A Reckoning At Bon Appetit

The Sporkful

SiriusXM Podcasts

Arts

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2020

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A beloved brand with a toxic workplace... The videos shot in the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen are among the most popular food videos on YouTube, beloved for their depiction of a workplace that feels cool, fun, and diverse, full of chummy editors who have become celebrities. But that all changed this week when a photo of Bon Appetit editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport in brownface was posted to Twitter. It brought to the fore long-simmering anger about a lack of diversity among the staff and the cuisines that get highlighted, as well as pay inequities and hostile treatment for people of color at BA. We speak with reporter Rachel Premack, former staffer Nikita Richardson, and current BA assistant editor Sohla El-Waylly to find out what it’s like to work at Bon Appetit, and what it will take to change it. Get 500+ more great Sporkful episodes from our catalog and lots of other Stitcher goodness when you sign up for Stitcher Premium: www.StitcherPremium.com/Sporkful (promo code: SPORKFUL). Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I was just filled with so much rage and frustration with this job.
0:07.1	My whole life I felt like I was getting these jobs or this salary because I didn't deserve
0:12.7	more, you know, that I wasn't good enough.
0:15.5	Like maybe I do need to work for 20 years to get to a job that takes a white person two
0:19.9	years to get to.
0:24.8	This is the Sporkfall.
0:25.8	It's not for foodies, it's for eaters.
0:27.4	I'm Dan Pashman.
0:28.8	Each week on our show we obsess about food to learn more about people.
0:33.6	Recovering some breaking news for you this week, which is why this episode is up early.
0:37.9	The protests happening across the country and the conversations about race and racism
0:41.8	so many of us are having are happening in newsrooms and media outlets too.
0:46.7	Longstanding anger over representation, diversity in hiring, double standards and coverage,
0:51.9	it's all coming out.
0:53.3	In food media, this attention has focused so far on Bon Appétit.
0:57.0	Bon Appétit, the legendary magazine and home of the BA Test Kitchen where some of the
1:01.3	most popular food videos on all of YouTube are shot.
1:04.7	The channel has billions of views and fans online gush about hosts like Claire Safitts
1:09.9	and Bradley Oni like their best friends.
1:12.0	So let's talk about what's been happening at Bon Appétit.
1:15.9	Two weeks ago, Bon Appétit's editor-in-chief Adam Rappaport posted a statement on the
1:19.9	BA website titled, Food Has Always Been Political.
	...

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