The Intermezzo That’s Neither Digestable nor Entertaining

You’d be hard pressed to get us to open a copy of Cooking Light, or even Food & Wine or Gourmet, if we weren’t at a party celebrating one of their issues and needed something to occupy our attention and hands while we waited for the arrival of a friend we baited into attending with us. So you might imagine how much harder it was to open MediaPost’s Magazine Rack email column about Intermezzo, the foodie mag where food is just a starting point for lifestyle. But we did click. And we were happy we did. Columnist Larry Dobrow shits on with the writing skills Intermezzo’s editors wish they employed.

Things start off well enough.

Intermezzo seems to have found a way out of the murk — namely, by adding generic shelter and travel content. So if you’re keeping track, the mag now ranks as the preeminent foodie/lushie/home-hound/suitcase-urchin title in the history of mass media. Start clearing mantel space for the Ellies.

And it’s all awesomely downhill from there.

Or not. By attempting to do so many things at once, Intermezzo does none especially well. Its food and drink commentary, while professional and nattily presented, lacks Imbibe’s personality and Gourmet’s authoritativeness. Yet despite the room for improvement in its core competency, Intermezzo still wastes its time on African safaris and home de-cluttering. If there’s a good reason why a food-first title should devote a single column inch of space to yarn, organic foot balms or CD reviews, I’d love to hear it. “People listen to music while cooking” doesn’t cut it.

Though, to be fair, is it even possible to publish an entire magazine about food? Oh, wait.