Bon Appétit Presents Its First-ever Culture Issue

NEW YORK, Feb. 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Five years ago, Adam Rapoport and Pamela Drucker Mann reinvented Bon Appétit to be not just about recipes and home-cooking but about the Zeitgeist of food. Eating well isn't just about what's on the plate anymore--like fashion or entertainment, it has become its own form of popular culture.

Now, doubling down on that mission, Bon Appétit is launching its first-ever culture issue. This huge, incredibly fun endeavor tackles the ways food had become such a "thing"—as we often joke about it here in the office.

"The reality is, we as a nation of eaters have evolved," says Adam Rapoport, Editor in Chief of Bon Appétit. "Food has gone wide – it has become, of all things, cool, which is how we arrived here, at our first-ever Culture Issue."

We're tackling this idea comprehensively, from politics to art to every other angle. A sampling from the issue:

• We chart Colorado's best marijuana edibles—then have Abbi and Ilana from Broad City offer tips on optimizing their munchies.
• Collaborating with the website Rap Genius, we created an almanac of food-in-rap. (Sorry, Cristal, but Dom Perignon is now hot.)
• We go inside the battle between LVMH and Prada to open Europe's chicest bakery.
• Live from Austin's Fun Fun Fun weekend, we declare food festivals the new music festivals.
• Comedian Marc Maron rants about the absurdity of contemporary coffee culture.
• We declare "fusion" food cool again, then challenge Donald Trump with a dish that proves American cuisine would be nothing without immigration.
• We go deep on the Brooklynization of America and show that Indianapolis—yes, Indianapolis—is even hip right now.
• We choose the 7 Most Important People in Food, none of whom are chefs.
• And...since millennials are driving much of this new food culture, we follow them as they wait hours in lines, spend all their money on artisanal kimchi, and keep new food companies like Blue Apron and Sweetgreen flush with cash.

Bon Appétit would be nothing without its recipes, of course, and the food stories in this issue follow the cultural theme seamlessly. By analyzing Instagram trends, our test kitchen created the one dish that's guaranteed to out-Kardashian the Internet. Then we collaborated with pros like April Bloomfield and Marc Vetri, adapting their hero dishes as they prepare to become fast-casual behemoths. At Four Horseman, in Williamsburg, we find the rare celebrity-owned restaurant that's both a) delicious and b) non-cheesy, then share some of the chef's recipes.

AND, in keeping with these Instagram-centric times, all original photography in the feature well has been shot using an iPhone 6s. Check it out here: http://www.bonAppetit.com/tag/the-culture-issue

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Bon Appetit