Jamila Robinson, an Inquirer assistant managing editor, will become Bon Appétit’s new editor-in-chief

Jamila Robinson, assistant managing editor for food and culture at The Inquirer, is leaving to become the editor-in-chief of Condé Nast’s food magazine, Bon Appétit and its culinary lifestyle and recipe website, Epicurious.

Robinson will steer Bon Appétit’s editorial direction, brand strategy, audience development, and all content for Bon Appétit and Epicurious. She will report directly to Anna Wintour, Condé Nast’s chief content officer and global editorial director of Vogue. She will be based in Manhattan and start the role on Sept. 18.

“It’s not every day you get to meet an accomplished writer and editor who has led features departments and food organizations, is a competitive skater, classically trained violinist, teacher, world traveler, and is an absolute whiz in the kitchen,” Wintour said in a statement Monday announcing the news. “Jamila is all of these things and more and I’m thrilled she’s coming to lead Bon Appétit and Epicurious.”

Robinson joined The Inquirer as its food editor in 2020 and was promoted to assistant managing editor of food and culture in 2021. She refocused its restaurant coverage, centering the experience of the communities who cook and build local food businesses. She reimagined the Dining Guide and revamped Let’s Eat, Philly!, The Inquirer’s restaurant and food culture newsletter. During her tenure, The Inquirer launched Taste Philly with Craig , a newsletter written by The Inquirer’s food critic that covers Philadelphia’s diverse food community.

Under Robinson’s leadership, LaBan stopped using bells to rate his dining experiences. That change, Robinson said, “echoed a more contemporary way of helping readers understand how restaurants fit into our city’s cultural landscape.”

“Her approach to covering food is as social as it is sociological,” said Gabriel Escobar, editor and senior vice president of The Inquirer. “It goes beyond recipe making and recipe tasting and has led to some of our [paper’s] most ambitious projects.”

Robinson was the lead editor of The Inquirer’s Emmy-winning “Wildest Dreams: An Anthology of Black Inheritance,” a multimedia project of photos, essays, and poems about Black joy presented by The Inquirer’s Black journalists. She helped lead The Inquirer’s diversity, equity, and inclusion training programs within the newsroom and company-wide.

“She has this ability to turn a simple and vague idea into something concrete and relatable,” Escobar said. “That’s a rare skill. When The Inquirer newsroom went through its own racial reckoning — that is still a work in progress — her leadership was especially important. She’s a thoughtful, measured person and when she speaks, people listen and listen carefully. That’s the mark of a real leader.”

Robinson will replace veteran book editor Dawn Davis as editor at Bon Appétit. Condé Nast hired Davis in 2020 after a 2004 photo of her predecessor, Adam Rapoport, resurfaced on social media of Rapoport wearing a Halloween costume that made fun of Puerto Ricans. The issue shed light on Bon Appetit’s other racial problems, including pay disparity and lack of advancement opportunity for staffers of color. Davis was hired to address these issues head on, while advancing the magazine’s editorial cachet.

Under Davis’ leadership, Bon Appétit was nominated for several James Beard and American Society of Magazine Editors awards. Ready to return to the world of book publishing, Davis resigned from Bon Appétit in April. She will return to Simon & Schuster in an executive position.

Bon Appétit was first published in 1956 as a convenience store giveaway in Chicago. Knapp Communications bought the periodical in 1975 and Condé Nast assumed ownership in 1993 when it purchased Knapp. Today Bon Appétit has over 5.7 million print readers, 17 million social followers, and nearly 10 million monthly unique digital users.

Robinson, whose newspaper career included stints at USA Today Network, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the St. LouisPost-Dispatch, recently served as chair of the James Beard Foundation Journalism Committee, where she introduced policies that made the awards more equitable and sustainable.

She currently serves as the North America East Academy Chair of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, selecting and managing the voting body of chefs, journalists, and industry leaders who rank the best restaurants in the world.

Robinson said she’s excited to grow Condé Nast’s two powerhouse food media brands.

“My philosophy is not only to tell people where to eat, but also to show why restaurants matter and why Philadelphia is a world-class food city,” Robinson said. “That’s why I’m excited about this new role at Bon Appétit. The idea that food culture is for everyone becomes more expansive.”