With old gourmet (and no ~/.gourmet directory):
$ gourmet
/usr/share/gourmet/gourmet/gtk_extras/thumbnail.py:1: DeprecationWarning: the md5 module is deprecated; use hashlib instead
  import Image, urllib, md5, os.path, os, StringIO
/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/sqlalchemy/util.py:7: DeprecationWarning: the sets module is deprecated
  import inspect, itertools, new, operator, sets, sys, warnings, weakref
Connecting to file  /home/jamie/.gourmet/recipes.db
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gourmet", line 35, in <module>
    gourmet.GourmetRecipeManager.startGUI()
  File "/usr/share/gourmet/gourmet/GourmetRecipeManager.py", line 708, in startGUI
    r=RecGui(splash_label=splash.label)
  File "/usr/share/gourmet/gourmet/GourmetRecipeManager.py", line 912, in __init__
    GourmetApplication.__init__(self, splash_label=splash_label)
  File "/usr/share/gourmet/gourmet/GourmetRecipeManager.py", line 112, in __init__
    self.setup_recipes() # Setup recipe database
  File "/usr/share/gourmet/gourmet/GourmetRecipeManager.py", line 202, in setup_recipes
    self.rd = recipeManager.default_rec_manager()
  File "/usr/share/gourmet/gourmet/recipeManager.py", line 134, in default_rec_manager
    return get_recipe_manager(**dbargs)
  File "/usr/share/gourmet/gourmet/recipeManager.py", line 129, in get_recipe_manager
    return RecipeManager(**args)
  File "/usr/share/gourmet/gourmet/backends/db.py", line 1648, in __init__
    self.km = keymanager.get_keymanager(rm=self)
  File "/usr/share/gourmet/gourmet/keymanager.py", line 524, in get_keymanager
    return KeyManager(*args,**kwargs)
  File "/usr/share/gourmet/gourmet/keymanager.py", line 40, in __init__
    self.initialize_from_defaults()
  File "/usr/share/gourmet/gourmet/keymanager.py", line 46, in initialize_from_defaults
    self.rm.add_ing_to_keydic(i,key)
  File "/usr/share/gourmet/gourmet/backends/db.py", line 1504, in add_ing_to_keydic
    row = self.fetch_one(self.keylookup_table, item=item, ingkey=key)
  File "/usr/share/gourmet/gourmet/backends/db.py", line 623, in fetch_one
    return table.select(*make_simple_select_arg(criteria,table)).execute().fetchone()
  File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/sqlalchemy/sql/expression.py", line 1087, in execute
    return e.execute_clauseelement(self, multiparams, params)
  File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 1219, in execute_clauseelement
    return connection.execute_clauseelement(elem, multiparams, params)
  File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 895, in execute_clauseelement
    return self._execute_compiled(elem.compile(dialect=self.dialect, column_keys=keys, inline=len(params) > 1), distilled_params=params)
  File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 907, in _execute_compiled
    self.__execute_raw(context)
  File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 916, in __execute_raw
    self._cursor_execute(context.cursor, context.statement, context.parameters[0], context=context)
  File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 960, in _cursor_execute
    self._handle_dbapi_exception(e, statement, parameters, cursor)
  File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py", line 942, in _handle_dbapi_exception
    raise exceptions.DBAPIError.instance(statement, parameters, e, connection_invalidated=is_disconnect)
sqlalchemy.exceptions.ProgrammingError: (ProgrammingError) You must not use 8-bit bytestrings unless you use a text_factory that can interpret 8-bit bytestrings (like text_factory = str). It is highly recommended that you instead just switch your application to Unicode strings. u'SELECT keylookup.id, keylookup.word, keylookup.item, keylookup.ingkey, keylookup.count \nFROM keylookup \nWHERE keylookup.item = ? AND keylookup.ingkey = ?' ['jalape\xc3\xb1o pepper', 'pepper, jalape\xc3\xb1o']


With new gourmet in -proposed (without and with ~/.gourmet)
$ apt-cache policy gourmet
gourmet:
  Installed: 0.14.5-2ubuntu1.1
  Candidate: 0.14.5-2ubuntu1.1
  Version table:
 *** 0.14.5-2ubuntu1.1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-proposed/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.14.5-2ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/universe Packages
$ gourmet
Connecting to file  /home/jamie/.gourmet/recipes.db