Some thirty food magazines were published in the United States prior to World War II, but Gourmet, launched in 1941 by Earle MacAusland, set a new and exceptionally high standard. MacAusland knew little about culinary matters, but he hand-picked an editorial staff of experts. They included Pearl Metzelthin, author of The World Wide Cook Book: Menus and Recipes of 75 Nations (1939); Louis de Gouy, a chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author who became the magazine’s “Gourmet Chef”; and Samuel Chamberlain, a writer, artist, and photographer who supplied both articles and illustrations. Clementine Paddleford wrote about everyday food for her newspaper columns, but she covered the finer things of life in her articles for Gourmet. MacAusland also hired James Beard, who had just published his first cookbook, Hors d’Oeuvre and Canapés (1940). The distinguished food writers M. F. K. Fisher, Jane Grigson, and Joseph Wechsberg, among others, were early contributors to Gourmet.
