Colman Andrews
Encyclopedia
Colman Robert Hardy Daniel Andrews (Colman Andrews) (born February 18, 1945) is an American
writer
and editor
and authority on food and wine. In culinary circles, he is best known for his association with Saveur
magazine, which he founded with Dorothy Kalins, Michael Grossman, and Christopher Hirsheimer in 1994 and where he served as editor-in-chief from 2001 until 2006. Since then, he has been the restaurant columnist for Gourmet
. He is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on Spanish cuisine, particularly that of the Catalonia
region.
. His father, Charles Robert Hardy Douglas Andrews, born in Effingham, Kansas
, was a newspaperman, pioneering radio soap opera
writer, novelist, and screenwriter
. In a 1948 New Yorker
article on the soaps, James Thurber
mentioned Andrews and his ability to turn out “a hundred thousand words a week over a period of years, without losing a pound or a hair.” Writing speed and fecundity would eventually become something Bob’s son Colman was known for as well. Andrews’ mother was Irene Colman (née Bressette), an actress of French-Canadian descent born in Nashua, New Hampshire
. She was featured as a chorus girl
in Gold Diggers of 1937 alongside Lucille Ball
, and also appeared in Anthony Adverse
with Fredric March
and Tale of Two Cities with Ronald Colman
(from whom she took her stage name, the second half of which she later passed on to her son). Andrews and his sister, Ann Merry Victoria Andrews (two years his junior), grew up on an estate in the West Los Angeles neighborhood of Holmby Hills, next door to Vincent Price
. The family moved to Ojai, north of Los Angeles, in 1959, and Andrews attended Villanova Preparatory School
in the same town. Even in those days, Andrews loved food; he relished dinners at the innovative Ranch House restaurant nearby and, living in a house rented from Loretta Young
, he collected bags full of Ojai’s famed Valencia orange
s from the small orchard out front and squeezed fresh juice from them. He also had his first job in journalism, writing community items for The Ojai Valley News for 35 cents a published column inch.
, Andrews went on to Loyola Marymount University
in Los Angeles
as an English
major. Kicked out of Loyola after one year for ignoring his studies in favor of the campus radio station, Andrews spent the next year-and-a-half working and traveling, at one point following a girlfriend to Atlanta and then Boston
. Returning to Los Angeles, he enrolled at Los Angeles City College
in 1965, studying philosophy
, art history
and Arabic. He took a job in the bookshop at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
the same year, and got to know many of the top Southern California artists of the time. In 1968, after a year-and-a-half at Los Angeles City College and a semester at California State University
, Andrews was accepted at the University of California at Los Angeles. There he continued his philosophy training and also began studying European and Middle European history; he graduated in 1969 with degree
s in history
and philosophy, and his knowledge of both would eventually become hallmarks of his food writing.
It was during his college years that Andrews began paying attention to food in a serious way. His early inspiration was Holiday magazine’s annual restaurant awards, which were founded in 1952 and presided over by Silas Spitzer. Spitzer based the awards on reports from a squad of what he termed “anonymous scouts” around the country (one of whom was James Villas, who would become the food editor of Town & Country magazine for many years). At 25, aware of the fact that as a result of his privileged upbringing he had experienced “more restaurant meals…than many of my contemporaries would eat in a lifetime,” Andrews wrote to Spitzer in hopes of joining his team. Spitzer hired him to write about Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood, which was one of Andrews’ favorite places. Before the piece could run, the magazine was sold and the review was never published. It succeeded, however, in igniting a singular enthusiasm in its author.
Andrews’ first restaurant reviewing job was for The Staff, an offshoot of the LA Free Press. For the column, Andrews created a character called “Mr. Food” who had a distinctly Victorian
voice and invoked a lot of food-related puns and homonyms. In early 1972, Andrews, a serious music lover and amateur singer and songwriter in addition to his interest in gastronomy, was hired by the publicity department of Atlantic Records
; he penned press releases for such albums as Bette Midler
’s and Jackson Browne
’s debuts. Still writing restaurant reviews on the side, Andrews got his first expense account—and used it to visit LA’s newest restaurants. He began to seriously study wine and was a fan in particular of the wine writer Roy Brady, who espoused the notion that a wine should be judged not by its reputation or price but instead by what it smells and tastes like. Brady became his mentor in wine matters, and Andrews himself is known for his democratic approach to the seemingly fusty discipline.
