You can almost reach out and grab a bite from the pages of Food & Wine—the photography is so superb, it feels as if the food is leaping off the printed page. After feasting your eyes, you’re treated to storytelling that nourishes the mind. There aren’t many magazines that can truly offer a wholesome meal for both the eyes and the brain, but Food & Wine does exactly that.

Hunter Lewis, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Food & Wine magazine, describes the experience this way: “It’s like being at a dinner party, sitting around a table with a delicious glass of wine and a beautiful meal. You drop the needle on a record and hear that warm, rich tone—that slight scratchy sound before the first song begins. Whether you can articulate that experience or not, you feel it in your mind, body, and soul. That’s what it’s like to consume a magazine in this day and age.”

My interview with Hunter felt just like sitting at the Food & Wine dinner table—an engaging conversation about the role of print in a digital age, the impact of AI on magazine publishing, surviving and thriving through two acquisitions, and the essential value of teamwork. We also discussed the Food & Wine Classic events held in Aspen and Charleston, South Carolina.

So, without further ado, please join me at the Food & Wine dinner table for a conversation with a chef, an editor, and a storyteller: Hunter Lewis. But first—the soundbites:

On the status of Food journalism: “I think food journalism in this day and age is very fractured. There are only a small handful of power players that are still healthy and thriving, and I would include Food & Wine in that mix.”

On the reason Food & Wine is thriving: “I’m very, very thankful that Food & Wine is among the top brands and continuing to thrive in this era. It shows that when you are a part of a company that is healthy, and you’re a part of a company that is investing in its brands and its people, and investing in great storytelling, investing in events, investing in digital growth, and you’re empowering brand leaders to do what they know is best for the audience, then you can grow.”

On thematic issues: “Any magazine worth its salt has done themed issues in the past.”

On Food & Wine thematic issues: “Really is a rallying cry and putting a stake in the ground and creating a tent pole for our readers to rally around and for advertisers to get excited about.”

On the role of the print edition: “The magazine is the heart and soul of the brand. It’s a physical evocation of the brand…. The magazine continues to anchor this brand.”

On whether his job is harder or easier today: “If you’re open to change and you’re open to evolving, it’s not as hard.”

On his role during the two acquisitions of Food & Wine: “My role during those two acquisitions and when I took over at Food & Wine was to make sure that I’m creating a brand that is super healthy, making sure that I’m creating a brand that is growing on all platforms.”

On whether AI is a creator, curator, or a thief of content: “All of the above. But I’m not scared of AI.  Anybody that is creating in this world today, you should at least be playing with Chat GPT and trying to better understand how AI works. I’ll be very clear; we do not use AI to create content for Food & Wine.”

On what keeps him up at night: “Thinking about my kids and this world today, and what kind of world it’s going to be for them when I’m gone.”

And now for the lightly edited conversation with Hunter Lewis, vice president and editor in chief Food & Wine:

Samir Husni: You have been at Food & Wine now for eight years, and you’ve been editor-in-chief before that at Cooking Light, and you worked almost with every food magazine. How would you describe the status of food journalism in this day and age?

Hunter Lewis:  I think food journalism in this day and age is very fractured. There are only a small handful of power players that are still healthy and thriving, and I would include Food & Wine in that mix.

I think that for many reasons, including the state of the industry, social media, the rise and cult of the personality of singular people who operate as brands has made it a very interesting playing field right now in terms of what brands are on the rise, what brands are on the wane, and I’m very, very thankful that Food & Wine is among the top brands and continuing to thrive in this era. It shows that when you are a part of a company that is healthy, and you’re a part of a company that is investing in its brands and its people, and investing in great storytelling, investing in events, investing in digital growth, and you’re empowering brand leaders to do what they know is best for the audience, then you can grow.

I’ve been a part of brands that aren’t growing, and I’ve seen what that means in terms of diverting those funds elsewhere or squeezing brands too tightly to return dividends to shareholders, so I’ve been on the other end of this, and right now is a very exciting time to be at Food & Wine because we’re a brand that is being prioritized and a brand that is growing.

Samir Husni: Is that the reason you’re going with thematic issues like the innovator issue, the travel issue, the summer recipes issue? Is that part of this dominance in the marketplace?

Hunter Lewis: I think any magazine worth its salt has done themed issues in the past.

This is not a new thing. What that does for us is it really is a rallying cry and putting a stake in the ground and creating a tent pole for our readers to rally around and for advertisers to get excited about. The purpose of the travel issue in May, which has become one of our bigger issues of the year, is really to get behind global tastemakers.

It’s something we started a few years ago.  It is our big travel tent pole, and it made sense to make the May travel issue and the timing of that digital launch in early to mid-April, and then also the print extension of it, all align. And so that was the timing for May.

