From a New York Times story by Kim Severson headlined “Bon Appétit Replaces Top Editor Who Quit”:
Condé Nast named Amanda Shapiro as the acting deputy director of Bon Appétit on Tuesday, after the swift fall of the magazine’s former editor in chief, Adam Rapoport, who resigned on Monday.
Ms. Shapiro, 33, was the editor at Healthyish, a newsletter and digital companion to the magazine, and had recently taken on more editing duties at Bon Appétit after Julia Kramer, the deputy editor, left on May 29, in a move that been long planned.
Ms. Shapiro told Condé Nast managers and members of the Bon Appétit staff that she would take the job only on a temporary basis, and pressed for a person of color to be named as the new editor in chief. . . .
The staff of Bon Appétit, the national food magazine whose test kitchen videos are among the hottest cooking programming on the internet, spent the day trying to figure out how to move forward after the abrupt resignation of Mr. Rapoport, 50. . . .
The fall of Mr. Rapoport — who for 20 years embodied a certain style of Condé Nast editor as the style editor at GQ and then editor in chief of Bon Appétit — unfolded rapidly.
Illyanna Maisonet, a Puerto Rican food writer, posted excerpts from a text exchange with Mr. Rapoport that she said was condescending, after an editor rejected her idea for an article about Puerto Rican food. Tammie Teclemariam, who writes for several food and wine publications and The Wirecutter (which is owned by The New York Times), followed Monday by posting on Twitter an Instagram photo from a 2004 Halloween party showing Mr. Rapoport and his wife dressed as a stereotype of a Puerto Rican couple.
“I do not know why Adam Rapoport simply doesn’t write about Puerto Rican food for @bonappetit himself!!!” Ms. Teclemariam wrote.
But among both staff and outside food writers, issues of race, gender and culture under Mr. Rapoport’s leadership had been simmering long before his exit. What kind of food and which personalities get star treatment and pay have also been topics of significant concern.
In recent months, Mr. Rapoport and other managers had agreed to work harder on diversity issues, but staff members said those efforts fell short. . . .
Staff members at the magazine, the video department and Epicurious, the online recipe site that is part of the Bon Appétit family, spent Tuesday in a heated virtual meeting and working on a joint statement they hoped to release soon. Among other things, they discussed how to bring attention to the role other managers played in creating what they said was an inequitable workplace. . . .
“We are feeling really supported right now by the public and our readers,” said Joseph Hernandez, the research director of Bon Appétit. “The question is how do you move forward. It’s that balance between the work everybody loves doing and the change that needs happen.”
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