What does Top Chef judge Gail Simmons think of food media earlier versus now? Her insights explored

Gail Simmons is a key figure, not only as a Top Chef judge, but also as a longtime personality in the food journalism industry. In a recent interview with Semafor, she talked about the evolution of food media from paper to prime time.

She recalls a time when television was considered a "lowbrow" and the idea of combining food with mass media was met with skepticism, especially from people in her organisation.

“I would say it’s been an enormous evolution,” Simmons said. “I have so many memories of those early years when Food & Wine first agreed to be a part of the show and then put me up as their representative and sent me to do the show. The real fears we had were because it was so unknown, and it was almost looked down upon.”

The Top Chef judge said that her dream was not television at all, and she was hoping to be in the print media.

“When I moved to New York, went to culinary school because I wanted to be in media, but what that meant was I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to work in print publishing,” she recalled. “Granted, that sounds like I'm a hundred years old, but that was the dreamiest, most aspirational thing I could imagine that I loved.”

Top Chef Judge Gail Simmons reflects on the evolution of food media

Simmons said that there was tension between niche prestige and mass appeal. This has existed in the media industry for a very long time. However, all of this changed with the broader rise of food television and online content.

"Now, we see this very clear path, partially through Top Chef and through food media’s explosion into social media content, where print publishing is no longer necessarily the king,” she said. “And even if it exists—because Food & Wine still exists—their digital content, their social, their creation is the biggest growing piece of what their business is about.”

Simmons pointed out that the transformation from print to digital has been so huge that the entire legacy of food publications has changed. She revealed that Food & Wine was bought by Dotdash, which is a digital content company. This shift, Simmons says, reflects that content, not the medium, is the true driver of value and engagement.

"We are at the crossroads where you have to focus on the content itself, not the medium,” she emphasized. “And I think that 20 years ago, that was unheard of. That was unfathomable. And now, we have seen the struggle of how to adapt.”

Simmons has been a part of both these worlds and has now become a central figure within them. It is seen that Top Chef is a powerful influence across all platforms and generations, and her journey from print dreams to television is iconic and symbolizes a metamorphosis within the industry.

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Top Chef season 22 episodes can be streamed online via Peacock.

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