For the innovators issue in July, the intention with that issue that comes out when we’re at the top of the mountain at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen.

That event is full of innovators across every part of the food and beverage and hospitality industry. And so, it made sense to create a magazine issue, during that timing, that reflected and celebrated the people that were participating in the event on our behalf, and then also a celebration of innovation in the culinary world. What is cool now is that we are using our events to bring our stories from the pages of the magazine to life on stage, or to create special dinners around the feature stories we’re telling.

A good example of that, this year at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, we had the July innovators issue cover blown up huge in the Grand Tasting tent, and we popped up a new activation for the brand called The Wine Bar by F&W and Friends. And we brought the family behind Red Boat Fish Sauce, and the owner of Red Boat is also making a new Cabernet in Napa. We brought Kuang Pham and his family to Aspen.

They served the cover recipe at The Wine Bar. They poured his Cab at The Wine Bar. And we made micheladas with his fish sauce, too.

So that was our way of bringing the brand to life and literally bringing the cover to life so our consumers could taste it at our marquee event. That’s one example. Another example is, last year was the 30th anniversary of Gramercy Tavern in New York City.

The idea for this restaurant was born in Aspen at our event many years ago with Tom Colicchio and Danny Meyer, two well-known New York City restaurateurs. We wanted to celebrate that legacy and that DNA within Food & Wine with a big feature story honoring Gramercy Tavern last year. And then we hosted a beautiful dinner in Aspen to bring it to life, too.

We’re really beginning to figure out how to use our events as a new extension of journalism and a new extension of telling stories and to bring these stories to life in real life where you can taste the food and meet the people behind the stories.

Samir Husni: And how do you define the role of the print, the magazine itself in this event age? I mean, what role does the ink on paper play?

Hunter Lewis: The magazine is the heart and soul of the brand. It’s a physical evocation of the brand.

A point of strength. It’s a beautiful product that people use every day in their lives. The magazine and the people that make the magazine and that work on our website and social and video and events are the beating heart of the brand.

The magazine continues to anchor this brand.

Samir Husni: Is your life today as editor-in-chief easier or harder than it was before COVID?

Hunter Lewis:  I don’t think it’s about easier or harder. I think the pace of change is so much faster now than it’s ever been in my lifetime.

As long as you’re okay with change and managing and leading change, then it’s not hard. It’s always hard. Every job in the country is hard in one way or another, but we’re not scared of the hard.

What we’re asking our team to do and everybody that works for this brand to do is to understand that to remain relevant, we’re going to need to continue to embrace change. And so, if you don’t embrace change, it gets hard. If you’re open to change and you’re open to evolving, it’s not as hard.

Samir Husni: As you are open to change and evolving, what has been the biggest challenge you faced since you became editor-in-chief of Food & Wine?

Hunter Lewis: I think the biggest challenge is keeping Food & Wine healthy through multiple acquisitions. When I started at Food & Wine, I was running both Cooking Light and Food & Wine, and that was during the Time Inc. days. And then Meredith acquired Food & Wine as a part of that Time Inc. acquisition.

The priorities changed within the company. The executive team at the top of the masthead changed, and we had to navigate that change while we’re also navigating how to run a brand through COVID. And then we were acquired by Dotdash and the company became Dotdash Meredith, and we navigated that change too.

So my role during those two acquisitions and when I took over at Food & Wine was to make sure that I’m creating a brand that is super healthy, making sure that I’m creating a brand that is growing on all platforms, making sure that I’m growing a brand that has more value and is earning more revenue and has a larger audience now than when I started, and that I’m stewarding a brand that will be stronger when I leave it than when I found it.  

Samir Husni: Did you accomplish all these goals?

Hunter Lewis: I’m very, very excited. I’m very happy about the work we’ve done.

I’m very excited about us growing in the way that we have, but our work’s not done. I’m riding a wave on this glorious surfboard, and I want to keep riding it. So, my goals are not complete.

This brand still has a long way to go and more growth ahead.  I want to keep riding this wave with my colleagues and see how far it’s going to take us.

Samir Husni: What’s the secret sauce for this wave that keeps Food & Wine healthy, like 130 pages in print and, you know, with all the events and all?

Hunter Lewis: There’s no secret sauce. It’s the executive team at Dotdash Meredith investing in Food & Wine, believing in us, understanding that what we are creating is hyper-relevant in today’s times, empowering us, and then for us to go and do the job every day and show up and bring great energy.

