• by Ray Schultz , March 12, 2021

Magazine publishing is getting another makeover in a new HBO Max comedy series titled "Enjoy Your Meal."

The series will focus on “the multiple media scandals of summer 2020 and today, focusing on a cohort of young assistants of color who rise up to tear their cookie-cutter corporate culture apart,” The Hollywood Reporter notes.

Although not identified as such, the show is based on problems at Bon Appetit, according the Reporter.  

Ryan Walker-Hartshorn, who served as assistant to Bon Appetit’s former editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport, will serve as a consultant on the series, the Reporter states. Walker-Hartshorn reportedly was the only Black woman on the staff.

Rapoport resigned last year after a 2004 photo turned up of him and his wife, Simone Shubuck, on Instagram in which he is called “Papi,” and the term “#boricua” was used, contributing to a stereotypical depiction of Puerto Ricans, according to a story last year in The New York Times.

Outraged minority staffers called for Rapaport’s resignation; they also complained that they were underpaid. 

As The Reporter describes it, the photo featured Rapoport in brownface.

The Reporter also writes that Sohla El-Waylly, Bon Appetit’s assistant food editor, “claimed she had been used ‘as a display of diversity’ in Bon Appétit’s ‘Test Kitchen’ videos and that she wasn't paid for several of her on-camera appearances.”

The new show will be written by Amy Aniobi, who will also serve as executive producer along with Galt Niederhoffer (“The Kids Are All Right”), Monica Villarreal for Authentic Management Productions and record producer Drew Dixon.