Who will save food media?
Probably a hot girl on TikTok.
Good morning everyone. How are we doing?
🍴 Yesterday, New York Magazine reported that their new restaurant critic is Matthew Schneier. On the same day, Lauren Sherman reported some gossip that the new EIC of Bon Appetit might be Jamila Robinson, the current food editor of the Philadelphia Enquirer and former Journalism Chair for the James Beard Foundation. (Sherman also said she hopes Schneier “says some very mean, very true, things—he has it in him.”) Byline, the new hot media startup, has a column called Anonymous Food Critic, a return to the traditional form of restaurant reviewing — nobody knows who the author is. And as I wrote a few weeks ago, The New Yorker is cooking up a new food project with their former food critic, Hannah Goldfield. This is all to ask… who will save food media, if it is even worth saving? I love the medium. In college I interned at Food Network for years, and then later worked at Bon Appetit for a bit. Watching the explosion of food media in the mid 2010’s go from a niche section of a paper to the highest-traffic source was exciting. But I really don’t know how they’ll compete with the chokehold of Gabbriette’s sirenesque gaze while making brownie batter, or Pierce’s ASMR-laden sandwiches. Because these people are making short, tight videos, there’s nothing even controversial about them — no awkward kitchen banter, no overly decorated home to hate on, no try-hard jokes or attempt to connect with an audience. As far as restaurant criticism, Ezra Marcus wrote a story about TikTok and restaurant review for Grub Street earlier this year. This isn’t how I’d like to consume my restaurant content, but it’s sort of unavoidable when it appears in my Reels and TikTok feed constantly, if not shoved in front of my face at a cocktail party or on a friend’s couch. I do hope all these people with big jobs at big magazines create a great space to write about restaurants and cooking. It’s worth the effort. It’s just that seeing the most famous personal chefs on Instagram partner with Fidelity Insurance (would love to see that check) jades you a bit.