Eaten #1
This exciting new quarterly, focused on food history, offers a bold, playful take on a somewhat unexplored topic in the print world. Although food history is touched upon in other food mags, Berlin-based Eaten is the first to devote an entire magazine to it, and it does so very well.
For its launch issue, Eaten has chosen the theme ‘The Food of the Gods’. It is a delicious exploration of religious foods, ancient food myths and traditions, including a look at ‘Deities in Dairy’, the art of Tibetan butter sculpting. Eaten is careful not to limit itself - it touches base all over the globe, and across several religions. There is a considerable section on the Jewish festival of Passover, which includes ancestral recipes and an essay taken from ‘The American Jewess’ that transports you to London’s bustling Petticoat Lane on Passover 1896.
One of Eaten’s wonders is that once you start reading, it provides answers to many questions you never realised you had, like how foods travel around the world, as told in the piece ‘The Travelling Mantou’. Elsewhere, it asks ‘Why do fringe religious groups run so many vegetarian restaurants?’, something I’m sure has always been on the tip of my tongue.
Eaten’s design is bright and simple – perhaps sometimes too simple – with imagery ranging from reportage photography of monks brewing beer, to religious paintings, and close-ups of succulent honey cake and vibrant ambrosia. It’s only slight shortcoming is that the cover doesn’t really reflect the tone of the magazine, which is much lighter and cleverer than it is made to seem.
Editor-in-chief: Emelyn Rude
Design director: Sabrina Majeed