Our Founder Reflects on NYT Cooking & the Origin of Food52
Welcome to the latest edition of Food52 Founder Amanda Hesser’s weekly newsletter, Hey there, it’s Amanda, packed with food, travel, and shopping tips, Food52 doings, and other matters that catch her eye. Get inspired—sign up here for her emails.
Last week, New York Times Cooking celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its incredibly successful cooking app. In truth, the app’s success was more like 20 years in the making. The Times had wanted to digitize its vast recipe archive since the early 2000s, but due to a lot of internal to-ing and fro-ing (something the Times specializes in), it took more than a decade to take the leap. The extended maceration has proven worthwhile—they got it right. They understood their readership’s long held desire for inspiration, recipes they can trust, and a place to be heard about it. The app shines not only because of the breadth and quality of its content but because of the wacky and endearing commentary from its readers.