The downfall of the Bon Appétit test kitchen - part 1

food drama tea let's get into this Hey guys welcome to a new video if you don't know me my name is Maya I hate tomatoes if they're coming back you better buckle up and get ready because today we're talking by Bon. Appetite, the rise, the fall and everything else diagonally crisscrossed, we covered it all, so in today's video I'm going to talk about the fall of Bon Appetit in 2020 and their Test Kitchen, we'll cover a little bit of history about Bon. Get through what happened as quickly as possible, but then we'll delve into where the OG Test Kitchen hosts are now, what they've been up to since, and finally, we'll try out some of Bon Appetit's craziest recipes for date, grab a drink , I had some honey mint tea because I'm going to talk a lot and it's better to go back and relax, come on, so let's start with some background on Bon Appetit Bon Appetit is a magazine that started in 1956 in In Chicago, in the United States, the magazine would waver around a bit and change owners for a while until it finally landed at Condé Nast in 1993, which is where they are still to this day in 2011.

Bon Appetit moved their headquarters from Los Angeles to New York and this is also where Adam Rappaport became the editor in chief and this, I would say, is the beginning of the big rise that Bon Appetit would soon have digitally because in the late 2010s Bon Appetit would gain massive traction on their social media. mainly on YouTube where they had series with their different editors and different things where they had the so-called Test Kitchen and they had a lot of different series and that's where they got a huge following, what YouTube Wars updates I'm probably still one of the strongest assets of the brand to date in October 2022: its channel has over 1 billion views and millions of subscribers.

The format of Bon Appetit videos is typically an ensemble cast with a rotation of chefs in the

kitchen

or a specific chef featured. and they have their specific programs, for example, Chris Morocco in reverse engineering or kalali music in the series Chefs in a row. This turned out to be a genius move by Bon Appetit because these shows would soon gain a cult following, especially shows like Gourmet does with less Savage and Brad Leone's Interlib, these shows really gained dedicated fans who would tune in every week or a few weeks to catch the la

test

episodes, so these types of shows will really highlight the different personalities of the chef and their little quirks, and also introducing different characters into their Test Kitchen would really create a strong fan base.

Bon Appetit understood the incredible marketing opportunity they had at hand, which is very common, for example in the November 2019 issue of Bon Appetit, which featured eight different covers of the magazine featuring eight different members of The Test Kitchen Bon Appetit felt like a rocket going higher and higher and they grew and grew and grew until they stopped in May 2020, after the murder of George Floyd. Bon Appetit released a statement where they said they were going to start publishing more about issues of political and racial injustices in their magazine, this quickly generated backlash when people pointed out that Bon Appetit rarely included diverse chefs from different backgrounds in the development of your recipes and others similar, this would be the first step in Bon.

The decline of appetite that we can divide into two different categories, firstly, racist leaders and employees, in June 2020 a photo resurfaced of Bon Appetit's editor-in-chief, Adam Rappaport, in the photo he was dressed as a stereotypical Puerto Rican with a brown face and quickly garnered a lot of negative reactions even from Bon Appetit employees, including Priya Krishna, who criticized them for finding this unacceptable. This would result in Adam's resignation. He also received hate for a video in which he used homophobic slurs and for some tweets that were the least bit disgusting. Alex Delaney apologized but faced no further formal disciplinary action as Alex Delaney faced backlash over the homophobic video that Bon Appetit editor Andy Bagani spoke about.

He condemned the video, but he and his team also faced some backlash when people criticized him for behaving in a hostile manner toward other people of color in the VA Test Kitchen and on the Bon Appetit staff. The second point is the racist structures in Bon Appetit. Solar Whaley was one of the Bon Appetit editors who publicly criticized Bon Appetit for racist structures within the company. He claimed that Test Kitchen staff, who were people of color, were paid less or nothing to be a

part

of Bon Appetit videos on YouTube, while their white colleagues would be paid for these videos, the result of this was that several employees within Test Kitchen decided to boycott the videos until justice was done for everyone in the company with their pay during this, an article was published in Business Insider by journalist Rachel. primac that highlighted the injustice and toxic environment in the company of Bon Appetit and The Solar Test Kitchen.

