BIPOC Bon Appétit Test Kitchen Host Leave Amid Racial Reckoning

Yesterday morning, three BIPOC journalists announced their departure from Bon Appétit's "Test Kitchen" YouTube series, roughly two months after the racial reckoning that led to the resignation of its editor-in-chief. Sohla El-Waylly, Priya Krishna and Rick Martinez exited the YouTube channel, announcing their departure on social media. Two of the three cited contract negotiation failures on the part of Condé Nast, Bon Appetit's parent company. However, all three stated that they intend to stay at Bon Appétit magazine.

The announcements were delivered on Instagram yesterday morning. Since June of this year, members of color on staff at Bon Appétit have spoken publicly about making far less money than their white colleagues and have accused producers of tokenizing them.

"When I was first asked to do videos in the test kitchen in 2018, the opportunity was presented as great publicity for my upcoming cookbooks," writes Priya Krishna on Twitter. "I was paid at first. In 2019, I asked to be compensated and was offered what I was told was the standard rate, which amounted to about $300 per video, for several hours of work."

"I later found out that some of my colleagues were making many, many times this amount for doing video, while others were receiving no additional compensation."

I'm leaving Bon Appétit video. Here's what's been happening over the last few months, and some thoughts. pic.twitter.com/L59blcESLv

— Priya Krishna (@priyakrishna) August 6, 2020

In June of this year, Adam Rapoport, then the editor-in-chief of Bon Appétit, resigned from his post after a photograph of himself dressed as a Puerto Rican stereotype surfaced and went viral. According to Eater, "Condé Nast vice president of video Matt Druckor resigned soon thereafter, following accusations of racism, homophobia, and pay inequity."

At this time, Solha El-Waylly came forward to denounce Rapoport publicly, demanding his resignation, and accused Condé Nast of racism. In her Instagram story, she complained of pay inequity, stating that her white co-hosts made significantly more money than she, despite having less experience, and accused the company of tokenizing her. "I've been pushed in front of video as a display of diversity," she wrote.

In case you’ve missed it: Not only is Sohla one of the only front facing Bon Appetit editors to denounce EIC Adam Rapoport doing brown face, apparently only white BA editors are paid for their video appearances. Here’s her Instagram story just now pic.twitter.com/h0uPMlJYHN

— Sarah Manavis (@sarahmanavis) June 8, 2020

Rick Martinez posted an in-depth account of his contract negotiations on Instagram Stories, stating that after two months of talks, no "significant changes" were made.

"It is clear that I ill not get a fair pay rate nor will I get a comparable number of appearances to my colleagues in the test kitchen," he wrote.

Business Insider spelled out the terms of their contract proposals for Krishna and Martinez, which offered them a base of $1,000 per day for videos they host, $625 for videos they are featured in and no money for videos in which they appear for under two minutes.

"According to Martinez and Krishna, this would have meant a pay cut for Martinez and a very slight bump for Krishna. Ultimately, they said they would still be paid less than their white counterparts."

A Condé Nast spokesperson told Eater:

Over the last several weeks, the video team has worked individually with each Test Kitchen contributor to address all concerns and communicate equitable compensation structures, including standardized rate cards, in many ways exceeding SAG/AFTRA standards, for freelance and editorial staff who contribute to video. As new leadership at both Condé Nast Entertainment and Bon Appétit join the team in the coming weeks, new video programming with new and returning talent will also be announced.

Earlier today, one of the three journalists' fellow Bon Appétit hosts left the series in solidarity. Molly Baz posted on Instagram that she asked to be released from her contract with Condé Nast.