was his editor, and covering live music in the LA area for The Hollywood Reporter
and other publications. He also made radio commercials and wrote artists’ bios for several record companies and wrote liner notes for numerous albums, receiving a Grammy nomination in 1972 for notes on a special edition of Miles Davis
reissues. In 1975, Lois Dwan, restaurant reviewer for The Los Angeles Times, who had read his Mr. Food pieces, asked Andrews to substitute for her while she went on vacation. This began his long association with the newspaper, in the course of which, though he was never officially on staff, he was alternately a restaurant reviewer and columnist, book reviewer and travel writer, and the editor of the paper’s travel magazine, Traveling in Style. In 1978, Andrews was hired by Los Angeles magazine to write a monthly wine column. Once again, he took a pseudonym: Van Delanay (a pun on the phrase vin de l’année, or wine of the year). He was hired that same year as an associate editor at New West magazine, a bi-weekly California publication started by Clay Felker
as a parallel to his seminal New York magazine. He was promoted a year later to senior editor. During this time he met Ruth Reichl
, then the restaurant columnist for the Northern California edition of New West, who would go on to become the restaurant critic of the New York Times from 1993 to 1999, and, later, the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. For a period the two were lovers, their relationship chronicled in Reichl’s memoir Comfort Me with Apples (Random House, 2002).
Andrews left New West in 1980 and began writing for Apartment Life, an urbane lifestyle magazine helmed by Dorothy Kalins. A year later that magazine was transformed into Metropolitan Home
. Over the course of that magazine’s first decade, Andrews wrote dozens of articles and columns, the majority of which were about food and wine (although he also occasionally wrote about art and design, including interviews with David Hockney
, Terry Allen
, and Charles Moore
). During this time Andrews wrote about restaurants all over the world; he was the first American reporter to introduce readers to the great French chef Guy Savoy
. Perhaps most significantly, Andrews got a contract to write a book on Catalan cuisine based on an article he’d written for Met Home. Throughout the eighties he spent a great deal of time traveling to Barcelona
and vicinity. The resulting book, Catalan Cuisine, published in 1988 and still in print, has become the standard reference book for restaurant kitchens in that region, and is revered by the top local chefs, including the world-renowned Ferran Adria
.
, Food & Wine
, Travel & Leisure, and many other publications. In 1992, Andrews published his second book, Everything on the Table: Plain Talk About Food and Wine, a collection of new and revised short pieces, and shortly thereafter he began work on a book about the cuisines of Genoa
and Nice
, Flavors of the Riviera: Discovering Real Mediterranean Cuisine, published in 1996. Meanwhile, in 1994, Andrews had become a founder of Saveur magazine, and in late 1995, he moved from Los Angeles to New York City. The magazine was a watershed publication, the first of its kind to delve beyond recipes and formulas and tell the stories of the people and cultures behind the food. During his tenure, Andrews won six James Beard Journalism Awards, and in 2000, Saveur became the first food magazine to win the American Society of Magazine Editors
’ award for General Excellence. The following year, after the magazine changed ownership, Kalins left to work for Newsweek
and Andrews took over as editor-in-chief. He left Saveur in 2006, becoming the restaurant columnist for Gourmet and undertaking new book projects—the first of which, The Country Cooking of Ireland, will be published in 2009 by Chronicle Books
.
Despite his association with Barcelona, the two cities that most shaped Andrews’ passion for food, he has said, were Paris
and Rome
. He first visited the former in 1965, during which he was guided by an old friend of his father’s, Claude Caspar-Jordan, the administrative director of Associated Press France. Meals with Caspar-Jordan forever changed Andrews, and the two would dine together in Paris at least once a year for 28 years more until the Frenchman’s death; Andrews wrote a moving account of their times together called Paris Authentique that appeared in the twelfth issue of Saveur (May/June 1996). On repeated trips to Rome throughout the 1970s and early ‘80s to visit an American friend who had moved to there, Andrews made a serious study of Italian food, paying particular attention to the Romans’ style and pace of eating, and it left an indelible impression. “Rome made me,” he has written.