Whaley Priya Krishna and Rick Martinez eventually decide to leave Bon Appetit because the company does not meet their demands. Most Test Kitchen hosts choose not to

part

icipate. Future Bon Appetit YouTube videos move forward, this results in Bon Appetit's YouTube channel going on hiatus and eventually a whole portion of its hosts leaving the company entirely, so now you have an overview of what which really happened on Bon Appetit and now we finally can. Dive into the fun part, what happened to these hosts after 2020, who is still with the company, who left, what they did, that's what we're going to find out, so to make things a little easier I've broken them down everyone in different groups. with catchy names, you know, I like the good names, the questionable ones which is Alex Delaney, Andy Bagani and Adam Rappaport, the hustlers, which is just Bradley, and Molly, the boss of Under The Radars, which is Chris Morocco, Christina Che and Emil Stanek, the cooks, which is Claire Savage. and Priya Krishna and finally the YouTubers who are Gabby Milian Sola El Whaley kalali music and Rick Martinez and just to clarify of course.

Many of these people may fall into multiple categories, but I try to keep it simple and place them where I think they are mostly. I belong, but yeah, it's been over two years, so these people have been doing a lot of things, so I may not mention exactly every single thing, but I'll try to cover everything that's of interest to me, if I miss something, leave it in the comments. next so we're going to start with the questionable ones so just some background on the questionable ones. These are the people who receive some kind of backlash in 2020 for their racist or homophobic past.

I don't want to go too deep into this. so I'm going to do a quick little summary on these three individuals, but I want to present a full description of everyone who was involved, that's why we're talking about them, if you don't want to hear them, skip ahead. So, starting with Andy Bargani, Andy stayed with Bon Appetit for one that he eventually left in August 2021. Since then, he has appeared in a slew of YouTube videos ranging from Food 52 to Squarespace. He has also been named a Squarespace Ambassador of 2022. This year, in April, he released his first cookbook called The Cook You Want to Be Everyday Recipes to Impress and it ranked sixth on the New Times bestseller list in the category I think it's called how to advise various or cookbooks.

I'm referencing in this video, that's the list, that's the category from now on, I'm just going to say the New York Times bestseller list. I was on a book tour from May to September this year and his book launch party was featured in Vogue and he's also done a couple of collaborations since 2020. He did an edible collaboration with Rose. He partnered with them to make an edible lemon and thyme. He also collaborated with Bag Bagel to make a special limited edition bagel and it was called The. basgani bagel and was available for a limited time, eventually Andy also hosted a bunch of pop-ups ranging from Contra in New York City to Found Oysters and then Adam Rappaport.

I couldn't find anything about this man, he could be dead. could be alive, ask like he's dead on the internet, probably for the best, but yeah, nothing to say here, moving on to complete the question, everyone we're going to talk about Alex Delaney Alex Laney also got Bon Appetit After the drama that he finally left in February 2021, since then he has not caused much of a sensation with any of the projects he has done. He has made some sponsored posts on Instagram. He also runs a DJ set called Love Club with his friend Constantine. a couple of clubs, one with Wilder in New York City, a restaurant where they made a cannoli donut, it sounded delicious, but it's no longer available.

He also made a collaboration with assembly roast, a coffee roasting company, and they produced two types of coffee. I have no idea. whether the coffee was good, whether this collection sold well or something, but on a side note, the packaging was cute on his Instagram, it shows a bunch of really cute mugs and I really love Max. I love crap like I love a cute Mark, so Alex Delaney is the big one. project since he left Bon Appetit is the podcast The radio show called Sound Radio Wave invites a guest and they both choose a few songs each and discuss the songs.

