Check Out the New Lucky Peach Website
Gif: Lacey Micallef
Lucky Peach, the cult indie magazine founded by chef David Chang and writer Peter Meehan, was one of the rare print publications to launch without a proper website. But that changed today with the introduction of luckypeach.com.
We asked Meehan to share a little bit about the site and why food fans should check it out.
Peter, for the Yahoo Food reader not familiar your universe, what is Lucky Peach all about?
Illustration: Lisa Hanawalt
For the last almost three years, Lucky Peach has been a quarterly printed forum for great writing about food. We explore a theme in each issue, and follow tangents wherever they take us. In our All You Can Eat issue, that meant one writer binged at buffets in Vegas and another spent two days eating with inmates in a maximum security prison. We try to cover the world of chefs and restaurants and food in general from the inside out, with an emphasis on narrative. Also on dumb jokes and loudly colored cartoons whenever possible.
What's the vision for the website?
Though we print more than 600 pages a year, there are more stories to tell and different ways to tell them. We're excited about publishing on a forum where there's real-time feedback about what people are engaged with.
How will it be different from your Tumblr?
Photo: Steve Niles
Our Tumblr is a glorious, insane garbage dump of things I find on the Internet (for the most part). I love it dearly and will keep it going, but luckypeach.com is going to have daily features, original video, more recipes, and more restaurant recommendations. We're gonna have columnists and everything!
How will it be different from traditional food sites?
Well, it'll be a website about eating and food, so it'll be the same in that way. Structurally, we're going to have a monthly theme and let that guide us, so maybe that'll make it different!
What are some of the features of the website that are special?
As my five-year-old has taught me, what's special to one person (a wadded up drawing encased in glitter and tape) is not to another (“Dad, why can't I play with this guitar?”). I think the design is clean and readable, which I like. Mainly the specialness is in the art—our art director Walter Green gets the best drawers to make the best drawings.
What are some upcoming stories you're excited about?
Michael Snyder on Maggi Noodles. Lucas Peterson has a slate of good stuff. I'm excited to see if I can actually force Brooks Headley into writing a column for us.
What's the approach to recipes?
Photo: Lucky Peach
Right now it's mainly stuff from the magazine, but watch for that to change soon! I'd like to focus on more cookable stuff, but we'll see how that goes.
How often should folks check in with the site?
Roughly every seven minutes, making sure to click on all the ads! No, seriously, we'll have a new thing or two every day, and I hope that gives people a reason to check in on us on the regular.
Can people comment on posts?
Not yet. I have a totalitarian concept of how websites should work, but it's a fight I could end up losing.
And if you lose, will you read the comments?
That's the whole reason not to have them! I'm a delicate flower!
More about Lucky Peach:
