Bon Appétit has been recognized for increasing its online presence in recent years through the use of social media, publishing recipes on their website, and maintaining a popular YouTube channel.
Prior to joining GQ, Rapoport edited the restaurant section at Time Out New York and worked as an editor and writer for the James Beard Foundation's publications office.
[11] In 2011, Bon Appétit launched the "Bite me" advertising campaign, which had an estimated $500,000 budget that included print and online ads, billboards, posters, and sweepstakes.
The ad campaign came after a period of "sluggish performance" following its sibling magazine Gourmet's cancellation in 2009, during which a limited number of readers and advertisers shifted to Bon Appétit.
[14] Starting in the late 2010s, Bon Appétit was noted for increasing their web presence through the use of social media, their website, and their YouTube channel.
This included the November 2019 edition of the magazine, which had eight separate covers featuring the staff of the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen seen on the channels.
[16][17] On June 8, 2020, Adam Rapoport resigned as editor-in-chief after a photo of him in brownface was posted by food and wine writer Tammie Teclemariam on Twitter and sparked widespread criticism.
[18] Rapoport also received criticism after food editor Sohla El-Waylly accused the magazine of discriminating against employees of color, claiming they were subject to lesser pay than their non-minority counterparts.
[22] Vice President and Head of Programming and Lifestyle at Condé Nast, Matt Duckor, apologized and later resigned after past tweets seen as racist and homophobic were revealed, as well as accusations of being complicit or directly responsible for the pay disparities at the company.
[23][24][25] In August 2020, two months after the initial fallout, several members of the Test Kitchen announced they would not be returning to film videos for the Bon Appétit YouTube channel due to a continued lack of progress in resolving issues at Condé Nast Entertainment.
"[45] The loose and personality-driven style of It's Alive, along with Gourmet Makes, are noted as contrasting the "curated [and] posh" brand of Bon Appétit[46] and were described by Forbes as having "changed the way Condé Nast approaches online video.
[50] After the resignation of editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport in June 2020 and the subsequent fallout regarding inequitable pay for staff and contributors of color, the channel became inactive and all members of the Test Kitchen stopped filming videos.
Two months later, Rick Martinez, Sohla El-Waylly, and Priya Krishna announced they would be permanently leaving the Bon Appétit YouTube channel due to a continued lack of progress in resolving issues at Condé Nast Entertainment.
[26][27] Molly Baz, Gaby Melian, Carla Lalli Music, and Amiel Stanek made similar announcements soon after, followed by Claire Saffitz in October 2020.
[28][51] Later that month, the channel relaunched with a video helmed by the new leadership of Dawn Davis, Sonia Chopra, and Marcus Samuelsson, announcing seven new hosts: DeVonn Francis, Tiana “Tee” Gee, Melissa Miranda, Samantha Seneviratne, Christian “Chrissy” Tracey, Harold Villarosa, Rawlston Williams and Claudette Zepeda as well as the return of Brad Leone, Chris Morocco and Andy Baraghani.
[52] The entire lineup of on-camera staff and contributors at Bon Appétit appear in the series From The Test Kitchen, which features more traditionally structured instructional recipe videos, as well as Test Kitchen Talks, with videos of the chefs competing in cooking challenges and answering common cooking questions.
[85] The series was hosted by former editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport, and featured notable guests such as Ina Garten, Gordon Ramsay, and Mark Bittman.