27 votes

Going Sohla: After leaving Bon Appétit, the chef now has her own show — where she’s paid fairly for her fantastic creations

17 comments

  1. [15]
    JXM
    (edited )
    Link
    I’m glad she landed on her feet but it sounds like there are still some problems at Bon Appétit that need to be addressed. Everyone should check out the first few episodes of her new show, Stump...

    I’m glad she landed on her feet but it sounds like there are still some problems at Bon Appétit that need to be addressed.

    Everyone should check out the first few episodes of her new show, Stump Sohla.

    7 votes
    1. [14]
      Parliament
      Link Parent
      Chris Morocco's first video back where he addressed the controversy made me cringe to watch. I just can't enjoy Bon Appetit the same way I did before.

      Chris Morocco's first video back where he addressed the controversy made me cringe to watch. I just can't enjoy Bon Appetit the same way I did before.

      5 votes
      1. [12]
        Micycle_the_Bichael
        Link Parent
        I watched a livestream of the leftist youtuber Jack Saint last night about this. He originally made a video essay about the Bon Appetite situation as it unfolded. Last night he did a...

        I watched a livestream of the leftist youtuber Jack Saint last night about this. He originally made a video essay about the Bon Appetite situation as it unfolded. Last night he did a twitch/youtube live stream and both he and lots of the viewers (myself included) came to a similar conclusion. They go out of their way to not actually address any of the allegations (though I guess they aren't really allegations anymore) and the "hanging out in the kitchen and hanging out with your friends" vibe that made their videos so appealing is completely gone because now we know it was all a sham. Its extra bad watching the Chris video knowing the context that Chris was one of the people creating these issues. Which is really sad because for a while Chris was my favorite member of the test kitchen. Unfortunate to find out he sucks super hard. I don't see a recording of the livestream on his twitch or youtube account so I can't link to it, but I have a feeling he'll make a follow-up video about it eventually (he's about to go on vacation if I remember correctly? And has some patreon-promised videos he has to make and other video ideas so I'm not sure when if ever it would come out)

        5 votes
        1. [11]
          Parliament
          Link Parent
          I can't say I'm an expert on the whole situation since I only followed BA peripherally through my wife's interest, but I generally agree with the sentiment in your comment. The test kitchen...

          I can't say I'm an expert on the whole situation since I only followed BA peripherally through my wife's interest, but I generally agree with the sentiment in your comment. The test kitchen chemistry was uniquely BA, and that fantasy is ruined.

          5 votes
          1. [3]
            Qis
            Link Parent
            I watched some Claire Saffitz videos and always felt pretty weird about it. Groups of uniformly clean, well dressed, cooperative people are hard to get on camera. The only method I know besides...

            I watched some Claire Saffitz videos and always felt pretty weird about it. Groups of uniformly clean, well dressed, cooperative people are hard to get on camera. The only method I know besides careful casting/scripting/editing is to use suppressive social strictures that routinely surface terrible conditions off-screen. When I found out they worked out of the 1WTC I guessed it was a ridiculously funded and impossibly artificial arrangement.

            3 votes
            1. [2]
              Parliament
              Link Parent
              Honestly, I didn't really know how sophisticated an operation BA was until all this unfolded, but I only first learned of it a year ago. I sorta assumed the magazine was the organization's primary...

              Honestly, I didn't really know how sophisticated an operation BA was until all this unfolded, but I only first learned of it a year ago. I sorta assumed the magazine was the organization's primary focus and Youtube was just secondary to that.

              3 votes
              1. JXM
                Link Parent
                Originally, it was just a side thing, but the YouTube videos became so popular that they introduced a whole new generation of people to the magazine. I think it became a major part of the...

                Originally, it was just a side thing, but the YouTube videos became so popular that they introduced a whole new generation of people to the magazine. I think it became a major part of the organization within the last few years.

                6 votes
          2. [7]
            Good_Apollo
            Link Parent
            What’s the 411 on all this other drama about BA Test Kitchen? I thought the blowup was just about CNE’s racist compensation policies. Suddenly seeing a lot more about how it was all rotten but I’m...

            What’s the 411 on all this other drama about BA Test Kitchen? I thought the blowup was just about CNE’s racist compensation policies. Suddenly seeing a lot more about how it was all rotten but I’m not gonna scour every website and Twitter convo for the deets.

            2 votes
            1. knocklessmonster
              Link Parent
              The major thing was the lack of compensation for the appearances of people of color, at least that started everything. Then Rappoport's Puerto Rican costume came out, then it sort of snowballed to...

