When we were putting together the September issue, one of the editors stumbled across this feature, published in December 1963. Far from being a journalistic artifact, it’s just as funny, imaginative, and supremely savvy as it was back then. The byline was intriguing. Who was Margaret Bennett? We turned to contributing editor Caroline Bates, who joined Gourmet in 1958 and became our West Coast restaurant critic in 1974. She has a mind like a steel trap. “Oh, that was a pseudonym,” she said instantly. “A pair of college librarians from California sent that in unsolicited, and they wrote for us for years afterward. Their names were Barbara Toohey and June Biermann.” (via Thanks for the Memories: Food + Cooking : gourmet.com)

When we were putting together the September issue, one of the editors stumbled across this feature, published in December 1963. Far from being a journalistic artifact, it’s just as funny, imaginative, and supremely savvy as it was back then. The byline was intriguing. Who was Margaret Bennett? We turned to contributing editor Caroline Bates, who joined Gourmet in 1958 and became our West Coast restaurant critic in 1974. She has a mind like a steel trap. “Oh, that was a pseudonym,” she said instantly. “A pair of college librarians from California sent that in unsolicited, and they wrote for us for years afterward. Their names were Barbara Toohey and June Biermann.” (via Thanks for the Memories: Food + Cooking : gourmet.com)