AI Could Never...

Dear Pros,

Hunter here, reporting from the 42nd annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. If you're here in town, please come say hello. If not, follow along via F&W socials for a taste. You might have FOMO and that's okay. I get more FOMO here than anywhere, and I helped put the thing together. There are simply too many good chef demos, wine seminars, grand tastings, and special parties and dinners for one human to attend.

Last weekend in Chicago at the James Beard Media Awards, authors George McCalman and Jeff Gordinier earned the MFK Distinguished Writing Award for "The City That Rice Built", our story about the history of rice, race, and power in Charleston that also earned Food & Wine its first National Magazine Award earlier this month. You can read the story and watch the video here to learn more about how slavery and rice made Charleston one of the wealthiest cities in the world and a gateway to American culture as we know it today.

Shoutout to everyone who lifted this project up on their shoulders, including Jeff and George, executive editor Karen Shimizu, creative director Winslow Taft, executive photo director Tori Katherman, and senior food editor Cheryl Slocum, as well as the video producers Fabienne Toback and Karis Jagger. A big thank you, too, to our parent company Dotdash Meredith, which had our backs by investing in our journalism and our people.

To launch the first annual F&W Classic in Charleston last fall, we knew we needed to invest in the local community. We pledged to support local businesses and tell local stories so the Classic wouldn't feel like a pop-up event. "The City That Rice Built" was a stake in the ground, and our events team led by Lauren Coughlin helped us bring it to life in Charleston at a panel that included the authors as well as three folks featured in the story, Amethyst Ganaway, Alexander Smalls, and Jonathan Green.

The energy in the room was thick, the conversation real. Attendees hung on every word and received packets of Anson Mills Carolina Gold rice to cook at home. Then we hosted a joyful Sunday brunch including recipes from the story with a menu that centered Gullah Geechee chefs. A jazz band played. Tables overflowed with food and florals featuring rice stalks that farmer Rollen Chalmers had harvested at 4 a.m. the day before and custom sweetgrass pieces woven by a Gullah basket maker. We ate, danced, laughed, and hugged. A story about the past became a vehicle for creating community today and tomorrow.

We're adding new tools to our journalism tool kit to bring stories like "The City That Rice Built" to life at the table and on the stage. Tonight in Aspen, that editorial evolution includes a special one-of-a-kind Best New Chefs Eras Dinner featuring BNCs from different generations like Nancy Silverton and Kwame Onwuachi cooking together at the top of Aspen Mountain to honor the legacy of this 37-year-old franchise and the nearly 400 chefs who have earned the accolade.

At the Grand Tasting, we have a new activation called The Wine Bar by F&W and Friends. It's a collaborative space where we are serving tasty snacks from chefs like Claudette Zepeda and Andrew Zimmern and innovative pours like Que Pop, a new lower alcohol 7% sparkler. Consumers get to meet Red Boat Fish Sauce owner Cuong Pham and his family, sip Pham's new Cabernet Sauvignon made in the Napa Valley, and taste their family recipe that adorns the new July cover of Food & Wine.

Elsewhere this weekend we're bringing F&W to life by honoring some of our 2025 F&W Game Changers, including restaurateur and philanthropist Ayesha Curry and Sheila Johnson, the entrepreneur and hotelier who founded The Family Reunion event with Kwame Onwuachi. On Thursday, we presented Sheila with the third annual F&W Mentorship Award — a Laguiole Champagne saber — to recognize her work in lifting up people in the hospitality industry at her resorts and events.

When we won the JBF, executive features editor Kat Kinsman texted me the truth about our brand of storytelling: "AI could never." We're not scared of AI; we're embracing it and testing new AI tools to see which ones will make our workflows more efficient. If anything, I think AI will make F&W more valuable because we have texture and soul. We're placing smart bets on where to focus in the age of Google Zero by following the same playbook that has made Food & Wine relevant for 47 years: Investing in quality service journalism, sharing warm hospitality, cultivating meaningful relationships, and building community. (Thank you for supporting us by subscribing to this newsletter and if you'd like to buy or gift a magazine subscription, we'd be grateful.)

During this heady weekend of celebrations, we're also hosting mental health sessions in Aspen and also holding space in our hearts for the friends and family of Anne Burrell, who died unexpectedly Tuesday. The vivacious food personality, cookbook author, and chef was a fixture in the pages of Food & Wine and at the Classic during my predecessor Dana Cowin's tenure, and was regarded by her contemporaries as a supremely talented restaurant chef and cooking instructor. As Dana told Kat this week, "Anne was a mega-watt star, with mega-watt hair, who always impressed me in conversations with her commitment to craft and family. "

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids are also very much top of mind and conversation with everyone in my orbit. While largely Democratic cities like Los Angeles have been the primary focus of the Trump Administration, ICE also led raids last week in at least two restaurants in Birmingham where I live. If you are a restaurant owner or worker who wants to prepare yourself and team, read this guide written by my colleague Stacey Leasca. And I highly recommend following L.A. Taco for street-level journalism shared by Javier Cabral and his small, scrappy team to learn more about how Los Angeles' economy is being impacted by the administration, tacquero by tacquero, neighborhood by neighborhood.

This world is a lot right now. Hug your people and tell them you love them. That's my priority in Aspen this weekend.

Warmly,
Hunter