Sophie Chen, Off-Menu

As a photographer shooting with film and enjoying the analogue darkroom, launching a print magazine was perhaps a natural step for Sophie Chen.

Originally from China, Sophie spent several years in Philadelphia and New York—where she launched her magazine, Off-Menu—before settling in Barcelona. The magazine celebrates the many people working behind the scenes in the food and hospitality industry. With issue two just released, she shares the origins and influences that shaped the project.

What are you doing this morning?
I’m a big routine person. I usually make myself the same breakfast every morning—some eggs, and Greek yogurt with fruit. Today, I’m starting off by checking emails at my desk (if I haven’t already started scrolling in bed… a bad habit I’m trying to break). I’m also making coffee—right now I’m brewing beans from Driftaway Coffee, a Brooklyn-based roastery we featured on our digital column, who’ve since become good friends of mine.

Since half of our small team is based in New York while I’m in Barcelona, most of my calls happen in the afternoons and evenings. So after tackling a few urgent emails, I usually try to carve out some time in the mornings for myself. Today, I’m heading to my local film lab to make some prints for a personal photo project I started in Marseille this summer.

Describe your work environment
I don’t have a dedicated office or studio at the moment, but I love working from my apartment and I try to make the most of it. I live in Gracia, a cozy and bustling neighborhood in Barcelona. From my window, I can see the building across the street and a wide stretch of sky. I’m lucky to get a lot of sun all year round, and my space is usually filled with light all morning.

I mostly work from my dining table or the long countertop next to the kitchen, because it’s the perfect flat surface to spread out my books, magazines, and prints. This is where I do most of my photo editing and where I like to review printed drafts. My friends can confirm that whenever I’m working on a new issue, every flat surface in my apartment ends up covered in paper.

Which magazine do you first remember?
Growing up in China, I was always surrounded by books and magazines because my dad loves to read. The first magazine I remember is 读者 (Reader), one of the most widely circulated magazines in China, published since 1981. It’s a bimonthly literary digest, and each issue is a collection of essays, poems, and illustrations by both local and foreign authors, exploring themes of love, family, and humanity through a heartfelt lens.

My dad was a huge fan of Reader, so much so that he would go to the newsstand twice a month, without fail, to pick up the newest issue. Eventually, I got him a subscription for his birthday so it would be delivered straight to our house. For this interview, I asked my mom to take a photo of our collection back home in China, and this is what she sent. I don’t think it’s even the full collection—just what we have in the bathroom.

Aside from yours, what’s your favourite magazine/zine? 
A magazine I discovered recently that really inspired me is Partners Magazine, a publication that explores human relationships. I discovered it this past April, when I stopped by their London launch event. I’ve followed Julie Peeters’ work for a long time, so when I heard she did the art direction for this issue, I knew I had to check it out.

In this issue, editor-in-chief Takuhito Kawashima asked 32 contributors one question: ‘Why be together?’ Each person responded with a short answer and a series of visuals. One of my favorite photographers, Adrianna Glaviano, replied with ‘Because there is food on the table,’ followed by a set of beautiful still-life shots from the kitchen. This approach, different from their previous issues, was motivated by the editor’s idea to ‘listen first, make a magazine second.’

While the concept is simple in theory, the result is dynamic, genuine, and thought-provoking. It made me think a lot about how we approach the act of making a magazine. As an editor, our perspectives are important, but oftentimes we are subconsciously imposing preconceived notions about the themes that we set out to explore. Partners reminded me how valuable it can be to loosen that control and let ideas take shape naturally through the process of exploring and listening.

What other piece of media would you recommend? 
I’m not much of a TV person, and I’ve had TikTok deleted for a while now. But I love watching films, especially for the different ways they approach visual storytelling. One of my favorite food-related films is ‘Eat Drink Man Woman’ (饮食男女) by Ang Lee.

It’s a Taiwanese film about a retired chef who is also a widowed father of three daughters. Every Sunday, he cooks an elaborate feast for them, an anchoring ritual amidst all of their changing lives. The film has some of the most mesmerizing depictions of Chinese cooking I’ve ever seen. It explores family, culture, relationships, and generational conflict through the act of cooking and sharing meals. Food becomes a language of love that runs through the entire story.

I love it because it’s been such a source of inspiration for my own photography work, and it’s a beautiful reminder of how food can be a vessel for exploring all these larger themes about people, connection, and life itself.

