Bon Appétit editor Christina Chaey says she was not paid 'a single dollar' for her Test Kitchen video appearances
- Christina Chaey, an associate editor at Bon Appétit who has appeared in popular Test Kitchen videos, is the latest employee to accuse the publication of pay inequity.
- In an Instagram story, Chaey said that she had not been paid for her appearances in videos, backing up claims from editor Sohla El-Waylly which Condé Nast has denied. She also said that she had not received a promotion or a "merit raise" in her three years at the outlet.
- Chaey's accusations follow a tumultuous week for Bon Appétit in which the editor-in-chief resigned after photos of an offensive Halloween costume surfaced and a Condé Nast executive left the company after his homophobic and racist tweets circulated online.
- Additionally, 14 Bon Appétit employees revealed that the publication's work environment was "toxic" for people of color.
Amid a week of chaos for Condé Nast and its food publication Bon Appétit, another employee is coming forward to share her experience with racism and pay inequity at the company.
Bon Appétit associate editor Christina Chaey, who has appeared in the outlet's wildly popular Test Kitchen videos on YouTube, is speaking out against the "toxic culture of white power" at the publication and in media.
In an Instagram post on Thursday, Chaey noted that she was "one of a handful of non-white faces" involved in the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen — and she never received "a single dollar" for her video appearances. In her three years at the publication, she said, she was never given a "merit raise" or a promotion.
Chaey added that she's only beginning to unpack why she hadn't felt "empowered to ask for more."
"I'm also starting to reckon with my place in a brand that has upheld the toxic culture of white power in old media," she wrote, "including my complicity in a system that made me believe I should feel lucky that I got a seat at their table."
Chaey's fans, including some celebrities, and colleagues rallied around her in the comments section, many thanking her for her "bravery" and "admirable words."
"Thank you for speaking your truth, Chaey," Bon Appétit research director Joseph Hernandez wrote. "I'm so proud to know you, and humbly offer you all the support you need."
"Proud of your words," Molly Baz, a senior food director, added.
Actress Aidy Bryant and SNL star Bowen Yang also voiced their support, commenting with heart emojis.
A representative from Condé Nast told Insider that "it is simply not true to suggest that employees are not compensated for their video work."
"As full-time employees," the representative said, "they are paid a salary and receive benefits."
Chaey's post follows a week of accusations from employees who have called the outlet's work environment "toxic" for people of color.
Much of the controversy surrounding Bon Appétit began on Monday, when a 2004 photo of editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport's offensive Halloween costume surfaced online (he resigned later that evening). The photo then sparked a larger conversation about the publication's alleged history of inequality.
On Monday, associate editor Sohla El-Waylly, who has also appeared in Test Kitchen videos, took to social media to call out instances of racism and pay inequity at the company. In a series of Instagram stories, she revealed that she'd been hired in 2019 at a $50,000 salary to "assist mostly white editors with significantly less experience." She also said she'd been pushed into videos for the appearance of diversity, but had not received compensation for this work. White editors, she alleged, had been paid for their video appearances.
A Condé Nast representative told Variety that it was "untrue" that white editors were compensated for appearing in videos while people of color were not." A spokesperson previously told Insider that the company is "dedicated to creating a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace."
El-Waylly's posts were only the beginning. In the following days, high-profile staff members continued to make — or became subjects of — allegations of racism and homophobia, among other things.
Business Insider's Rachel Premack reported that over a dozen former and current contributors and employees of Bon Appétit, all of whom identified as people of color, felt that nonwhite employees were socially and professionally "slighted" at the outlet. This took the form, they said, of less lucrative contracts for people of color in the video space, excluding nonwhite employees from various "social and professional groups," and underrepresenting (or even misrepresenting) stories from nonwhite backgrounds.
The same day, drinks editor Alex Delany came under fire for his previous social media posts, including a 2010 photo on Tumblr of a Confederate-flag cake he baked for a friend and a 2013 Vine video in which he used a homophobic slur. Meanwhile, a Twitter user uncovered old tweets from Matt Duckor, a Condé Nast executive who previously oversaw Bon Appétit's video content, who made homophobic and racist jokes.
Both Delany and Duckor apologized for their posts — and Duckor left the company, according to an email from Condé Nast Entertainment's president, Oren Katzeff, obtained by Business Insider.
On Thursday, Bon Appétit issued a statement about the outlet's plans to "take ownership" of its mistakes and change its culture.
"This is just the start," the statement read. "We want to be transparent, accountable, and active as we begin to dismantle racism at our brands."
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