how bon appétit let a good thing die
With its hit YouTube channel on life support, the legacy media brand continues to miss the point.
Remember the early days of the pandemic? That innocent time when folks were pushing back spring plans to late summer or early fall (if they were extra cautious)? When we foolishly abandoned our desk plants thinking we’d be back in our offices in a matter of weeks? Simpler times.
Those early days of the pandemic also bring me back to what now sounds like a guilty pleasure but then was a wholesome treat just on the verge of joining the zeitgeist: the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen’s YouTube channel.
When the stay-at-home orders started flying, the BA chefs also headed to their respective homes. Suddenly, viewers were teleported into the stars’ home kitchens, and the group also kept its audience entertained with games like a “who’s watching what?” match-the-chef-to-the-Netflix-queue, a scavenger hunt and even a benefit variety show. If I’m being honest, it was some of my favorite entertainment of quarantine, and I even borrowed a couple of ideas from the channel in organizing Zoom-friendly team-building activities with my coworkers.
Of course, the BA Test Kitchen brand is now, for all practical purposes, DOA. In the fallout from Bon Appétit editor in chief Adam Rapoport’s resignation in light of the resurfacing of a 2004 photo of him in brownface at a Halloween party, as well as multiple reports that that the channel’s crowd-favorite BIPOC stars including Sohla El-Waylly and Christina Chaey were not paid nearly as much as its white stars like Brad Leone and Claire Saffitz, the channel went silent.
Since the BA staff has refused to film more YouTube content until the pay gap and the associated issues of racial inequity were addressed, it has now been over two months since a new video was uploaded. And based on the past week’s developments, it looks like that won’t be changing anytime soon: Stars Priya Krishna, El-Waylly, Rick Martinez, Gaby Melian and Molly Baz have all announced they will no longer appear in BA videos. Ryan Walker-Hartshorn and Jesse Sparks, reportedly the magazine’s only two Black editorial staffers, have also just announced they are leaving the Condé Nast-owned magazine due to accusations of a toxic work culture.
“I’m no longer going to be in an environment where my value is constantly undermined,” Walker-Hartshorn told The New York Times in an interview. “I feel like it’s a hostile work environment — from the corporate side. They’re not doing the real work.”
Of course, the unraveling at BA quickly whipped Food Media Twitter up to a stiff peak at a moment when BA was already facing a storm of criticism over its publishing of an article on saffron that excluded Iranian voices (despite the fact that about 94 percent of the world’s saffron is sourced from Iran). The issue here is similar to the BA Test Kitchen crisis: For far too long, food media — much like most other types of media — has been dominated by white, straight, cisgender voices. When BIPOC voices get a seat at the table, it is almost always at a reduced pay rate and at a lower seniority level. Further, ladders to leadership roles practically nonexistent and levels of experience and expertise downplayed when compared to less experienced, less knowledgable white counterparts.
The above video — a super cut of El-Waylly being regularly consulted by her colleagues during their videos — illustrates the phenomenon well: In settings like the BA Test Kitchen, BIPOC talents like El-Waylly are tokenized and treated as accessories, an amuse bouche to the entree of the well-paid stars like Leone, whose brand largely consists of wearing fisherman’s beanies and an inability to regularly string a grammatically correct sentence of actual words together.
But El-Waylly and her colleagues deserve so much better. El-Waylly in particular is a delight to watch in her element. Her energy reminds me of Diane, one of my favorite roommates and best friends from my college years who is a talented artist. They are funny, weird and unbelievably talented while exuding a quietly chaotic excitement for their craft. To watch El-Waylly in action is to wish she was your best friend, too.
