I hope we get to a point where we don’t need a white guy to go to a Chinese restaurant for other people to say, ‘oh yeah Sichuan food is good.'”
Jessica Nicely of Compound Butter
What’s it like to run a food magazine, anyway?
Cousins Jaya and Jessica saw a lack of representation of women in the food world, so they teamed up to create Compound Butter. It’s a new magazine all about food, art, and the surprising connections between them. From humble beginnings as a project in art school, Compound Butter Magazine has grown to a charmingly eclectic magazine with issue themes like “Booze Cruise,” “Fantasy,” and “Girls Club.” In this episode Jaya and Jessica share:
- What inspired them to start a food magazine and what it’s actually like to run one in 2020
- Why the food world still has a long way to go in terms of gender equity
- Their take on the ongoing reckoning around cultural representation in food
- Their favorite cookbooks, chefs, food writers, and more!
Get ready for a candid glimpse behind the curtain of food media.
Episode Show Notes:
- Learn more about Compound Butter Magazine on their website and Instagram
- Both Jaya and Jessica drew inspiration from the now defunct Lucky Peach magazine
- Gabrielle Hamilton’s story in the New York Times Magazine is a must-read to understand how the restaurant industry has been impacted by COVID-19
- Jaya and Jessica are proud to support charities including Everyone In, The Okra Project, The Authority Collective, Cheffing While Black, and the ACLU
- Jaya and Jessica are fans of chef Andrea Nguyen
- Check out Vegetables Unleashed by Jose Andrés
- We discussed the popularity and the merits of the Ooni pizza oven
- We found video evidence of the scientific fact that all COVID commercials are the same
- Khao Suey is a delicious Burmese chicken and coconut soup
- Jaya and Jessica’s go-to karaoke songs were “Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia and “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey
- If you like illustration and design, then check out the work of illustrator Jillian Tamaki
If you enjoyed this, then tune in to Rethinking Restaurant Food Waste with Matthew Jozwiak of Rethink Food NYC