I get the feeling he's focusing more on things that have to do with music than food and drink these days, finally Delaney. He released a project called All Things Good in July of this year, All Things Good is a collection of places and things in different parts of New York City that he believes are good. It's a Google document. Yeah, I have no idea what I did in the Google doc. Because I would do? If you make a website, you make a newsletter or a blog or something like that, it doesn't make sense to me while you make a Google Doc, but that's what he chose to do, so yeah, that's Alex Delaney for you, passing to the scammers, so These two guys have been working non-stop with different projects and collaborations and I guess they must have made a dollar or two because they have been working, so let's start with Brad Leone, so Brad is one of the few members of the original Test Kitchen staff who are still on Bon Appetit to this day and in video, so Brad's YouTube channel is most famous for a series that is alive.

I'll talk more about that in a second, but since then he's also done other shows, including the taste buds cut taste

test

ers show, it was originally called taste buds and then they changed taste testers and I don't know why, because the Taste buds are a hundred times better, but I don't know, so speaking of him being alive, the show received quite a lot of backlash in April of this year with Bon Appetit posted a video of Brad trying to make homemade pastrami. The comments section is full of comments pointing out Brad's methods from everything from being a little questionable to being intimidating and insecure as of October 2022.

Bon Appetit and Brad have not posted and it is a live episode from the episode of pastrami, so Brad has done a lot of collaborations since 2020 and I think we're going to make a quick run because there are quite a few, I don't have much to say. about them, so we will do a brief summary of Huckberry I'm not sure if it was 2021 or earlier this year where they made an apron and a couple of things now in November. We are launching the second Olympia Provisions pork roll launch, sadly it's not a pork roll as in the British sense, but it is a ground pork log, good for you.

Brad Leone xlamson Brad had previously had a collection of knives with them and this was basically an update from it lindera Farms ex leonian Sons spices honey vinegar why not jono pandolfi fermentation Croc update this again was an update from a previous collaboration where they came with a few more sizes sword seller box Not sure if this was ever made but he has posted about on Instagram so maybe he also made a leather knife roll but it is no longer available so Brad He is also an ambassador for Yeti Coolers which I think is cool in November 2021.

Brad released his first cookbook and it has a very long name so I need to read it from my computer it was called feel winks for food Adventure Recipes and stories from the forest to the ocean oh, it plays as well as seven on the new york times bestseller list, i honestly don't know if this book was successful. He had never done it. I heard about it until I started researching this video. Every other Bon Appetit alumni cookbook I knew about, I had never heard of it, so it was successful, maybe not on the international cookbook scene.

I'm not sure, so stopcomplete the Bradley. In the only section, I have two things I want to tell you that I thought were the funniest and most interesting things he's done since 2020, so number one is Brad and Matty Mattison appeared on a Cartoon Network show, they had a camping meal when a show He called Craig over the Creek, which is cool, so Brad created an Instagram account called Not My Painting where you asked his followers to tag him in different art posts and he would repost them. I thought it was a really fun idea because apparently Brad likes art. because it has that kind of class and unfortunately the account hasn't been active since April 2021 so I think it's on indefinite hiatus but yeah a fun project if you're familiar with my channel or if you know me you might know which I really like.

Molly boss, she's probably on my top 10 coolest people list, other people on that list include Alison Roman, Pew of all, the hosts of the podcast sounds like a cult Amanda Montelen is a cool lady from Medina, anyway, Let's see what Molly has been up to since then.2020. Then Molly left Bon Appetit in October 2020 after all the Fallout drama and hasn't stopped since because in November 2020 she launched her Patreon Recipe Club where she posted weekly recipes for her followers and also started releasing products. that I may or may not have in 2020 Molly moved to Los Angeles and 2020 was also the beginning of Molly boss and Carla Lolly music's Instagram live series called you got snacked in the series they talk to each other, joke and cook snacks and it's Overall, it's a great time and they are still continuing this show, not as often, but they are still continuing in April 2021.