1994–2007: SAVEUR (co-founder)
2001-2007: Editor-in-Chief
1996-2001: Editor
1994-1996: Executive Editor
1980–1993: Freelance editing and writing
1979: Senior Editor, NEW WEST (Los Angeles)
1978: Associate Editor, NEW WEST (Los Angeles)
1975–1978: Freelance writing and editing
1972–1975: Editor-in-Chief, COAST (Los Angeles)
1966–1972: Freelance writing and editing
yearly); editor, numerous Los Angeles Times travel section special editions
1976: Editor, “The Hollywood Reporter Annual”
1972–1977: Editorial consulting (clients included Filmex [the Los Angeles International
Film Exposition], the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art Journal, and Picture Magazine)
, Chicago Sun-Times
, Christian Science Monitor, Creem
, Food & Wine
, the Hollywood Reporter
, the Los Angeles Free Press
, Los Angeles Magazine (wine columnist, 1978–1988), the Los Angeles Times
(variously restaurant news columnist, Friday restaurant reviewer, travel writer, and Sunday magazine contributor, 1972–1992), the Mail on Sunday (UK), Metropolitan Home
(principal food writer and editor, 1982–1990), Musica Jazz (Italy), Phonograph Record Magazine, the Radio Times
(UK), the Sunday Telegraph Magazine (UK), and Travel & Leisure.
, 1996
Everything on the Table: Plain Talk About Food and Wine, Bantam Books
, 1992
Catalan Cuisine: Europe’s Last Great Culinary Secret, Atheneum
, 1988
Saveur Cooks Authentic Italian (co-author and co-editor), Chronicle Books
, 2001
Saveur Cooks Authentic French (co-author and co-editor), Chronicle Books
, 1999
Saveur Cooks Authentic American (co-author and co-editor), Chronicle Books
, 1998
Malaparte: A House Like Me (contributor), Clarkson N. Potter, 1999
Setting the American Table: Essays for the New Culture of Food and Wine
(contributor), Copia/The American Center for Wine Food & the Arts, 2001
James Beard Foundation
Award: Best International Cookbook (and) Cookbook of the Year. The Country Cooking of Ireland (Chronicle Books, 2009).
2007
James Beard Foundation
Award: Best Magazine Feature Writing with Recipes. Ireland: Farm to Fork: Special Issue, Saveur, Issue 91, March 2006.
2004
James Beard Foundation
Award: Best Magazine Writing on Wine and Spirits. Article: Treasures of the Land, Saveur, Issue 71, December 2003.
2000
James Beard Foundation
Award: Best Magazine Series. Article: Venice special series, Saveur, Issue 38, November 1999.
1999
James Beard Foundation
Awards: Best Magazine Feature Writing with Recipes and Best American Cookbook (for Saveur Cooks Authentic American, with co-author Dorothy Kalins). Burgundy: Special Issue; Saveur, Issue 30, November 1998.
1998
James Beard Foundation
M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. Article: "http://www.saveur.com/article/Our-Favorite-Foods/Cheese-Toast. Saveur, Issue 18, April 1997.
1996
International Association of Cooking Professionals Bert Greene Award for magazine food journalism.
1985
Named to Who’s Who of Cooking in America (one of the first 50 figures to win this honor)
1976
Grammy nomination, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
, for Best Liner Notes
Children: Madeleine Cartwright Andrews (born April 17, 1990); Isabelle Scott Andrews (born April 5, 1993)
(Show Boat
, Some Like It Hot
, etc.) While living in Atlanta, Andrews wrote some of his first (unsold) articles on a portable typewriter lent to him by Ralph McGill
, the legendary editor of the Atlanta Constitution, to whom a friend of Andrews’ father had introduced him. From 2000 to 2006, Andrews performed several times a year as a guest vocalist with the Texas-based chefs’ band The Barbwires.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
and authority on food and wine. In culinary circles, he is best known for his association with Saveur
Saveur
Saveur is a gourmet, food, wine, and travel magazine that specializes in essays about various world cuisines. The publication was co-founded by Dorothy Kalins, Michael Grossman, Christopher Hirsheimer, and Colman Andrews, who was also the editor-in-chief from 1996 to 2001...
magazine, which he founded with Dorothy Kalins, Michael Grossman, and Christopher Hirsheimer in 1994 and where he served as editor-in-chief from 2001 until 2006. Since then, he has been the restaurant columnist for Gourmet
Gourmet (magazine)
Gourmet magazine was a monthly publication of Condé Nast and the first U.S. magazine devoted to food and wine. Founded by Earle R. MacAusland and first published in 1941, Gourmet also covered "good living" on a wider scale....
. He is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on Spanish cuisine, particularly that of the Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
region.
