Dear Bon Appetit,
I'm so deeply disappointed with the redesign of this magazine, Bon Appetit, that I have had in my home my entire adult life. It's not really even a redesign, is it? It's just a lazy amalgamation of every other contemporary lifestyle magazine from Esquire to O.
I used to love bypassing the table of contents, letting the recipes and food photography capture my eye. Now all of that is lost in a wash of iconography, dumbing down, and desperately cute content ("Text After Marriage" --could this self-congratulatory quip be any less appetizing?).
The former Bon Appetit had an obvious point of view and appealed to any slice or cross section of demographic who had a common interest in food. Now, you're trying to play all sides through content and advertising: cosmetics, cars, Botox. Looking through previous issues, all that was still there, but now I find in this recent issue no visual distinction among any of it.
Mr. Rapoport explains in his editor's letter that "We don't want to just tell you what to cook--we want to tell you how to cook it, and why to cook it, now." Isn't a recipe indeed instructions on how to cook something? I don't recall at any time in the former magazine where there was just a blank page save for the words "Carbonara Sauce." For your readers who are perfectly happy figuring out the "why" all on their own, you should have given them fair warning that your new lifestyle magazine was going to try impose lifestyle on those who already have it.
"How to Drink Like an Italian." Didn't I read that article in GQ last month? Oh wait, this GQ, just the food edition.
You've betrayed your loyal readers with this redesign. You've put too much mass in this medium. The kitchen is supposed to be a retreat from the inescapable media bombardments of our daily lives. The former magazine was a door to that retreat. You've stripped the magazine of its distinction and elegance. We need more of these things now, not less.
You've made the magazine completely indistinguishable. This new Bon Appetit is the New Coke. Change it back.
With respect and optimism,
Beth Massa
A former reader who will now use the future pages of your magazine as starter fuel for my barbeque.
Comments