What's it like to run a food magazine, anyway?
After seeing a lack of representation of women in the food world they so admired, cousins Jessica and Jaya teamed up to create Compound Butter, a new magazine all about food, art, and the surprising connections between them.
From humble beginnings as a project in art school, Compound Butter 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 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, check out the work of illustrator Jillian Tamaki