At its best, that’s what the BA Test Kitchen videos accomplished — the videos feel like you’re hanging out in the kitchen, drinking some wine and unwinding with a friend or two. The brand grew so strong it reinvigorated a stale magazine brand for an entirely new generation. And over the course of just two months, it has thrown all that goodwill away — seemingly because it is too stubborn to fairly compensate its BIPOC talent who consistently pull in millions of views for the channel. It can’t be more simply put than this post from Meme Appetit, possibly one of the more on-the-nose uses of the distracted girlfriend meme that I’ve seen:
This is how you meme, folks. (Meme Appetit/Instagram)
There is a lesson here, as Hannah Giorgis recently explored in The Atlantic: Legacy media must approach conversations on diversity, inclusion and equity at a deeper level than simply looking to make a few hires. The problem, simply, goes much deeper than that — touching on how stories like the saffron feature are assigned and approached, which voices in the room get to make those decisions.
And while I mourn the BA Test Kitchen that will likely never again be the same salve it once was, I take some solace in the knowledge and hope that the outgoing talent at BA will play a key role in holding food media to a higher standard in whatever they do next, though they certainly can’t do it alone. It’s time for food media to step up and do the real work. In the meantime, here’s El-Waylly making ranch fun dip (what?! yes!) the other week with Food52:
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A QTB CORRECTION: Last week, I urged you all to “be a Diane Keaton” in this age of COVID social media content. I spoke too soon and I must retract my endorsement of the The Family Stone star’s Instagram account: She recently used her platform to defend Ellen DeGeneres, saying (yes, in all caps) that she’s “ALWAYS ENJOYED MY VISITS TO THE ELLEN SHOW. I’VE SEEN HOW THE AUDIENCE EXUDES HAPPINESS AND GRATITUDE. SHE GIVES BACK TO SO MANY INCLUDING ME.”
Truly, I should have known better. Ashton Kutcher, Jay Leno, Alec Baldwin and Katy Perry have also stepped up to defend the talk show host. Meanwhile, Tony Okungbowa, the show’s former DJ, has spoken out and added credence to the multiple accusations of a toxic workplace that has ignored past reports of sexual misconduct. “I did experience and feel the toxicity of the environment and I stand with my former colleagues in their quest to create a healthier and more inclusive workplace as the show moves forward,” Okungbowa wrote.
So, just to make the QTB stance on Ellengate clear: I’ve long suspected that the Ellen Is Evil truthers were correct. I stand forever grateful to Dakota Johnson, Mariah Carey and others who provided early warnings of her steely, manipulative facade, and I’m in awe of the former employees who are standing up to the Ellen Industrial Complex now.
Dakota Johnson, an American trailblazer. (EllenTube/YouTube)
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Read: The popular Instagram account Queer Appalachia is the subject of a real wallop of an investigative feature in the Washington Post that should be required reading for anyone who is starting any sort of non-profit or fundraising effort. This well-reported piece went to great lengths to try and learn where the money that the account was raising to (allegedly) help support queer BIPOC individuals in the region. What it came up with fell far short of what the organization’s principal organizer had claimed to have fundraised. Incredible, important work. And in this age of social media-based fundraising, always be sure to research any initiative or organization you send cash to.
Watch: I can’t get enough of this viral clip showing two twins (Tim and Fred Williams, of the channel TwinsTheNewTrend) reacting to hearing Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight (and specifically the iconic drum break) for the very first time. (Bonus: These twins’ reaction to Dolly Parton’s Jolene is also required viewing. The clip was so popular, it got “Jolene” trending on Twitter last week.)
The video also reminded me of one of my favorite YouTube videos of all time, which I now picture in my mind every time I hear the song. I probably watch it once a week?
Listen: Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s WAP is here to save summer. This is the kind of song that was designed to play out of your car’s stereo system, ideally with the windows rolled down while driving through an uptight, pricey neighborhood. That’s the sign of a bonafide song of the summer, which we haven’t really experienced this year. I’m not quite sure why Kendall Jenner is in the video either but let’s focus on what really matters: These LYRICS. I mean: I want you to park that big Mack truck right in this little garage. Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, we also need to talk about the tweets, featuring multiple-time Grammy winner Diane Warren, this song is inspiring. Honestly, hang these in the Louvre:
