Andisheh "Andy" Baraghani (born 1989 or 1990) is an American chef and food writer. Baraghani's first job as a teenager was at the restaurant
Chez Panisse
Chez Panisse is a Berkeley, California, restaurant, known as one of the originators of the style of cooking known as California cuisine, and the farm-to-table movement. The restaurant emphasizes ingredients rather than technique and has develope ...
in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
. He moved across the United States to study at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
and work in New York City restaurants before transitioning into a career in media in 2013. Following a brief stint as a food editor at ''
Tasting Table
''Tasting Table'' (incorporated as ''TDT Media Inc.'') is a digital media company focused on food and drink. The brand's website and email newsletter report on food and drink trends in the categories of dining, wine, cocktails, cooking and food ...
'', he joined ''
Bon Appétit
''Bon Appétit'' is a monthly American food and entertaining magazine, that typically contains recipes, entertaining ideas, restaurant recommendations, and wine reviews. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center i ...
'' in 2015 as a senior food editor and soon became a frequent presenter on
the publication's YouTube channel. He left ''Bon Appétit'' in 2021 to work on a cookbook, ''The Cook You Want to Be'', which was published in 2022 and contains recipes and essays that cover his personal life and career.
Early life
Andisheh Baraghani
was born in 1989 or 1990 and raised in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
.
His parents had immigrated from Iran to
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
in 1977, a year before the
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...
. When he was young, he often experimented with various foods and played with a
Fisher-Price
Fisher-Price is an American company that produces educational toys for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, headquartered in East Aurora, New York, East Aurora, New York (state), New York. The company was founded in 1930 during the Great Depressio ...
kitchen, his favorite toy as a child.
As a teenager, he worked his first job at the Berkeley restaurant
Chez Panisse
Chez Panisse is a Berkeley, California, restaurant, known as one of the originators of the style of cooking known as California cuisine, and the farm-to-table movement. The restaurant emphasizes ingredients rather than technique and has develope ...
,
where he started as an
intern
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...
and became a
line cook
A chef de partie, station chef, or line cook is a chef in charge of a particular area of production in a restaurant. In large kitchens, each chef de partie might have several cooks or assistants.
In most kitchens, however, the chef de partie is t ...
in its kitchen. In his time at the restaurant working under
Alice Waters
Alice Louise Waters (born April 28, 1944) is an American chef, restaurateur, and author. In 1971 she opened Chez Panisse, a Berkeley, California restaurant famous for its role in creating the farm-to-table movement and for pioneering Californi ...
—whom he regards as his "culinary idol"
—he learned cooking technique and how to be agile and "think methodically."
One particular experience Baraghani recalls is when he cried after he could not understand what Waters asked him in French.
By the time he graduated from high school, he had worked in three restaurants including Chez Panisse.
Career
While studying
food studies Food studies is the critical examination of food and its contexts within science, art, history, society, and other fields. It is distinctive from other food-related areas of study such as nutrition, agriculture, gastronomy, and culinary arts in that ...
and
cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...
at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
, Baraghani worked as an editor for the food publication ''
Saveur
''Saveur'' is an online gourmet, food, wine, and travel magazine that publishes essays about various world cuisines. The publication was co-founded by Dorothy Kalins, Michael Grossman, Christopher Hirsheimer, and Colman Andrews, who was also the ...
''. After he left his job and graduated from university, he worked in the New York City restaurants Frej,
Corton, and Estela.
He transitioned from a career in the restaurant business into one in the
media industry
Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets.
Broadcast media transmit information e ...
in 2013
and soon after became a food editor for the online publication ''
Tasting Table
''Tasting Table'' (incorporated as ''TDT Media Inc.'') is a digital media company focused on food and drink. The brand's website and email newsletter report on food and drink trends in the categories of dining, wine, cocktails, cooking and food ...
''.
In 2015, he joined ''
Bon Appétit
''Bon Appétit'' is a monthly American food and entertaining magazine, that typically contains recipes, entertaining ideas, restaurant recommendations, and wine reviews. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center i ...
'' as senior food editor.
He was additionally co-editor of ''Healthyish'', a publication by ''Bon Appétit'' which focuses on
clean eating.
When ''Bon Appétit'' began to increase its focus on video content in 2016, he started presenting on the publication's YouTube channel with
Molly Baz,
Sohla El-Waylly
Sohla El-Waylly ( née Muzib) is an American chef, restaurateur, and YouTube personality. She was an assistant food editor at '' Bon Appétit'', where she appeared in videos produced for the magazine's YouTube channel, and also produced videos ...
,
Priya Krishna
Priya Krishna is an Indian-American food journalist and YouTube personality. She is a food reporter for ''The New York Times'' and has previously contributed to ''The New Yorker, Eater,'' and ''TASTE'' (as a columnist)''.'' She is also the author ...
,
Brad Leone, and
Claire Saffitz
Claire Saffitz (born 1986) is an American food writer, chef, and YouTube personality. Until mid-2020, she was a contributing editor at ''Bon Appétit'' magazine and starred in several series on the ''Bon Appétit'' YouTube channel, including '' ...
.
Baraghani was one of seventeen chefs who operated a Manhattan
pop-up restaurant
A pop-up restaurant is a temporary restaurant. These restaurants often operate from a private home, former factory, existing restaurants or similar space, and during festivals. Various other names have been used to describe the concept of settin ...
by Google open for four days in April 2016. With musicians
Cupcakke
Elizabeth Eden Harris (born May 31, 1997), known professionally as Cupcakke (often stylized as CupcakKe; pronounced ), is an American rapper from Chicago, Illinois. She is known for her hypersexualised, brazen, and often comical persona and mus ...
and
Ella Mai
Ella Mai Howell (born 3 November 1994) is an English singer-songwriter. Her musical career began at London's British and Irish Modern Music Institute in 2014, during which time she auditioned as part of a trio on the 11th season of ''The X Fa ...
, Baraghani and Baz held cooking demonstrations at the
Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival
The Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival is a music festival held annually in San Francisco, California, at Golden Gate Park. The festival is produced by Another Planet Entertainment, Superfly Presents, and Starr Hill Presents. It is the l ...
in San Francisco in 2019. In early 2020, the
LGBTQ
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
magazine ''
Out'' published a profile of Baraghani that dubbed him "the internet boyfriend of our dreams".
In June 2020, during the
George Floyd protests
The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internati ...
against
police brutality
Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, ...
and racism, ''Bon Appétit'' editor-in-chief
Adam Rapoport
Adam Rapoport (born 1969) is an American former magazine editor. After serving as a Style Editor at ''GQ (magazine), GQ'', Rapoport was the editor-in-chief of ''Bon Appétit'' magazine from 2010 until his resignation in 2020.
Early life and ed ...
resigned after a 2004 photo of him in
brownface
Brownface is a social phenomenon in which a white or light-skinned person attempts to portray themselves as a "brown" person of color, but less overtly and with a lighter complexion than traditional blackface. This may include mimicry of Midd ...
previously published on
Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
garnered criticism online. Staff members, among other critics on social media, accused the publication and its parent company
Condé Nast
Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan.
The company's media ...
of discrimination against their
employees of color and called for better compensation and treatment.
Baraghani himself was accused of
microaggression
Microaggression is a term used for commonplace daily verbal, behavioral or environmental slights, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward stigmatized or culturally marginalized group ...
s toward a female
Korean American
Korean Americans are Americans of Korean ancestry (mostly from South Korea). In 2015, the Korean-American community constituted about 0.56% of the United States population, or about 1.82 million people, and was the fifth-largest Asian Americans ...
coworker. A few days later, he posted a statement to Instagram in which he criticized the publication's workplace culture and apologized for the ways he had "undermined" and "hurt"
BIPOC
The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...
coworkers, particularly a "former coworker".
He continued working at the publication for another year, unlike some coworkers who resigned at the time in protest. Speaking with the ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' in 2022, he explained that he came from a "very middle-class family" and accrued a "five-figure college debt", so "Quitting was a privilege I didn't feel I had." He departed the publication in August 2021 to work on a cookbook.
Baraghani's cookbook, ''The Cook You Want to Be: Everyday Recipes to Impress'', was published in 2022 by
Lorena Jones Books.
The cookbook contains recipes and essays on his childhood, international travels, and career.
According to ''
The Mercury News
''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...
'', it "features a wide range of
veg-forward, flavor-packed and often unexpected dishes" as well as dishes he ate in his childhood such as ''
aush reshteh
''Aush reshteh'' or a''ush-e-reshteh'' ( fa, آش رشته) is a type of ''aush'' (Iranian thick soup) featuring reshteh (thin noodles) and kashk (a dairy product, made from cooked or dried yogurt), commonly made in Iran.
About
There are more ...
'', a stew, and ''chelo'' (
pilaf
Pilaf ( US spelling) or pilau ( UK spelling) is a rice dish, or in some regions, a wheat dish, whose recipe usually involves cooking in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat, and employing some techniq ...
) with ''
tahdig
Scorched rice, also known as crunchy rice, is a thin crust of slightly browned rice at the bottom of the cooking pot. It is produced during the cooking of rice over direct heat from a flame.
Varieties
Cape Verde
In Cape Verdean Creole, the bu ...
'' (scorched rice).
Personal life
Baraghani is gay.
He lives with his partner Keith Pollock,
whom he met while they were employed by
Condé Nast
Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan.
The company's media ...
. Pollock has worked as an executive of ''
Architectural Digest
''Architectural Digest'' is an American monthly magazine founded in 1920. Its principal subjects are interior design and landscaping, rather than pure external architecture. The magazine is published by Condé Nast, which also publishes internati ...
'' and
West Elm
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is an American publicly traded consumer retail company that sells kitchenware and home furnishings. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. The company has 625 brick and mortar stores and distribute ...
, a brand of
houseware
Household goods are goods and products used within households. They are the tangible and movable personal property placed in the rooms of a house, such as a bed or refrigerator.
Economic role
Businesses that produce household goods are categor ...
stores.
Baraghani stated in a ''Bon Appétit'' article that he had only worked in a kitchen with one other man who was
openly gay
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...
, despite cooking in "male-led" kitchens through his career, and felt as though kitchens "weren't exactly environments that encouraged me to come out" due to cultural norms of the profession.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baraghani, Andy
20th-century births
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American LGBT people
Living people
American chefs
American male chefs
American cookbook writers
American food writers
American gay writers
Chefs from Berkeley, California
Iranian chefs
Iranian cookbook writers
Iranian non-fiction writers
Iranian writers
LGBT chefs
LGBT people from New York (state)
New York University alumni
People from New York City
Writers from Berkeley, California
Bon Appétit people
American writers of Iranian descent