Cara Livermore of Chickpea Magazine, a vegan quarterly, talks about her passion.

Combine food with literature, and what do you get?  Foodieodicals!

A festival within the three-day Food Book Fair, this event-within-an-event on Saturday (4/26) celebrated creative food publishing, featuring more than twenty inspiring culinary publications from across the globe.

About the Fair

The Third Annual Food Book Fair, running from April 25-27, brings together food enthusiasts, chefs, artists, writers, designers and publishers to celebrate the intersection between food culture and food systems. It is the brainchild of Elizabeth Thacker Jones. This year’s three-day fair spans a pop-up bookstore with more than 200 books, 20-plus food magazines, 60 visionaries, panel discussions, a film screening, pop-up brew pub and pop-up farm, an entrepreneurial resource clinic, and a second annual Pitch Competition.

The event took place within the Wythe Hotel.

Tickets were sold out and the crowds were overflowing (but enthusiastic) at the festival’s location within the Wythe Hotel.

Cheese spreads were provided by Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery.

There were so many great publications (and a real can-do spirit among like-minded entrepreneurs), that we’ve decided to try to give everyone we managed to talk with a brief shout-out.

Libby VenderPloeg of Recipes Gone Wild.

First up is a shout-out to Greenpointer’s own Libby Vanderploeg of Recipes Gone Wild. 

“I’m excited to be part of such a unique food event!” VenderPloeg said. Her publication is an illustrated cookbook with delicious recipes from her weekly series, featuring drawings inspirited by the animal kingdom.

Participants at Recipes Gone Wild offer food-related confessions.
Molly Birnbaum and Reyhan Harmanci of Modern Farmer Magazine.

Modern Farmer is a print quarterly based in Hudson, NY.

“We’re overjoyed to be here,” Reyhan Harmanci of the magazine told me.  In addition to the magazine, the publication also has a daily website for people who care about where their food comes from.

The magazine is for "anyone who wants to know more about how food reaches their plate."
Beetlebung Farm paid a visit from Martha's Vineyard.

Beetlebung Farm is a five-acre vegetable farm in Martha’s Vineyard. Chef Chris Fischer, associated with the farm, works at the Beach Plum Inn and has been featured in Bon Appétit Magazine.

The Farm staff also produces "Spring Journal," among other publications and activities.

Staff from the farm were on hand with their Spring Journal, which contained captivating photos and intriguing recipes.

Mariana Gatti of White Zinfandel Magazine.

Don’t let Mariana Gatti’s (of  White Zinfandel) stoic presentation and sleek-but-simple cover fool you. It’s an important contrast to prepare you for what’s inside:

“We’re an art magazine,” Gatti explained. “But we feature work with food-related themes.” Very cool.

The festival ran from noon to 4 p.m., but was packed to capacity quickly after opening. We were soon bombarded and overstimulated, and needed a short break.

The event was quickly packed to capacity.

So we found refuge with Jessica Kausen, marketing director with SquareSpace. A word to the wise: SquareSpace is NOT the company where you can seamlessly pay your barista at the coffee shop, but equally as useful.

Jessica Kausen of SquareSpace.

“We offer a low cost way for anyone to build a high quality web site,” Kausen told me. “Restaurants are using it–we’re even integrated with OpenTable,” the internet-based reservation service. “So we love getting involved with an event like this.”

Thanks, Jessica! Rejuvinated, we went on a lightning round.

Emma Hovel and Mario Villar San Jurjo of Mood.

“We started a year ago, and just moved the magazine to New York from Brussels,” Mario Villar San Juro of Mood Magazine said. “We’re a music and food magazine–we explore how they interplay.”

Mood Magazine explores the intersection of music and food.
Hailee Moore, the Kitchensurfing Chef.

Hailee Moore, the Kitchensurfing Chef, handed out free salt samples in her presentation in coordination with The Runcible Spoon a zine about food and fantasy.

Malaka Gharib & Co. of The Runcible Spoon.

“This is the best place to meet other indie food periodicals–I love how they brought us all together!” Gharib said.

Free salt samples from "Kitchensurfing Chef" Hailee Moore.

Action Shots!

Alvin Diec produces "Brother," a quarterly journal.

It was nice meeting Alvin Diec from Atlanta, who produces Brother (Journal).

"Brother" (journal) is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

“Each issue focuses on not just a type of food, but the people who produce it,” Diec said

Here are some more great publications that we didn’t catch in person:

(Graze, Sweet Paul, Food Phreaking, Edible Brooklyn)

Graze, a Chicago-based literary magazine with food-related stories and poems.
Paul Lowe Einlyng of Oslo, Norway, wrote a blog that turned into a book and recurring magazine.
Self-Explanatory.
Edible Brooklyn is published quarterly.

This Was Delicious. Drop Everything and Buy it Now.

Jeni Britton Bauer, author and owner of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.

Break No. 2 With Quinciple!

Quinciple delivers boxes of produce with recipes to customers in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Honorable Mentions! (Fatigue Setting In)

(Culture, Lars Huse, CHERRYBOME)

Culture is a magazine devoted entirely to cheese. Need we say more?
Lars K. Huse has a variety of projects, including an A-Z compendium of coffees.

 

CHERRYBOMBE celebrates women and food.

Publications I Somehow Missed (But That You Should Still Check Out)

ACQTASTEAmerican Food RootsCerealDesign Trust for Public SpaceDiner JournalGather JournalGood CompanyHyphenLucky PeachMeatpaperRemedy QuarterlyRocketSaucy., Swallow MagazineSweets and Bitters, and Wilder Quarterly.

Runner Up To My Personal Favorite: Put an Egg on It

Put an Egg on It's Ralph McGinnis started the zine in 2008.

Ralph McGinnis’s Put an Egg on It is the bellwether for most indie food zines. “Starting in 2008, Gastronimca and Meatpaper are the only mags I know to precede us,” McGinnis explained.

Put an Egg On It's essays are personal reflections on the relationship with foods.

Inspired by fanzines of the 1980s and early 90s, his publications contain essays focusing on authors’ personal relationships with food.

Salt's "Heartbreak Map."

In tandem with Egg, McGinnis also publishes Salt magazine, which includes stories by chefs and theirs friends. Issue 1 contains war stories by chefs of their worst on-the-job injuries, along with a “Heartbreak Map,” detailing what restaurants were involved when a writer “did the deed” (or same was done to them).

Personal Favorite: Middlewest Magazine

David Tamarkin's "Middlewest," a "modern food magazine" from Chicago.

In substance, presentation, and utility, David Tamarkin’s “Middlewest” was my personal favorite. Embarking on a new zine, Tamarkin went to a copy center in the hopes of finding a cheap binding material. Less than ecstatic about the options available, he got the idea to produce an unbound magazine, shipped to subscribers as a bundle of individual sleek, glossed over pages.

David Tamarkin, founder of Middlewest Magazine.

Each page contains engaging photographs and useful recipes, so that readers can keep what they find helpful (or share it with others) without having to ruin or give up the entire magazine. A great gift idea for anyone with culinary aspirations.

 

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *