2019-10-01_Bon_Appetit_UserUpload.Net

(John Hannent) #1

8 – OCTOBER 2019


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A FEW WEEKS AGO I was wandering around the Bon App offices,

swinging a 9-iron—my version of a fidget spinner. As is often the


case, the last thing I wanted to be doing was sitting in one of those


meshy Aeron chairs, staring at my laptop.


So I dipped my head into Julia Kramer’s office. Julia, of course, was

doing just that—glued to her computer, cup of Pret A Manger lentil


soup in hand, a stack of article printouts nearby, and next to them,


a teetering pile of cookbook galleys that she would “totally get to”


one of these weeks.


If you think the life of a restaurant critic is glamorous, you should

drop in on Julia. At a time when we are all being asked to do more


and more (that’s not just a publishing-industry thing, right?), Kramer


is the one at BA who I’m always urging to do less.


As the brain (and belly) behind this year’s
Hot 10—our annual list of America’s Best New
Restaurants, beginning on p. 57—Kramer is
Bon App’s chief restaurant critic.
But she’s also our deputy editor. Which means
she edits every word of every issue and lays eyes
on nearly every piece of content that goes up on
bonappetit.com. And because that’s not enough,
she also writes copy for our new online store,
shop.bonappetit.com. (On the tie-dye shirts:
“Which is the safest bet: taking that ayahuasca
trip, going to a Dead & Co. concert, or buying
this T-shirt? We’re gonna go with that last
option.”) And when there is a going-away party,
she’s our Bob Dylan, drafting sing-along lyrics
for departing colleagues.
It’s this all-you-can-eat work ethic that Julia
relies on while traveling to more than 200
restaurants in 30 cities during her search for
her 10 favorite restaurants of 2019. It’s a multi-
month grind where the phrase “third dinner” is
not uncommon, and a satellite membership to
CorePower Yoga is invaluable.
This is the first year with Julia running point
on the Hot 10 after five years of riding shotgun
with Andrew Knowlton. By now she knows
enough not to think of this as a solo show.
Amiel Stanek selected and wrote up two
of the 10 restaurants. Photographer Alex Lau
and creative director Michele Outland barn-
stormed the country to shoot nearly all the
award winners. And then there is the entire
team back in New York, who assembles the
issue, builds the digital experience, and plans
the Hot 10 party, a massive come-one-come-all
bash in Brooklyn on October 19.
Oh, and one more thing. As I’m writing this,
Julia is 36 weeks pregnant—which marks the
second time in her hunt for the Hot 10 that she
has crisscrossed the country eating for two.
“Just think of how much money I saved BA,” she
likes to point out, “by not sampling all those
cocktail and wine lists.”
Well, that’s one way of looking at it. Another
way is that for the next four months, we won’t
have Julia to lean on to do pretty much every-
thing. We’ll just have to pick up the slack—if
not the lentil soup.

The Woman Behind the List

Editor


s Letter

Where’s Waldo...
I mean Kramer?

ADAM RAPOPORT


editor in chief
@rapoport on instagram
Free download pdf