Note to Our Readers

The way you cook and shop is constantly changing and we’ve been right there with you, suggesting what you might do with those funny-looking new vegetables that just hit your supermarket, introducing you to the best of Southern California’s ethnic cuisines, finding new ways to trim fat from your diet and keeping you abreast of trends as they happen.

Now we’ve got a whole new look to show off. The features you’ve come to rely on are easier to read. The recipes you love are easier to clip and save. And with this issue we’ve added even more.

Check out The Back Page, a new place to find out what’s in season at the markets and the latest in kitchen gadgets and foods. It’s where you’ll find our Menu Planner with recipes and a built-in shopping list and game plan. Each week we come up with a menu based on a new theme, from feeding a crowd for less than $25 to cutting salt out of your Sunday dinner.

And there’s a new series of rotating monthly columns on the page: Dish keeps you up-to-date on what Southern California’s best chefs are cooking, Tool praises kitchen classics (the perfect cast-iron skillet, the ideal chopping block), Finds lets you in on great local food sources and the already popular America’s Best covers, well, the best in the nation’s mail-order food.

Other additions: We’ve asked Garden Fresh columnist Sylvia Thompson to put together a biweekly Gardener’s Almanac to help you figure out when to sow and when to harvest your herbs and vegetables. And Charles Perry is now writing what he calls Encyclofoodia, a compendium of food history, technique and more.

All you have to do is sit back, have a good read and enjoy our beautiful color photography--now there’s more of it.

We’re excited about our new look. We hope you are too. Drop us a line and let us know what you think.