Good day. Seek the truth and help people understand the world. That’s the mission of The New York Times. It holds true for NYT Cooking as well, where we look at everything through the prism of home cooking and write up our findings as recipes.
And here is a truth now: The protests that have followed the killing of George Floyd on May 25 have spread into every corner of American life, including the kitchen table, which has had a long history of being a central gathering place for powerful conversations about change. Home cooks, professional chefs, casual readers and dedicated subscribers alike raise their voices high: Systemic racism is real. Police violence against black people is real. Black lives matter. Those voices seek change in the institutions to which they subscribe. They demand it.
The Times has reported extensively on the nation’s unrest, on the violence visited on protesters, on the looting that has followed some protests, on the institutional responses and grass-roots activism that allows some to hope for a brighter day. This week, The Times reconstructed the killing of Mr. Floyd, investigated the government’s use of chemical spray on peaceful protesters, exposed disproportionate police force against black people and reported on-the-ground from Minneapolis about the city’s history of racism. That is the newsroom’s job. That is how a newspaper effects social change: by bearing witness.
NYT Cooking has a slightly different brief. Our medium is recipes, and cooking instruction: a way to understand the world through food. But we share values across the company that employs us: independence; integrity; curiosity; respect; collaboration; excellence. Underpinning all of that: a real and abiding commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Our goal is to have an audience that looks like America. Our staff and roster of contributors must reflect that, so that the recipes we share and develop represent the people we serve, whose stories we seek to tell. That takes commitment and action. We will show our work. Please watch this space. I’ll be back on Sunday.