Early life
Born in Santa Monica, CaliforniaSanta Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
. His father, Charles Robert Hardy Douglas Andrews, born in Effingham, Kansas
Effingham, Kansas
Effingham is a city in Atchison County, Kansas, United States. The population was 588 at the 2000 census. Effingham was named in honor of Effingham H. Nichols, an early promoter of the Central Branch Union Pacific Railroad.-Geography:...
, was a newspaperman, pioneering radio soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
writer, novelist, and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. In a 1948 New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
article on the soaps, James Thurber
James Thurber
James Grover Thurber was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories published in The New Yorker magazine.-Life:...
mentioned Andrews and his ability to turn out “a hundred thousand words a week over a period of years, without losing a pound or a hair.” Writing speed and fecundity would eventually become something Bob’s son Colman was known for as well. Andrews’ mother was Irene Colman (née Bressette), an actress of French-Canadian descent born in Nashua, New Hampshire
Nashua, New Hampshire
-Climate:-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 86,494 people, 35,044 households, and 21,876 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,719.9 people per square mile . There were 37,168 housing units at an average density of 1,202.8 per square mile...
. She was featured as a chorus girl
Chorus Girl
A chorus girl is a female performer in a chorus or chorus line.It may also refer to:*Chorus Girl , a compilation from Atomic Records*Chorus Girls , a 1981 musical*"The Chorus Girl", a story by Anton Chekhov...
in Gold Diggers of 1937 alongside Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
, and also appeared in Anthony Adverse
Anthony Adverse
Anthony Adverse is a 1936 American drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The screenplay by Sheridan Gibney is based on the sprawling 1,224-page novel of the same title by Hervey Allen.-Plot:...
with Fredric March
Fredric March
Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...
and Tale of Two Cities with Ronald Colman
Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...
(from whom she took her stage name, the second half of which she later passed on to her son). Andrews and his sister, Ann Merry Victoria Andrews (two years his junior), grew up on an estate in the West Los Angeles neighborhood of Holmby Hills, next door to Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
. The family moved to Ojai, north of Los Angeles, in 1959, and Andrews attended Villanova Preparatory School
Villanova Preparatory School
Villanova Preparatory School is an Augustinian Catholic co-ed day/ boarding school located in the small town of Ojai, California, USA. Sitting on more than 120 acres, Villanova's campus has sports fields and trails, modern gym, tennis courts and well equipped classrooms with up-to-date technology,...
in the same town. Even in those days, Andrews loved food; he relished dinners at the innovative Ranch House restaurant nearby and, living in a house rented from Loretta Young
Loretta Young
Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953...
, he collected bags full of Ojai’s famed Valencia orange
Valencia orange
The Valencia Orange is a sweet orange first hybridized by California pioneer agronomist and land developer William Wolfskill, on his farm in Santa Ana in southern California in the United States. -History:...
s from the small orchard out front and squeezed fresh juice from them. He also had his first job in journalism, writing community items for The Ojai Valley News for 35 cents a published column inch.
Early career
After high schoolHigh school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, Andrews went on to Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University is a comprehensive co-educational private Roman Catholic university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions located in Los Angeles, California, United States...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
as an English
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
major. Kicked out of Loyola after one year for ignoring his studies in favor of the campus radio station, Andrews spent the next year-and-a-half working and traveling, at one point following a girlfriend to Atlanta and then Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. Returning to Los Angeles, he enrolled at Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College, known as LACC, is a public community college in the East Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard...
in 1965, studying philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, art history
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
and Arabic. He took a job in the bookshop at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
the same year, and got to know many of the top Southern California artists of the time. In 1968, after a year-and-a-half at Los Angeles City College and a semester at California State University
California State University
The California State University is a public university system in the state of California. It is one of three public higher education systems in the state, the other two being the University of California system and the California Community College system. It is incorporated as The Trustees of the...
, Andrews was accepted at the University of California at Los Angeles. There he continued his philosophy training and also began studying European and Middle European history; he graduated in 1969 with degree
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
s in history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
and philosophy, and his knowledge of both would eventually become hallmarks of his food writing.
