Bon_Appetit 2019-10-01

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