Was this the best ever food magazine?

Or - dare I say it - contender for one of the best magazines ever?

Afternoon!

In my house we have a couple of shelves dedicated to magazines (probably too many magazines), but only a small portion of them carry any real importance to me - my precious issues of Lucky Peach.

Lucky Peach was a food magazine, co-founded by David Chang and Peter Meehan, which quite literally blew the socks off everything else at the time. Each issue was beautiful, unexpected, thrilling.

For this letter I will be looking at it and asking - was this the best food magazine… ever?

Your pal,
Katie

Before the internet there was magazines.

Magazines schooled you. It seems archaic now, but to learn about anything cultural and new you would pick up a magazine. Music, fashion, books, cinema were covered… but what about food?

There was nothing. Especially in the UK (where I’m based), it was just an endless array of magazines aimed at women, namely mothers of a certain age.

And then came along Lucky Peach.

There was something so electrifying and new about Lucky Peach, an excitement and feeling that would be difficult to replicate today. The design felt punk. It was sticking two fingers up at the stuffy food magazine establishment, a glorious shift in the print vanguard.

Famous chefs were mixed in with writers, musicians, illustrators, photographers — an eclectic assortment of people who loved food and could write about it. An article by Anthony Bourdain on one page, the next a food diary by a touring rock band with a penchant for Mexican food. You never knew what to expect, each issue an anomaly.

It’s hard to understate Lucky Peach’s impact on the food and print world; food was suddenly cool. Chefs became proper celebrities. Regular people like me, with no previous interest in the culinary world, were suddenly travelling to try Roy Choi’s food or knew how to use umami in dishes. There was nothing else like it, in any of the other magazines, but especially food. The articles were interesting, weird, informative. I was hooked.

It looked unreal

I bought the magazine on import. Having grown up in a suburb of Essex it felt deliciously foreign, all the exciting parts of America I was yet to experience, and beyond. Kim Gordon eating around LA, Jason Polan¹ at Taco Bell, Christina Tosi’s recipe for cherry-cola bundt cake, Fuchsia Dunlop on cooking penises ‘of any species.’ I made me feel sheltered, uneducated. But in the best possible way.

Jason Polan

Then out of nowhere, Lucky Peach unexpectedly shuttered in 2017. Like all good breakups, creative differences between Chang and Meehan were cited. I was devastated.

Although there have been several excellent food magazines since, none have quite captured the spirit of Lucky Peach. The energy, the design, the fun. I learnt a lot from it, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

Did you read Lucky Peach? It was great, right?!

Also… has anyone watched David Chang’s Netflix show? I’m not a fan!

1. RIP to a real one