SPICE started back in Summer 05/06 as a food magazine with a cover that wasn’t a plate of food, wasn’t a couple of models, and wasn’t anyone you’d see on telly. It was Gotthard Bauer, Margaret River baker of Yallingup Woodfired Bread, a man who combined making bread of exceptional quality and craft with deep tradition and philosophy. We’ve finished with Jake Drachenberg, coincidentally, a Margaret River chef who grew up in Walpole and was chosen for his beautiful food and his use of local produce. Between these two were 21 other issues that exclusively covered Western Australian food in all its glory; whether it be octopus fishermen, someone who crafted tables, an Italian family making sausages, or many of our most talented chefs sharing their work.
We eschewed advertorial (it was always a bit surprising when you had to explain that we were doing the story for free), avoided rehashing press releases, and tried to keep with our own agenda of what we thought was important and needed to be told. As this was our first and only magazine, the learning curve was always there and while, not always erring on the side of perfect, we were at least interesting. And it was always my own personal opinion that our level of resources was more appropriate for something we stapled together on the copiers at Office Works, rather than a fully paid up hefty 90 page or so quarterly.
Anthony is one of Australia’s nicest bloggers. His hard work and great turn of phrase was one of the main reasons why Spice was so lovely. It will be missed, but he wants you to know the closure has nothing to do with phone tapping, and if you must throw a pie at him, for the love of god, make sure the ingredients were sourced locally.
Hear hear. It’s eye-opening to travel in those countries in Europe which still have a local-artisan approach to the provision of food, and a slower local lifestyle which appreciates it. The new fusion of this slower-thorough-approach with cyber-savvy marketing has real potential to change the game away, at least in part, from the ever more megasized distribution systems.
I look forward to Anthony (and team’s) future endeavours.
What did Anthony think this is – Melbourne?
Thanks Anna! And thanks to the good folks here for encouraging getting out and getting your voice heard.
tigtog – exciting times. Society likes to set up gatekeepers and every time we can sneak under or just drive the hell on through, it’s a good thing.
Russell – you know we’re our own worst enemies sometimes – just went to a great local cafe that was restricted to 16 seats. But it’s a long game played by good people.
Anthony – just out of interest … how many issues did an edition of Spice sell? Would selling more issues have made it viable or did the cost of production and retail price limit mean it would never be a sustainable venture?
I bought a few copies of Spice but lost track of it. It was a good quality publication and it’s unfortunate that it can no longer continue. There was another high quality publication – Divine which covered food and wine – published by a fellow called Andrew Wood which has also unfortunately ceased publication. It seems a shame that Australia’s market for, and accessibility of, quality magazines is so limited. Hurrah for those few who do make the attempt – hope you do well wherever you go.
I’m another admirer of Anthony’s writing and I’m sorry to see this happen. It must be a very difficult undertaking to publish a magazine and for it to survive. I wish you well, too, in whatever you do next, Anthony.