              The major thing was the lack of compensation for the appearances of people of color, at least that started everything. Then Rappoport's Puerto Rican costume came out, then it sort of snowballed to where nobody wanted to do videos until it was resolved, and all their non-white cast seemed to have a story that aligned with the emerging narrative, then people started quitting and looking for greener pastures.

              It's deeper than their compensation packages, there are also issues with the general whiteness of the food they present or generally wanted to show, refusal to give people of color their own shows (Hawa Hassan had an African cuisine show turned down, for example). Sort of like American culture at its worst presented via video from an old media company.

              4 votes
            2. [5]
              Grzmot
              Link Parent
              The culture and management of BA was completely racist. People of colour didn't get compensated fairly for their work, and there was a culture of keeping them away from success. Also a picture of...

              The culture and management of BA was completely racist. People of colour didn't get compensated fairly for their work, and there was a culture of keeping them away from success. Also a picture of the chief editor at the time surfaced of him in brownface from like 2005 or something at a Halloween party. Someone went public, others followed, most of the core cast left.

              1. [4]
                Good_Apollo
                Link Parent
                Yeah I know all that, but people are saying there were other issues too? Like what did Chris do?

                Yeah I know all that, but people are saying there were other issues too? Like what did Chris do?

                1. [2]
                  MimicSquid
                  Link Parent
                  About halfway through this article the stuff about Chris is explained:

                  About halfway through this article the stuff about Chris is explained:

                  "...management wanted to create a more junior position underneath her (Sohla) to do the cross-testing she had originally been hired for. “They really wanted to hire someone Black, which I know you’re not allowed to say legally, out loud,” she says. “And Chris Morocco [the director of the Test Kitchen] directly told me he didn’t like how quickly I moved up, so he wanted to make sure this person would never be allowed to develop recipes.”"

                  1 vote
                  1. Good_Apollo
                    Link Parent
                    That’s a bummer. Man weren’t we all taken in and fooled by BA. Feels dirty to have given them so many views.

                    That’s a bummer. Man weren’t we all taken in and fooled by BA. Feels dirty to have given them so many views.

                    2 votes
                2. Grzmot
                  Link Parent
                  Chris was part of that structure keeping all the people of colour in check. One of the people who now left, I think it was Sohla, advanced fairly quickly through the ranks when she joined, because...

                  Chris was part of that structure keeping all the people of colour in check. One of the people who now left, I think it was Sohla, advanced fairly quickly through the ranks when she joined, because she was doing more work than her position demanded. Chris had a direct problem with this and told her to her face that he regretted it and it wasn't going to happen again. They also attempted to hire someone directly under her who'd essentially take over her tasks, giving her the impression that she was hired cause she was black.

                  1 vote
      2. Micycle_the_Bichael
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        For anyone interested: Jack finally made a highlight reel that isn't patreon-exclusive so I can now post a link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-vibEu_Z78 Edit: I also wanted to make sure...

        For anyone interested: Jack finally made a highlight reel that isn't patreon-exclusive so I can now post a link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-vibEu_Z78

        Edit: I also wanted to make sure Jack's top comment is visible to anyone who might watch but doesn't read the comments:

        "Not my usual content! Hope you all enjoy this temporary change of pace.
        ADDENDUM: at over 4500 viewers at points during the stream it was quite a lively chat and while most chatters were extremely nice and helpful, on more than a few occasions while editing I saw messages that absolutely do not reflect my own viewpoints on what was discussed. In particular, I felt Chrissy raised some excellent issues during her own video and am a little disgusted by some viewers questioning her authenticity or asserting it wasn't 'appropriate' for her to bring up. If I do any content like this again I'll probably just hide chat to be safe, but I felt that was important to underline here. Thanks again for watching!"

        1 vote
  2. knocklessmonster
    Link
    I was always happy to see her jump in on something, but was also astounded when I found out she wasn't paid, and she helped damn near everybody when she was there. The stuff about Morocco stings,...

    I was always happy to see her jump in on something, but was also astounded when I found out she wasn't paid, and she helped damn near everybody when she was there.

    The stuff about Morocco stings, because I really liked him, but you don't get where he was without either being complicit from the beginning or picking it up along the way.

    Most of the people who quit stayed with the magazine, so it also seems like the majority of the problem was with the shows.

    4 votes
  3. acdw
    Link
    Stump Sohla is such a fun show! I kind of heard that BA was having issues, but didn't really read the articles about it -- never got into them anyway. But I do love Sohla's new show, and she seems...

    Stump Sohla is such a fun show! I kind of heard that BA was having issues, but didn't really read the articles about it -- never got into them anyway. But I do love Sohla's new show, and she seems really cool!

    3 votes