13 tasty independent food magazines
This post was published in December 2017. To stay up to date with the latest independent magazine news and reviews, sign up for our monthly email newsletter
There are so many food magazines that celebrate the things we eat with wit, inventiveness, and devotion, and since the holidays are about eating, we’ve compiled a list of our favourites. From the sophisticated photography in Gather Journal to the candid, first person narratives in Put A Egg On It, here’s a look at 13 independent food magazines that do so much more than cover the things we bite, chew, and swallow.
The Gourmand
Hitting somewhat of a magic formula in magazine making, The Gourmand balances a playful tone with an exacting eye for detail. Covers of the food and culture journal tend to go viral on social media as soon as it’s released (you might have seen this IRL emoji one below), and their issues are filled with intriguing stories and inventive photography.
Put A Egg On It
Started in 2008, Put A Egg On It is a bite-sized zine from Brooklyn about the communal joys of eating. Championing personal experiences (“Everyone eats!” they proclaim on their submissions page), their food stories are weaved with childhood memories, life-defining trips and colourful, irreverent language. Packed together with hand drawn cooking tips, homemade recipes, and photo journals, this 78-page, green-paper title reads like a diary that’s passed around by a group of food-obsessed friends.
Cherry Bombe
The restaurant industry is notoriously male-centric. In a widely read open letter that appeared in issue 16 of Lucky Peach, Noma’s René Redzepi shared his desire to change this culture — “so we’re not just making obscene, pornographic jokes all day.” And that’s why Cherry Bombe holds an indispensable place in this lineup with their mission to celebrate women and food. Their cover stars have championed Christina Tosi from Momofuku Milk Bar, as well as Martha Stewart and Lena Dunham, and each issue is packed with their fun, feminist energy, seen through interviews, recipes, profiles and artworks from some of the best talent in food publishing.
Sybaris
Subverting the clean, polished tradition associate with culinary photography, Sybaris is a quirky food magazine from Tel Aviv. It comes in an A5 envelope containing individual cards, each telling a different story of Israeli culture through images of classic dishes and cut-and-paste humour. Eschewing the ‘serving proposal’ aesthetics of commercial food photography, they play with metaphors and puns in their surrealist interpretations.
Gather Journal
Treating food with a philosophical attentiveness, Gather Journal places the things we eat in the same realm as exquisite artworks. Their unparalleled food styling, drenched with cinematic glamour and Old Masters-style grandiosity, deserves praise on its own, but we also love the way they tell stories with their recipes — this yolky Mozzarella in Carroza, for example, is inspired by the summer of 1972 in New York, when it was so hot you could fry an egg on the sidewalk. Their latest issue evokes food that appeals to all of the senses.
Food&
On a mission to discover ‘unusual encounters with food’, this Berlin-based zine fills its pages with quirk and humour. Their Bathrooms issue drew parallels between long hair and noodles, while their Aliens issue took readers on a journey to meet space shrimp. By teasing out the unlikely connections between food and the rest of the world, Food& platforms characterful short fiction, hilarious comics, and provocative photography.
Fare
Examining cities through food, community and history, Fare dedicated their first issue to the colourful, vibrant Istanbul. Completed with a glossary and hand-drawn maps, it’s a magazine that’s attentive to the social purpose of cooking and dining. Editor Benjamin Mervis has worked on TV series Chef’s Table and at Noma, and his expertise, as well as passion for food really comes through the pages.
Pit
Launched this past summer, Pit is a fluoro-inked zine about barbecuing. Focusing on live-fire cooking and smoking, this is a tasty title of artfully charred meats, next level barbecues and smoky entrepreneurs. It explores global methods (from Polynesian Imu fire pits to good ol’ American BBQ), offers summertime cookout recipes, and chats to chefs who have mastered the science of smoke.
Jarry
Through interviews, commentaries and recipes, Jarry maps out the intersection between food and gay culture. “We wanted to see what a food magazine could look like if the presumed audience were gay men,” publishing director Alex Kristofcak said in our interview with them following their launch. Now, their fifth edition features Zac Posen on the cover, a survey of food styling, and portraits of notable young queer people in New York’s food scene.
Mold
Mold is perhaps the most political food magazine in this lineup. Concerned about the future of food and an imminent food crisis, it wants to curb the monopoly of highly stylised ‘foodie culture’ by providing a platform to discuss the ways good design and technology can offer solutions and affect positive change. This design-driven ethos permeates throughout their publication, where bold graphics and metallic inks act as a catalyst for communicating their message of sustainability.
Mold Magazine wants you to care about the future of food
→ https://t.co/4G7Mw1CPaX pic.twitter.com/9LqqTIiS1G
— StackMagazines (@StackMagazines) October 17, 2017
Ambrosia
Ambrosia is a contemplative food magazine that likes to travel. The sister publication of Drift, the publication about coffee and travel, it focuses on one city each issue to uncover the destination’s best eateries. By chatting to locals and interviewing chefs, their Brooklyn issue will take you from Red Hook’s Pok Pok to Flushing’s Chinatown.
Club Sandwich
Printed in French, Club Sandwich shows the weird and funny ways food is represented in our culture. Shining a light on the egg, this first issue has pages of egg-related art, a feature on egg cameos in iconic films, and a story on how the Egg McMuffin saved the McDonald’s empire in the 70s.
FFF & Brutal
Okay, so technically there are 14 magazines on this lineup, but Food For Fashion and Brutal magazine are both brilliant magazines that explore the intersection of fashion and food. FFF has runway ‘flavours’ where trendy brands are paired with complementary snacks, and cooking instructions by fashion designers in the form of comics. Brutal styles food with brands like Alexander Wang and Celine, and stories titled “How to eat candy when you’re alone.” We love the confident, irreverent attitude in both of these magazines.
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