While putting together the first issue, I reached out to many other independent publishers for advice. Many of them have since become close friends: Isabel and Andres from TableTimes, Kristen from Dialogue Magazine, Brett from Kitchen Table Magazine, and Leah from Above the Fold. I owe so much to them for being so open and supportive when I knew almost nothing about the industry.

What was it about the NYC food world that inspired you to launch a print magazine?
I lived in New York between 2023 and 2024, and even though it wasn’t a long time, the city left a huge impact on me. The food scene in particular was incredibly inspiring—and it continues to be, even after I moved away.

At first, I was simply an avid consumer of food: going to pop-ups, trying new spots with friends. Eventually, I started volunteering to take photos for the chefs and baristas I met in those spaces. Seeing things from behind the scenes and witnessing the amount of care and effort that went into each project gave me an even deeper admiration for this community.

New York is undoubtedly a tough city in many ways, but it’s also the kind of place where so many beautiful, independent projects come to life. The food scene is diverse, built on a foundation of grit and hustle, and supported by a community of people who are curious and passionate. Being surrounded by that energy—and by people who care so deeply about what they do—made me feel like anything was possible.

What did you learn from issue one that you applied to the second issue?
When I was making the first issue, I didn’t print anything until I had the first draft of the magazine completed. As a UX designer at the time, I was very comfortable with using digital tools like Figma to collaborate and review designs. But I quickly realized that it wasn’t until I saw the physical pages in front of me that I could really notice the details or small things that needed tweaking. The difference between how a magazine layout appears on a screen versus on paper was one of the biggest lessons I took from issue one.

For issue two, it made all the difference to work the old-school way with tangible, physical prints from the very beginning. My editorial designer, Julia Blanco Boada, printed out every iteration of the layout explorations and drafts. Once we had the full skeleton of the magazine, I printed all the photos for each story, cut them out, and taped my selections directly onto the drafts, adding sticky notes for feedback. Instead of a million Figma comments, I handed over this thick, scrappy stack of booklets, which she then used as reference for the next round of designs.

While it was definitely a more time-consuming process, it felt so much more tactile and intuitive. I think it’s something I’ll keep doing for all my future print projects.

Show us one spread that sums up how the magazine works, and explain why you selected it.
This is a spread from the issue two story featuring SAG, an Iranian spirit distillery project based in New York. It showcases some archival images of the team members when they were growing up in Tehran (their skaterboy days), shown alongside images from their first distilled batch of spirits and launch party.

This is my favorite spread from the issue for many reasons. It was an unexpected one because we initially ran into some challenges with content gathering. Our photographer couldn’t do an on-site shoot because the Californian wildfires delayed SAG’s distillation process, so I asked the team to send over any visuals they had from their journey. When we received the images, my designer and I discussed how to weave those older materials into the story in a way that felt distinct, while also adding something fresh to it.

In the end, I love how it came together. It reflects the kind of storytelling we’re always aiming for, where design and photography work hand in hand to tell each subject’s story in a thoughtful and intentional way.

What has publishing the magazine taught you that may be helpful to anyone else planning to launch one?
Embrace the slowness. It’s part of the beauty of making a print magazine, compared to other forms of digital media. These days, we’re used to creating, sharing, and getting feedback almost instantly. But print works differently. It tests your patience, and asks you to slow down and sit with ideas.

When I’m working on a new issue of the magazine, I’m essentially keeping a secret that only a few people know about, over the course of nine to ten months. I’ve found a strange satisfaction in that quiet anticipation, and in finally sharing a body of work with the world after a long period of time.

I’ve also learned to trust my gut. It’s helpful to get feedback, but it can also be a dangerous thing. Maintaining a healthy distance from external perceptions has been really important for me to stay connected to what feels true to the project.

When I think about my favorite photographers and other creative inspirations, their work often took years to marinate and materialize. Time changes how you see your work and adds layers you can’t force or predict. It’s something we often overlook in this era of social media (and something I still have to remind myself of), but it really does make a difference.


What are you most looking forward to this coming week?
I’m looking forward to planning our Barcelona launch party, which will be happening on October 26th (you heard it here first!). It will be hosted at a new community space for creatives that my friend is opening, where I will be a full-time resident. It’s super exciting because this means more opportunities to host in-person events for Off-Menu, and finally having a proper studio space for myself!

offmenumag.com