Jonathan Nunn, the founder and editor of Vittles, has a personal style just as cool as his way of constructing sentences. That’s the second thing I noticed at the London Food in Print Fair held in April this year. He was wearing a long, flowy, black shirt with cropped balloon pants. Was it Yohji? Commes? He wouldn’t be the first food writer with a taste for Japanese delicacies. Could have been but I didn’t ask. He was too busy coordinating the fair to stop for something so unrelated to the day’s purpose.
Organized by Vittles, Pit Magazine, and Fatboy Zine at the St. Giles Cripplegate Church on the Barbican Estate Grounds, the very first thing I noticed about the London Food in Print Fair was what a beautiful venue it was. Stunning, in fact. St. Giles Cripplegate is a 14th century gothic-style church with stained glass windows, built during the reign of Richard II. A sign outside advertised a holy communion, and I couldn’t agree more. I’m not a religious man but I do often pray at the altar of the written word. That day, on April II, it was host to the biggest collection of UK food magazines probably ever, plus a few from outside the kingdom too.
I hadn’t realized the scale of it until I got there. An astonishing number of magazines were setting up when I stepped inside the church at 10AM. There were two long rows of booths on either side of the pews. Yes, the pews were still there. There were 35 magazines in attendance, plus a table stocked with issues from those that couldn’t make it. All food or drink related. All in print. All with funny names.
Above the Fold. Anchoa Mag. Cake Zine. Candlestick Books. Cheese Magazine. Chicken + Bread. Comestible. Famous for My Dinner Parties. Fatboy Zine. Feeding. Filler. Full. Gnaw. Guts. Guzzle. Hope’s Kitchen. Mennie Drinks. Mince. Napkin Journal. Off Menu. Offcuts. Petit Propos Culinaire. Pit. Serviette. Spill. Table. Tenderbooks. Texture. The Pass Media. Tomato Egg. Tonic Mag. Toothsome. Uno. Wedge. Notes from Below. Luncheon. Vittles.
Has there ever been a greater collection of publication names in one place? I think not. There was a magazine for almost any kind of meal you can imagine. Want to learn about dumplings from all over the world? No problem. Need a recipe booklet for various Chinese tomato-egg dishes? Of course! And if you wanted to read three issues of a magazine that celebrates food as art and centers people of color? The fair had that too. We’re talking about niches within niches and blanket categories too. Fromage enthusiasts had Cheese AND Wedge to peruse. It wast a vast expanse of passion that was beautiful to see. I consider myself well-versed in this industry but before getting there I only knew a few of these publications.
Before the event kicked off, nobody knew what to expect. This was the first London Food in Print Fair ever organized, announced just a month before, in a world where literacy rates are falling and print is supposedly dead. It could have been completely dry. Every magazine editor carries a little lunacy with them. There’s an audacity to us, that people will care about what we have to say, print, and write. The more specific the subject, the crazier we probably seem. This was a room that could have doubled as an asylum on visitors day, full of dreamers and psychotics ready to show off their latest delusional masterpiece.
When the doors opened to the public at 11AM, it was clear that print was very much alive and well in East London. Attendees trickled in at first, but by 11:30, the church was a mob scene. Lucky Yu bakery was there making Cantonese/British pastries, but they sold out before I could even look that direction. The next four hours provided a neverending conveyor belt of curious readers moving through the aisles of the church. Packed like sardines, they poked and prodded and questioned and bought food magazines like the world of print was ending tomorrow. Chicken + Bread was selling like hotcakes on my right, and Andrea of Comestible to my left seemed like she was on a never-ending quest to find the exact right book for every person who walked by.
Overall, the vibe was delightful. Londoners are delightful. They wear tiny skull caps and Carhartt chore coats. They are cool. They are attractive. They are charming. And they love food magazines! And it wasn’t just hipsters. I met kids, families, a few elders too. I met people from restaurants I admire for how they treat organs, like Camille, St. John, and Rita’s. I met vegans who politely listened to wax poetic about offal anyway. I met journalists looking for work and contributors I’ve worked with but never seen in person before. Mostly, I met interested and interesting humans. The people, they yearn for print, who knew?
The people, they yearn for print, who knew?
The event couldn’t be described as anything but a success. By 230 the crowd had thinned out a little, but just enough to breathe. By 3PM things had calmed a bit more and I ran into Jonathan Nunn, who told me Vittles had sold out. In fact, most people had or were going to sell everything they brought by the time the event ended at 4. I went by the Tomato Egg booth to grab a copy and they had none left!
A shame, because as a life-long fan of the combination, that was the niche interest magazine I was most excited for. Toothsome, from Ashley Yun and DK Woon still had a few copies left when I came around, thank god. So did Tonic and Pit and Filler and Guzzle, though they would eventually run out. I managed to get the last copy of Cheese #3 and the final Famous For My Dinner Parties t-shirt too. I traded a magazine to Andrea for a photo-zine dedicated to the back sides of produce delivery trucks at the Central de Abastos market in Mexico City. If you didn’t know, they’re elaborate and gorgeous. My bag was getting heavier and heavier, but I couldn’t stop myself. Please, take my money, fellow inmates in this passion industry called print.
Every magazine founder I spoke with was shocked, exhilarated, and exhausted from the day. Who knew selling magazines could be so tiring? The sun was setting on the day by the time we broke down the tables and packed everything up. What do you after a day like that? What do you do in London at 5PM?
We went to the pub! What else could we do? The fair organizers booked out a space at The Shakespeare just a few blocks from the Barbican. I stumbled over after getting an extra large bowl of ramen nearby, ready to commiserate about the day and revel in the fact I belonged to a community I hadn’t known even existed just a day before.