The energy that we’re putting out at Food & Wine across all platforms, in the magazine, online, on social, on video, and at our events, is absolutely about the team and the energy they’re putting forward individually and collectively in our team culture. There’s not one answer to that in terms of the secret sauce, but it’s all about the energy that we’re putting in, the focus that we have, and it’s a blessing that we have all these different platforms and different revenue streams because it’s not one, we’re not a one-sided brand. We’re not just earning revenue and growing audience on the website.

We’re doing that in multiple ways, and that’s why Food & Wine is thriving.

Samir Husni: You have an event coming up in Charleston, South Carolina, The Food & Wine Classic. Tell me about that event.

Hunter Lewis: The Food & Wine Classic in Charleston is a collaboration with Travel & Leisure and Southern Living, two of our sister brands. I’m very close with Jacqui (Gifford) and with Sid (Evans), and it’s our way to bring the DNA and the legacy and the beauty of gathering at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, which we’ve now done for 42 years, and taking that magic and bringing it to the low country region of Charleston. We have deep, deep relationships in Charleston. It’s an incredible culinary scene.

There’s no other city in the country like it that has such rich history and architecture and culture and food ways, and so our job in hosting the Classic in Charleston for the second year is to bring all that local talent to the stage and spotlight the culture that is there, and then bring some of our partners and chefs and drink professionals and hospitality pros from the national stage to the city and blend that talent together to create a special event that these three brands host in Charleston.

Samir Husni: And if somebody approached you at that event and said, Mr. Lewis, I have an idea for a new food magazine, what do you tell them?

Hunter Lewis:  A new food magazine? I think that there’s always a place for print in this environment. I just went to Casa Magazines the other night to grab a couple journals and other magazines for research, and I’m either the most naive guy on the planet, or the strongest, deepest gut reaction I’ve ever felt in my career is what I feel right now, that in the age of artificial intelligence, the brands and the magazines that are coming from a point of strength, the brands and the magazines that are differentiating themselves from the competition by putting out a beautiful product with great imagery and crackerjack writing are going to continue to differentiate themselves from the competition, and they’re going to differentiate themselves from what is not real, and they’re going to differentiate themselves from AI slop.

I strongly believe that artificial intelligence is going to make food and wine more valuable in some ways. Now it’s going to threaten pieces of our business, and we’re not going to be immune to some of those challenges like Google Zero, and the issues with Google not sending sessions back to brands like Food & Wine like they’ve done for the past 20 plus years. We’re not immune to that like any other brand in the digital space, but I fully believe that whether consumers can articulate it or not, they want real experiences.

They want to gather at our events. They want to read and engage with a magazine, whether they’re leaning back in their armchair, or they’re leaning forward and they’re cooking from Food & Wine at the stove. They’re going to continue to want this physical object in their hands that is beautiful and usable.

And I equate it a lot to being at a dinner party when you’re sitting around a table with a delicious glass of wine and a beautiful meal, and you put a needle on a record, and you play that record, and you hear that warm, rich tone and that slight scratchy noise that happens before the first song plays. Whether you can articulate that experience or not, you feel it in your mind, body, and soul. And that’s what it’s like to consume a magazine in this day and age.

I think that is going to become an even more valuable experience as the world becomes less real and more artificially manufactured.

Samir Husni: So, do you think AI will be more of a curator, creator, or a thief when it comes to content?

Hunter Lewis: All of the above. But I’m not scared of AI.  Anybody that is creating in this world today, you should at least be playing with Chat GPT and trying to better understand how AI works. I’ll be very clear; we do not use AI to create content for Food & Wine.

We are investing in video, we’re investing in photography, we’re investing in award-winning writing. You know, we just won our first National Magazine Award this year for a story called The City That Rice Built, also won a James Beard award. So, we’re not using AI for shortcuts.

But as creators, we’re using AI to better understand how it works and what we’re up against. I think it’s already transforming creative spaces. It’s already transforming how people are searching online in the ways that they used to type in a search question in a Google browser.

It’s absolutely happening overnight, and it’s happening rapidly. I mean, this feels like the fastest change to me since the iPhone was created, if not faster. And I think the implications are much greater.

Samir Husni: If I come, unannounced, to visit you one evening, what do I catch Hunter doing? Reading a book, watching TV, cooking? Hunter Lewis: I’ll welcome you upstairs and into the kitchen, and there’ll be some jazz playing on the speaker, and I’ll be cooking dinner for my family, which is what I do in Birmingham, six nights a week, and welcome you to our table, and pour you a glass of wine.

That’s my happy place.

Samir Husni: And what keeps you up at night these days?

Hunter Lewis: Thinking about my kids and this world today, and what kind of world it’s going to be for them when I’m gone. It’s a crazy world right now, and I think it’s becoming a more selfish world, and a more selfish country, that’s what keeps me up at night.

Samir Husni: Thank you.