It was during his college years that Andrews began paying attention to food in a serious way. His early inspiration was Holiday magazine’s annual restaurant awards, which were founded in 1952 and presided over by Silas Spitzer. Spitzer based the awards on reports from a squad of what he termed “anonymous scouts” around the country (one of whom was James Villas, who would become the food editor of Town & Country magazine for many years). At 25, aware of the fact that as a result of his privileged upbringing he had experienced “more restaurant meals…than many of my contemporaries would eat in a lifetime,” Andrews wrote to Spitzer in hopes of joining his team. Spitzer hired him to write about Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood, which was one of Andrews’ favorite places. Before the piece could run, the magazine was sold and the review was never published. It succeeded, however, in igniting a singular enthusiasm in its author.
Andrews’ first restaurant reviewing job was for The Staff, an offshoot of the LA Free Press. For the column, Andrews created a character called “Mr. Food” who had a distinctly Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
voice and invoked a lot of food-related puns and homonyms. In early 1972, Andrews, a serious music lover and amateur singer and songwriter in addition to his interest in gastronomy, was hired by the publicity department of Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
; he penned press releases for such albums as Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
’s and Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
’s debuts. Still writing restaurant reviews on the side, Andrews got his first expense account—and used it to visit LA’s newest restaurants. He began to seriously study wine and was a fan in particular of the wine writer Roy Brady, who espoused the notion that a wine should be judged not by its reputation or price but instead by what it smells and tastes like. Brady became his mentor in wine matters, and Andrews himself is known for his democratic approach to the seemingly fusty discipline.
Magazine Life
Andrews left Atlantic before a year had passed to accept his first leadership role on the staff of a consumer magazine. He became the editor of Coast, a Los Angeles-based lifestyle magazine; he held the position until 1975. Meanwhile, Andrews continued his association with the music industry reviewing records for Creem, where Lester BangsLester Bangs
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was an American music journalist, author and musician. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock 'n' roll criticism....
was his editor, and covering live music in the LA area for The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
and other publications. He also made radio commercials and wrote artists’ bios for several record companies and wrote liner notes for numerous albums, receiving a Grammy nomination in 1972 for notes on a special edition of Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
reissues. In 1975, Lois Dwan, restaurant reviewer for The Los Angeles Times, who had read his Mr. Food pieces, asked Andrews to substitute for her while she went on vacation. This began his long association with the newspaper, in the course of which, though he was never officially on staff, he was alternately a restaurant reviewer and columnist, book reviewer and travel writer, and the editor of the paper’s travel magazine, Traveling in Style. In 1978, Andrews was hired by Los Angeles magazine to write a monthly wine column. Once again, he took a pseudonym: Van Delanay (a pun on the phrase vin de l’année, or wine of the year). He was hired that same year as an associate editor at New West magazine, a bi-weekly California publication started by Clay Felker
Clay Felker
Clay Schuette Felker was an American magazine editor and journalist who founded New York Magazine in 1968. He was known for bringing large numbers of journalists into the profession...
as a parallel to his seminal New York magazine. He was promoted a year later to senior editor. During this time he met Ruth Reichl
Ruth Reichl
Ruth Reichl - pronounced RYE-chil - is an American food writer, co-producer of PBS's Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, culinary editor for the Modern Library, host of PBS's Gourmet's Adventures With Ruth, and the last editor-in-chief of the now shuttered Gourmet magazine...
, then the restaurant columnist for the Northern California edition of New West, who would go on to become the restaurant critic of the New York Times from 1993 to 1999, and, later, the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. For a period the two were lovers, their relationship chronicled in Reichl’s memoir Comfort Me with Apples (Random House, 2002).
Andrews left New West in 1980 and began writing for Apartment Life, an urbane lifestyle magazine helmed by Dorothy Kalins. A year later that magazine was transformed into Metropolitan Home
Metropolitan Home
Metropolitan Home was a magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. The magazine focused on "high-end modern design and interiors, blended with intelligent reporting, to connect with a progressive reader mindset." It was originally published from 1974 through 1981 as Apartment Life,...
. Over the course of that magazine’s first decade, Andrews wrote dozens of articles and columns, the majority of which were about food and wine (although he also occasionally wrote about art and design, including interviews with David Hockney
David Hockney
David Hockney, CH, RA, is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer, who is based in Bridlington, Yorkshire and Kensington, London....
, Terry Allen
Terry Allen
Terry Allen may refer to:*Terry Allen , American Big Band singer*Terry Allen , American country singer and artist*Magnum T.A...
, and Charles Moore
Charles Moore
Charles Moore may refer to:*Charles Moore , America Olympic hurdler*Charles Moore , director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney...
