Vittles, Issue 3: Bad Food

A magazine about modern food and culture.

Beginning life as a London-based food Substack in 2020, the print biannual Vittles had already made a name for itself prior to landing on our shelves last year. After establishing a strong voice online, addressing food more as an object of political agency than merely a meal on the table, the challenge lay in translating this to suit the medium of print. Deftly combining polemics and restaurant tips, part of the debut issue’s success lay in the incorporation of a nostalgic visual language that leavened the hard line of much of the content within.

In this issue:

Vittles spars with online content creators in this latest ‘Influencers Issue’, which arrives with a tongue in cheek gravestone front cover declaring the death of food writing, complete with a funereal order of service on the back. In the ‘Eulogy’ of this edition, editor Jonathan Nunn asserts that influencer content continues to gain ground with increasing gravitas, while also expressing his hope ‘for what food writing can do when it’s given a bit of room to stretch its legs.’

The lead essay of this text-laden edition is a comprehensive investigation led by Stephen Buranyi into the revenue of restaurant influencers, and the economics of such an appetising career. Elsewhere, gonzo food influencer Rob Martinez and Anthony Bourdain producer Helen Cho join Nunn to discuss the differences between food TV and Instagram, Lily Kelting attempts to understand the prophetic talent of food trend forecasters and futurists from Singapore, India, and the USA, plus Nigel Slater and Jonathan Lovekin examine iconic photography in British food media over the past three decades.