Where Were You During the Bon Appétit Feud of 2020?

Welcome back to Saturday Night Social.

Don’t listen to the inner therapy speaking: There is such a thing as bad timing. And no lesson has stung quite as much as the Bon Appétit Reckoning of 2020—though, as you’ll find, it’s been a lesson not learned.

For those of you who had the fortune of being oblivious to the pandemic drama that’s textbook knowledge among the terminally online, here’s a short recap. In the later part of the 2010s (think pre-doomscrolling, but post-Food Network binges on the carpet of your mother’s home), there existed a cozy nook for many on the Internet: A Condé Nast YouTube channel run by none other than BA’s test kitchen.

The channel took a lift-the-lid approach into the magazine’s recipe development, and would churn out long-form montages of food editors working on recipes that took days to create; different writers’ preferences for making coffees in the morning; and mini-hack knowledge to pass onto other home cooks. (Like and subscribe!) Just as interesting as the content was the chemistry between everyone on camera, and there’d be recurring Easter eggs, rivalries, and massive tangents. Aka, everything that made post-noughties YouTube. 

All this shattered in June 2020—amid a national reckoning with race and discrimination. After one of Bon Appétit’s assistant food editors, Sohla El-Waylly, shared on Instagram that she—along with other women of color in the test kitchen—was being underpaid compared to their white counterparts, things started unraveling. Then-editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport was revealed to have done brownface in college; an old Vine (RIP) video of drinks editor Alex Delany using a homophobic slur was resurfaced; and the vice president of video at Condé Nast was accused of racism, homophobia, and pay inequity. Several food editors refused to go on-camera as a result, and many eventually left the magazine. 

Yes. This is the lore that visits me regularly. 

Because I—like many (ahem) zillennials was obsessed with the BA Test Kitchen, and I, like many, was devastated when things went to shit. Worse yet, I had barely eked out some precious savings to pay for Bon Appétit, my very first magazine subscription ever, and had just received my free tote bag saying “DON’T WORRY EAT HAPPY,” along with a BA logo underneath. I received about 12 issues as per my deal, including—yes—the one with an editor’s note wherein Rapoport apologized and resigned, The last time I wore the bag I was hoping no one would notice the little logo—but to my disappointment, my friend (who I was meeting with for coffee) took one look and said: “Wow. That bag aged like milk.”

Over time, however, BA has replaced many of these editors with new ones—and new recipes. And as I find myself ultimately revisiting the YouTube more for its latest offerings, and wanting to use less TikTok and Instagram to find recipes, I have also (gulp) resubscribed and (gulp x2) been rewarded another tote bag. This one—slightly more embarrassingly—says “SALT YOUR PASTA WATER.” I’ve passed it onto my Italian friend.

And listen, we’ve (I’m generalizing here) all been burned by one too many a parasocial relationship—and everyone deserves to spend a little too much time thinking about Internet personalities they’ll never actually meet. But I know I speak for many when I say few parasocial moments have ever hurt quite as much as this one. Everyone deserves their Roman empire, I guess.

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