Bon Appetit Test Kitchen

solidarity gets the goods

It says something about the current moment that not even the hyper chil idyll of BA is immune. (a good thing!)

Idyll or no, it's ultimately a capitalist venture in America

absolutely

Seems like p much the whole team is in messaging lockstep

I can't wait for the anonymized Buzzfeed piece or whatever

Rapo has always seemed a dick tbh, and the vibe in the kitchen has never felt too warm towards him

What happened to the guy who used to film those "24 hours working in a NY deli/Vegas restaurant" videos?

rapoport resigned. conde nast denies only paying white editors for video appearances

― Rik Waller-Bridge (jim in vancouver), Monday, June 8, 2020 7:42 PM (yesterday)

i feel like what happened here is that bon appetit realized how white their video stars were and to get ahead of the backlash they started throwing brown ppl in front of the screen (it was very obvious when they started doing this) w/o ever getting around to compensating its employees for the increased responsibility (extremely common at all media companies)

or put another way... i feel like what she really meant to say was, "only the white staffers here have salaries that accurately reflect everything they are asked to do" (claire being one exception who is on a non salaried contract)

Yup.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/skbaer/bon-appetit-adam-rapoport-brown-face-racism

Last August, she was sent on assignment to Philadelphia, for a feature with three Black chefs, but because the publication "doesn't have a great history of working with Black chefs," the chefs asked to work with all Black staff, El-Waylly said.

"There was no one on the food team that was Black, so they sent me instead because I'm the darkest one," she said, adding that neither she nor the chefs were given a heads up about the situation. "I arrived and I wasn't Black, and it was very strange for everyone involved."

OH. MY. GOD.

jesus

A few more ex staffers have chimed in

Oh you guys just thought I didn’t enjoy making “It’s Alive” “Gourmet Makes” “Alex Eats it All” “24 Hours” videos?

— Vincent Cross (@VINCENT_CROSS) June 8, 2020

Holy shit. Sohla and I didn’t overlap, but I was a FAR less experienced white editor who made more than this. I’ve spent 3 years cringing every time someone asks me how cool it was to work at BA. In awe of those who’ve been brave enough to go public. There’s a lot more to come 👀 https://t.co/CrCjLL3Xvi

— Julia Black (@mjnblack) June 8, 2020

A lot of the people putting out statements are the same people who stood by silently or joined in the bullying and allowed this behavior to continue.

— Amelia Rampe (@lebonoeuf) June 8, 2020

For the interested, a GQ piece that heavily features Sohla, now recirculating

https://www.gq.com/story/what-happens-when-a-brown-chef-cooks-white-food

and some new background on it in this thread

the back story on getting this piece published was wild. I originally worked on it at @thrillist where it was edited by @mariuyehara. The white man running the company at the time not only held up the piece for months, he then handed it off to a white male editor. I pulled it. https://t.co/YYMXWJAPVE

— Khushbu Shah (@KhushAndOJ) June 8, 2020

BA posted their apology post on Insta

don't follow Delany anywhere but assume he's apologized for the confederate battle flag cake pic which is floating around on socials

cant stand the 'drinks' guy. intensely slimey vibes.

Vulture has a pretty comprehensive rundown: https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/bon-appetit-eic-adam-rapoport-resigns-racism.html

The editor in charge of video got let go as well

Just got the June/July issue of the print magazine in the mail. There is a short interview with an African American pitmaster and historian of black-owned barbecue restaurants, as well as a feature on Juneteenth by an African American writer that includes recipes from three African American chefs. There's also a first-person essay by Roxane Gay.

To be clear, none of that excuses what's been reported about Rapoport and the way that POC staff have been treated, which are real issues. I just thought it was interesting in light of those developments. It seems like the magazine has been trying to prioritize diversity in its editorial focus (more than some people may assume), even if that hasn't extended to its employees (which is surely a bigger problem). And again, I don't know the Test Kitchen world at all.

test kitchen reminds me of when you see huge gangs of straight white people having enormous picnics

same vibe

ah, so when condé says it’s going to take racism seriously, this is what they mean. they’re going to investigate the people making the claims and the people who support them, rather than looking at the systemic racism itself. got it. https://t.co/ow5sf48Dvs pic.twitter.com/meXuWZCOwh

— rosemary donahue (@rosadona) June 25, 2020

free hunzi

ugh for real

noooooo wtf @ suspending hunzi

what bullshit

this whole 'hotbed of racism' thing has put me off the BA videos and tipped me right over the edge of not at all enjoying its forced chumminess. I haven't watched any of their videos since. I wonder if viewer ratings have declined as a result or if everyone else has simply already forgotten?

They haven't posted a video since then, for one thing

They haven't posted anything since, have they? I'm sure views and subscribers are down, but there are probably a majority that have no idea about any of it.

xp

They have still been posting Epicurious videos though

i never found the chumminess particularly forced? it seemed pretty clear that everyone hated rapaport.

I honestly would be watching the videos if they were posting new vids ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I mean, as long as they haven't fucked Sohla over and were genuinely sorting out the issues that arose last month, I would too, as I love the videos they make.

Same, not holding out hope for them to do the right thing, but I definitely haven't been inspired to bake anything (although it's also summer).

Pretty sure all/most of the stars committed to not allowing BA to make any new footage of them or in some cases not even use existing footage of them until demands were met.

I’ve become a Mythical Kitchen devotee since quarantine began and it’s easily just as fun as the best BATK content if not more so. Possible minus: most of the recipes are nonsense. I just watched the new one where Nicole makes pimento cheese monkey bread, thought “I might try that!” and realized I basically never think that thought about anything Josh makes.

Sohla was on Binging With Babish today!!

i might have to watch. i miss coming home from work and watching a fresh ba video while drinking a beer :/

We’ve been watching a lot of Babish anyway. He has the benefit of falling in the Venn overlap of being on It’s Alive with Brad (making ricotta cheese) and on Food Fears with Josh (pork blood). It’s a shame he’s so mumbly though, it makes it hard to follow what he’s doing at times.

I'm leaving Bon Appétit video. Here's what's been happening over the last few months, and some thoughts. pic.twitter.com/L59blcESLv

— Priya Krishna (@priyakrishna) August 6, 2020

Ugh

More: https://www.businessinsider.com/bon-appetit-test-kitchen-priya-krishna-rick-martinez-2020-8?

Uugghh!!!

Rick, Sohla and Priya are three of the very best.

I don't wanna watch the shows if they aren't on them, and if Conde Nast isn't treating the BIPOC contributors right.

damn Conde Nast are really fucking this up, hey?

rip BA test kitchen

yeah it's fucking dead

time for them to pull a Deadspin

Hope Brad and Clare spin off from the brand quick, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzIqQ75mUWo

I support Sohla doing a tour of every other Youtube food channel

The NY Times had a series with the woman who criticized Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo, guessing she won't be doing any videos soon, they should swoop in and steal Sohla.

lol that genius recipes show has become unbearable in lockdown with all the baby/husband crap