Molly released her first cookbook called Cook This Book and it took second place on the bestseller list from the New York Times. Then she went on a book tour between April and May 2021 and then, during the summer, she did a Sunday Supper Club on Instagram stories where she urged her followers to cook recipes together with her from the cookbook. Molly has posted a variety, so to speak. different Instagram sponsored posts, including a limited series with Creighton Barrel. She has also been a brand ambassador for lo-fi appetites since 2021. In July 2021, Molly launched a podcast called Sandwich Universe with her co-host Declan Bond on this podcast, they do the best they can.

To improve and get the most out of a certain sandwich ranging from grilled cheese to a BLT in December 2021, Molly decided to relaunch her recipe club and moved it from Patreon to her own website and now also included a premium tier with much more. Benefits if you become a member Apparently in March of this year Molly was a guest judge on a show called The Julia Child Challenge. I can't confirm this because I can't find anyone talking about this and I can't watch the show legally from Sweden, so I don't know, can anyone confirm this? Have you seen the program?

Has anyone seen this show? Please let me know in the comments. Also this year Molly partnered with Dutch oven company Great Jones to create her own limited edition molubas. The Dutch oven is like modern meets retro, it's a little abstract I think it's really cute I like it I think Domino magazine featured Molly and her partner Will's beautiful home in Los Angeles on their magazine cover and also They did a whole article with lots of beautiful images in the magazine in September this year Molly relaunched her YouTube channel and started her successful children's series where she cooks recipes at home and currently has 45,000 subscribers outside of filming finally in September this year Molly announced that she was launching a wine with the wine company margini whites the wine is called drink this wine from her own brand for Molly and I'm going to read how it's supposed to taste, how it's described it tastes like strawberry lemonade .

Sweden's Fish Sunshine leads and the west coast. Overall, I'm upset because one you can't order it from Sweden and two, my stomach is working because it can't handle wine. I'm seriously considering buying this wine and sending it to my sister who lives in New York so she can try it and give her a little review, but you had to buy at least three bottles so it's a little pricey and I'm a little broke and yeah, I do. sorry, BINA, so while we're talking about boss Molly, it's time for an unhinged first course, why this dish? unhinged, you may ask, well, in my head there is sour cream and potato salad with onions.

I feel like chips are a snack and potatoes are a meal. I mean, I know crispy potatoes and Christmas potatoes, whatever, but they feel like two separate things, but here they meet. and the salad is topped with fries, that's all, so yeah, let's see how you did making this salad. Also, it's very obvious that it's a molly bar recipe because it calls for a cup, yes, a cop, if you're not American or don't know. Your cups are 2.3 deciliters of cooking salt in the cooking liquid with the potatoes like Molly. I don't have an unlimited salt budget, seriously, thanks to foreign bars, sour cream, and onion potato salad, and I really hope this is good because I'll have it for lunch tomorrow anyway, so I hope I have a great Lunch tomorrow also at work.

I mean, yeah, what's left to say, let's investigate, that looks good, well, bon appetit, well, that's amazing. I mean, honestly, what's not here isn't here. delicious, obviously, it's a great combination of flavors, sour cream and onion. Classic potatoes are great. I think they would also be fine without the fries if you don't want to fully commit to the madness. Honestly, this is a great recipe. I recommend it, thumbs up, so this is where I'll cut this video off and then we'll continue with our other hosts some general thoughts on where the Bon Appetit brand could be headed in the future and of course we have two more recipes that we're going to try. in next week's video so if you want to watch it subscribe to the channel so you don't miss it like this video if you liked it it means a lot to me and comment below who is your favorite presenter and finally I just want to thank you all those who have subscribed recently.

It really means a lot to me. I make these videos mainly for fun, but it's nice that you guys seem to appreciate them and like what I do. Do it, thank you. I really hope you have a beautiful week. See you next Sunday, goodbye.