If you need another online resource for food news — and don't we all, especially after evenings spent in the company of Top Chef and Kitchen Nightmares — you have another one, as of today. Toque, an online food magazine, launched this morning. The national site is owned and edited by Erika Kotite, a veteran of Victorian Homes, Hybrid Mom, and Enterpreneur.

Toque is a magazine, rather than a blog, according to Kotite, because it's designed in the style of a magazine, with cover stories, departments and bylined articles. As for why she decided to throw her hat (yes, I know, her toque) into the ring of food publications, Kotite says that “Toque was purely from personal observation that learning about food and its preparation and the people dedicating their lives to doing that in extraordinary ways was just endlessly fascinating.”

Stories currently featured include an interview with Michael Mina; a chef who is bringing the cuisine of Trinidad and Tobago to Iowa; exploring the issue of hunger at the Culinary Institute of America; and a visit to the Aloha Café here in Los Angeles.

Kotite says that one of her primary goals is to focus on “areas that don't get that much attention,” like the Midwest and the upper Midwest. The site will also feature longer stories from individual writers, “well-developed, in-depth articles about food, not simply reviews and recipes.” To that end, Kotite is looking for contributors, should you want a venue for those stories you've been secretly writing about North Dakota cuisine. Kotite is the East Coast editor for Toque. The West Coast editor is Elina Shatkin, lately of the Los Angeles Times and a former contributor to this publication.

You can also follow Toque on Twitter @toquemag.

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