). During this time Andrews wrote about restaurants all over the world; he was the first American reporter to introduce readers to the great French chef Guy Savoy
Guy Savoy
Guy Savoy is a world-renowned French chef, and is the Head Chef and owner of the eponymous Guy Savoy restaurant in Paris and sister restaurant in Las Vegas.The Paris restaurant has garnered the 3 Michelin stars, being elevated in 2002...
. Perhaps most significantly, Andrews got a contract to write a book on Catalan cuisine based on an article he’d written for Met Home. Throughout the eighties he spent a great deal of time traveling to Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
and vicinity. The resulting book, Catalan Cuisine, published in 1988 and still in print, has become the standard reference book for restaurant kitchens in that region, and is revered by the top local chefs, including the world-renowned Ferran Adria
Ferran Adrià
Ferran Adrià i Acosta is a Catalan chef born on May 14, 1962 in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. He was the head chef of the El Bulli restaurant in Roses on the Costa Brava, and is considered one of the best chefs in the world.-Career:...
.
Saveur
After finishing his Catalan book, Andrews worked as a freelancer, writing articles for the Los Angeles Times and for Bon AppetitBon Appétit
Bon Appétit describes itself as "a food and entertaining magazine" and is published monthly. Named after the French phrase for "Enjoy your meal", it was started by M. Frank Jones in Kansas City in 1956...
, Food & Wine
Food & Wine
Food & Wine is a monthly magazine published by American Express Publishing. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and seasonal/holiday content and has been credited by The New York...
, Travel & Leisure, and many other publications. In 1992, Andrews published his second book, Everything on the Table: Plain Talk About Food and Wine, a collection of new and revised short pieces, and shortly thereafter he began work on a book about the cuisines of Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
and Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
, Flavors of the Riviera: Discovering Real Mediterranean Cuisine, published in 1996. Meanwhile, in 1994, Andrews had become a founder of Saveur magazine, and in late 1995, he moved from Los Angeles to New York City. The magazine was a watershed publication, the first of its kind to delve beyond recipes and formulas and tell the stories of the people and cultures behind the food. During his tenure, Andrews won six James Beard Journalism Awards, and in 2000, Saveur became the first food magazine to win the American Society of Magazine Editors
American Society of Magazine Editors
The American Society of Magazine Editors is an industry trade group for editors of magazines published in the United States. The group advocates on behalf of member organizations with respect to First Amendment issues, and serves as a networking hub for editors and other industry employees...
’ award for General Excellence. The following year, after the magazine changed ownership, Kalins left to work for Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
and Andrews took over as editor-in-chief. He left Saveur in 2006, becoming the restaurant columnist for Gourmet and undertaking new book projects—the first of which, The Country Cooking of Ireland, will be published in 2009 by Chronicle Books
Chronicle Books
Chronicle Books is a San Francisco-based American publisher of books for adults and children.The company was established in 1968 by Phelps Dewey, an executive with Chronicle Publishing Company, then-publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1999 it was bought by Nion McEvoy, great-grandson of...
.
Despite his association with Barcelona, the two cities that most shaped Andrews’ passion for food, he has said, were Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. He first visited the former in 1965, during which he was guided by an old friend of his father’s, Claude Caspar-Jordan, the administrative director of Associated Press France. Meals with Caspar-Jordan forever changed Andrews, and the two would dine together in Paris at least once a year for 28 years more until the Frenchman’s death; Andrews wrote a moving account of their times together called Paris Authentique that appeared in the twelfth issue of Saveur (May/June 1996). On repeated trips to Rome throughout the 1970s and early ‘80s to visit an American friend who had moved to there, Andrews made a serious study of Italian food, paying particular attention to the Romans’ style and pace of eating, and it left an indelible impression. “Rome made me,” he has written.
Employment
2007–present: GOURMET, restaurant columnist1994–2007: SAVEUR (co-founder)
2001-2007: Editor-in-Chief
1996-2001: Editor
1994-1996: Executive Editor
1980–1993: Freelance editing and writing
1979: Senior Editor, NEW WEST (Los Angeles)
1978: Associate Editor, NEW WEST (Los Angeles)
1975–1978: Freelance writing and editing
1972–1975: Editor-in-Chief, COAST (Los Angeles)
1966–1972: Freelance writing and editing
Freelance Editing
1992—1994: Editor, Traveling in Style, the Los Angeles Times travel magazine (thriceyearly); editor, numerous Los Angeles Times travel section special editions
1976: Editor, “The Hollywood Reporter Annual”
1972–1977: Editorial consulting (clients included Filmex [the Los Angeles International
Film Exposition], the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art Journal, and Picture Magazine)
Freelance Writing
Author of an estimated 2,500 freelance articles, essays, and reviews about food, wine, travel, music, art, architecture, design, the entertainment industry, social issues, etc., between 1966 and the present. Publications include Bon AppétitBon Appétit
Bon Appétit describes itself as "a food and entertaining magazine" and is published monthly. Named after the French phrase for "Enjoy your meal", it was started by M. Frank Jones in Kansas City in 1956...
, Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, Christian Science Monitor, Creem
Creem
Creem , "America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine," was a monthly rock 'n' roll publication first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. It suspended production in 1989 but received a short-lived renaissance in the early 1990s as a glossy tabloid...
, Food & Wine
Food & Wine
Food & Wine is a monthly magazine published by American Express Publishing. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and seasonal/holiday content and has been credited by The New York...
, the Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
, the Los Angeles Free Press
Los Angeles Free Press
The Los Angeles Free Press , also called “the Freep”, was among the most widely distributed underground newspapers of the 1960s. It is often cited as the first such newspaper...
, Los Angeles Magazine (wine columnist, 1978–1988), the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
(variously restaurant news columnist, Friday restaurant reviewer, travel writer, and Sunday magazine contributor, 1972–1992), the Mail on Sunday (UK), Metropolitan Home
Metropolitan Home
Metropolitan Home was a magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. The magazine focused on "high-end modern design and interiors, blended with intelligent reporting, to connect with a progressive reader mindset." It was originally published from 1974 through 1981 as Apartment Life,...
(principal food writer and editor, 1982–1990), Musica Jazz (Italy), Phonograph Record Magazine, the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
(UK), the Sunday Telegraph Magazine (UK), and Travel & Leisure.
Books
Flavors of the Riviera: Discovering Real Mediterranean Cooking, Bantam BooksBantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by Random House, the German media corporation subsidiary of Bertelsmann; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine...
, 1996
Everything on the Table: Plain Talk About Food and Wine, Bantam Books
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by Random House, the German media corporation subsidiary of Bertelsmann; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine...
, 1992
Catalan Cuisine: Europe’s Last Great Culinary Secret, Atheneum
Atheneum Books
Atheneum Books was a publishing house and adult publisher created by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. in 1959. He recruited editor Jean E. Karl personally, to come and establish a Children's Book Department in 1961....
, 1988
Saveur Cooks Authentic Italian (co-author and co-editor), Chronicle Books
Chronicle Books
Chronicle Books is a San Francisco-based American publisher of books for adults and children.The company was established in 1968 by Phelps Dewey, an executive with Chronicle Publishing Company, then-publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1999 it was bought by Nion McEvoy, great-grandson of...
, 2001
Saveur Cooks Authentic French (co-author and co-editor), Chronicle Books
Chronicle Books
Chronicle Books is a San Francisco-based American publisher of books for adults and children.The company was established in 1968 by Phelps Dewey, an executive with Chronicle Publishing Company, then-publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1999 it was bought by Nion McEvoy, great-grandson of...
, 1999
Saveur Cooks Authentic American (co-author and co-editor), Chronicle Books
Chronicle Books
Chronicle Books is a San Francisco-based American publisher of books for adults and children.The company was established in 1968 by Phelps Dewey, an executive with Chronicle Publishing Company, then-publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1999 it was bought by Nion McEvoy, great-grandson of...
, 1998
Malaparte: A House Like Me (contributor), Clarkson N. Potter, 1999
Setting the American Table: Essays for the New Culture of Food and Wine
(contributor), Copia/The American Center for Wine Food & the Arts, 2001
Awards and honors
2010James Beard Foundation
James Beard Foundation
The James Beard Foundation is a New York-based national professional non-profit organization named in honor of James Beard that serves to promote the culinary arts by honoring chefs, wine professionals, journalists, and cookbook authors at annual award ceremonies and providing scholarships and...
Award: Best International Cookbook (and) Cookbook of the Year. The Country Cooking of Ireland (Chronicle Books, 2009).
2007
James Beard Foundation
James Beard Foundation
The James Beard Foundation is a New York-based national professional non-profit organization named in honor of James Beard that serves to promote the culinary arts by honoring chefs, wine professionals, journalists, and cookbook authors at annual award ceremonies and providing scholarships and...
