This undated screen shot provided by Gourmet Magazine shows a sample of their new Web site that is scheduled to launch today.

A year ago, the nation’s oldest food magazine realized it still had some growing to do.

That’s when the editors at Gourmet decided their approach – posting the same content from their print edition and funneling their recipes to Epicurious.com‘s online database – simply wasn’t good enough.

Which is why today, the magazine is launching a new and robust Web site jammed with original content, including stories, reviews, videos, recipes, even archival material dating to the magazine’s launch in 1941.

“Gourmet invented the epicurean category,” says Ruth Reichl, Gourmet’s editor-in-chief. “We’ve got so much material to work with.”

“We have created a very broad site that goes in a lot of different directions and tries to offer everything,” she says.

Contributors to the site will include Southern food historian John T. Edge and writers Deborah Madison, Michael Pollan, Eric Ripert, Heston Blumenthal, as well as Gourmet editor Coleman Andrews.

The site also will offer news, including legislation that affects farm and table, travel and culture reports, and videos of the entire first season of the magazine’s public television show, “Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie.”

Epicurious.com, which also includes content from Bon Appetit and other Conde Nast titles, will continue to serve as the primary source for Gourmet’s recipes.