when things taste like what they are."

A Sense of Place. The best food and wine have a sense of place that comes from soil, climate, tradition, and all the local influences that as a group exist nowhere else. Certain varieties of plants and breeds of animals evolved under local conditions. (A few places, not only vineyards, are ideal for particular foods.) Local foodstuffs combined with local culinary skills and traditions create the typical flavors of a place.

For The Art of Eating, whenever possible we travel to the source, mainly in France, Italy, and the US. Subjects range from great white bread in California and Paris to the best chocolate, the most delicate and aromatic olive oil, wines of the Loire Valley, the ideal roast for coffee, dry-aged steak, farm cheeses of Provence,  gumbo in Cajun Louisiana, the food and wine of Tuscany, aged North American cheddar, pizza in Naples, the great blue cheese of Roquefort, and the current state of food in Paris.

The Art of Eating has appeared four times a year since the first eight-page letter of 1986. There is no advertising. Each issue is 32 to 48 pages long, handsomely printed, and illustrated with black and white photographs. There are recipes, notes on resources, letters, book reviews, plus, according to the subject, addresses of exceptional open-air markets, bakers, cheesemakers, cheese shops, wineries, olive-oil mills, charcutiers, chocolatiers, or restaurants (from haute cuisine to very simple). A subscription, foreign by air or domestic, is $39 a year or $69 for two years. I guarantee you'll be happy with your subscription.

"America’s greatest food magazine." — Peter Liem in his blog www.peterliem.com

"Among a certain subspecies of food lover, The Art of Eating journal exists on an Olympian cloud all its own. It's a quarterly food-wine-ingredient publication for eaters who love to read, and there is simply nothing smarter or more sophisticated out there. Published since 1986 by [Edward Behr] from his remote Fortress of Solitude in northeastern Vermont, it clues you in on where the Venetian foodies eat in Venice, the difference between various single-garden teas (love that Poobong) and where to find humanely raised, full-flavored veal. Its bent is against the commercial grain and very much in favor of artisanal products." — Forbes FYI, 9.15.03

"So intelligent, so passionate." — Richard Flaste,
New York Times Book Review

"You are unlikely to find better — or better informed —
food writing anywhere." — Gary Allen, The Resource Guide for Food Writers

"Legend says that the Velvet Underground's first album sold just nine copies;
the trick was, they were sold to the right nine people. Edward Behr's little-known food quarterly, The Art of Eating, is perhaps just as disproportionately influential."
— Ellen Umansky, Brill's Content

"Famous in the serious food community for his meticulous attention to the details of food production and quality, along with a serious concern for the pleasurable aspects of the table. For many years, I have been a sporadic purchaser of his journal, and then I decided to order every back issue. They have been like comfort food to me."
— Evan Kleiman, Good Food, KCRW

"The must-have foodie quarterly." — Dick Gordon, The Connection, National Public Radio

"Excellent... compelling reading." — Fiona Beckett, Decanter

"Behr's relentless quest for the truth... His notes on where to eat and what to buy are by themselves worth the price of the subscription." — Christopher Kimball, Cook's Illustrated

"Highly recommended, carefully researched." — Steve Tanzer,
International Wine Cellar

"The cult foodie magazine." — The Gazette, Montreal

"I'm a devoted reader." — Corby Kummer, Atlantic Monthly

"One of the best publications ever." — Barrie Kerper,
The Complete Traveler: Paris