Award: Best Magazine Feature Writing with Recipes. Ireland: Farm to Fork: Special Issue, Saveur, Issue 91, March 2006.
2004
James Beard Foundation
James Beard Foundation
The James Beard Foundation is a New York-based national professional non-profit organization named in honor of James Beard that serves to promote the culinary arts by honoring chefs, wine professionals, journalists, and cookbook authors at annual award ceremonies and providing scholarships and...
Award: Best Magazine Writing on Wine and Spirits. Article: Treasures of the Land, Saveur, Issue 71, December 2003.
2000
James Beard Foundation
James Beard Foundation
The James Beard Foundation is a New York-based national professional non-profit organization named in honor of James Beard that serves to promote the culinary arts by honoring chefs, wine professionals, journalists, and cookbook authors at annual award ceremonies and providing scholarships and...
Award: Best Magazine Series. Article: Venice special series, Saveur, Issue 38, November 1999.
1999
James Beard Foundation
James Beard Foundation
The James Beard Foundation is a New York-based national professional non-profit organization named in honor of James Beard that serves to promote the culinary arts by honoring chefs, wine professionals, journalists, and cookbook authors at annual award ceremonies and providing scholarships and...
Awards: Best Magazine Feature Writing with Recipes and Best American Cookbook (for Saveur Cooks Authentic American, with co-author Dorothy Kalins). Burgundy: Special Issue; Saveur, Issue 30, November 1998.
1998
James Beard Foundation
James Beard Foundation
The James Beard Foundation is a New York-based national professional non-profit organization named in honor of James Beard that serves to promote the culinary arts by honoring chefs, wine professionals, journalists, and cookbook authors at annual award ceremonies and providing scholarships and...
M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. Article: "http://www.saveur.com/article/Our-Favorite-Foods/Cheese-Toast. Saveur, Issue 18, April 1997.
1996
International Association of Cooking Professionals Bert Greene Award for magazine food journalism.
1985
Named to Who’s Who of Cooking in America (one of the first 50 figures to win this honor)
1976
Grammy nomination, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., known variously as The Recording Academy or NARAS, is a U.S. organization of musicians, producers, recording engineers and other recording professionals dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for music and its...
, for Best Liner Notes
Personal life
Marriages: Leslie Ward, 1979–1989; Paula Fritz, 1989–2002; Erin Walker, 2006–presentChildren: Madeleine Cartwright Andrews (born April 17, 1990); Isabelle Scott Andrews (born April 5, 1993)
Interesting facts
Andrews’ godmother was Kathryn Brown, wife of actor and comedian Joe E. BrownJoe E. Brown (comedian)
Joseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian, remembered for his amiable screen persona, comic timing, and enormous smile. In 1902 at the age of nine, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvelous Ashtons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville...
(Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
, Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot is an American comedy film, made in 1958 and released in 1959, which was directed by Billy Wilder and starred Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and George Raft. The supporting cast includes Joe E. Brown, Pat O'Brien and Nehemiah Persoff. The film is a remake by Wilder and I....
, etc.) While living in Atlanta, Andrews wrote some of his first (unsold) articles on a portable typewriter lent to him by Ralph McGill
Ralph McGill
Ralph Emerson McGill , American journalist, was best known as the anti-segregationist editor and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper. He won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1959....
, the legendary editor of the Atlanta Constitution, to whom a friend of Andrews’ father had introduced him. From 2000 to 2006, Andrews performed several times a year as a guest vocalist with the Texas-based chefs’ band The Barbwires.
External links
- Oxford Symposium on Food, 2005
- Colman Andrews speech at Good Food Ireland showcase event
- Colman Andrews on Gourmet.com
- http://www.thefoodsection.com/appetizers/2006/08/colman_andrews_.html
- http://gawker.com/news/gourmet/andrews-exits-saveur-for-the-comfort-of-reichls-apples-191555.php
- http://www.amazon.com/Catalan-Cuisine-Europes-Culinary-Secret/dp/1558321543
- http://articles.latimes.com/writers/colman-andrews
- http://www.wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0605b.mp3/view
- http://www.restaurantguysradio.com/sle/rg/content/shows/index.asp?show_id=180
- http://www.jamesbeard.org/index.php?q=search/node/colman+andrews
- http://www.tienda.com/table/products/bk-08.html
- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4DA1638F93BA35754C0A966958260
- http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/440333