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Editor’s Letter

taking cover

Right around the height of everyone’s kale This month, for the first time ever, we turned
obsession (mid-2014 or so), I had a theory that the task of creating the cover over to our readers:
kale soup would make a great cover for the Home cooks across the country submitted their
magazine. “America loves kale!” I told my boss. best, and best-looking, original dishes, and they
“This will be a huge seller!” I don’t know how stopped at nothing to get our attention. Some
you all feel about kale these days, but I can sent us pictures of themselves with their food,
COVER tell you that when we finally put kale soup on some Photoshopped their dishes right onto
CONTEST the cover—a bowl of green stuff with more green our cover (the power of suggestion?), and
WINNER! stuff as garnish—it was one of our worst-selling some tried to win us over with catchy names
issues of all time. You know which covers have (nice job with Here’s the Dill Soup!).
We reviewed each entry and sent the
10 most cover-worthy recipes to the
Food Network Kitchen for rigorous testing.
Then the team narrowed the list to four, and
we put those dishes to the ultimate test:
We styled and photographed them at our
September cover shoot. And then (yes, this
process was as grueling as the presidential
primaries), we showed the final covers to a
group of magazine executives, including my
boss, Ellen Levine, who thought the tomato tart
was a real winner. For the record, Ellen told me
back in 2014 that kale soup was probably not the
best cover idea. This time, I took her advice.

dishes on September covers
like this one because the issue Maile Carpenter
comes out in August—often Editor in Chief
during a heat wave. @MaileCarpenter

COVER CONTEST RUNNERS-UP

CARPENTER: TRAVIS HUGGETT.
Find these
recipes on
page 67.

20 FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE ● SEPTEMBER 2016