Gourmet Magazine has a new name: Buffet.
The Monday rebrand comes after the journalists — or self-identified “worker-owners” — behind the magazine’s revival were sued by Condé Nast earlier this year over the use of its original, trademarked name. The rebrand was announced in early August with newsletters temporarily being sent from “[Untitled Food Magazine].” That temporary moniker has now been replaced by Buffet, though the publication’s purpose remains the same.
“We—the five worker-owners behind Buffet Magazine—love to cook, and love to eat. Which, duh, obviously: We started a food magazine,” Buffet explains. “But it feels worth saying at a time when so much of mainstream food media has adopted a strategically aversive relationship to the topic.”
“In the pursuit of endless audience growth, they prioritize recipes geared towards people who don’t particularly like prepping or cooking or doing dishes, and run clickbait designed to inspire angst rather than joy,” the site’s About Us section continues. “We think you deserve more than 20-minute meals, lightly edited press releases and another story about the decline of restaurant service. You deserve to read something delicious.”
Buffet’s worker-owners note that the publication is a “co-op” where its losses and proceeds are shared equally among the five of them (Sam Dean, Nozlee Samadzadeh, Amiel Stanek, Alex Tatusian and Cale Weissman). Those who contribute to Buffet’s editorial output will also be offered a “standard rate for their work and a cut of those proceeds on the back end,” the publication states.
“We’re building this together,” its worker-owners promise.
Condé Nast targeted Goulash Unlimited, the LLC behind Buffet, this year, insisting that the company had infringed on the Gourmet trademark, despite the original print magazine’s shuttering in 2009. The publication was relaunched in January with the five journalists behind Buffet announcing at the time that they had acquired the Gourmet trademark after it had allegedly lapsed.
Condé Nast, however, countered that it had continued to use the Gourmet trademark through its Epicurious and Gourmet-branded YouTube content. The company contended that the revival publication’s use of the moniker would interfere with its management of the Gourmet brand.
Ultimately, the Buffet group relented. “Goulash Unlimited LLC has agreed to rebrand and cease use of the Gourmet trademark as part of a confidential settlement agreement with Condé Nast,” the journalists told TheWrap in a statement in early August.
The Buffet founders reportedly financed the publication’s launch with a combination of a few thousand dollars out of their personal pockets and some donations from friends and loved ones.
