What We're Looking For
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FIRST read the Manifesto
Each issue of PEON is centered around a single word or concept (family meal, dinner service, out of work). Feel free to contact us on Instagram or at our email below to inquire about future themes or if you have a suggestion.
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Writers
We need articles, essays, opinion pieces, travelogues and food-based fiction. Be funny. Be honest. Have a vision or don't. Have a strong focus or contradict yourself. Food doesn't have to be the subject but it must be the conduit. If it's not going to fit in with mainstream food sites, it probably will here. We don't care about fads unless you've got something new to offer. We don't care about the hot spots or the new spots. We don't want lists or recipes unless they're satirical or humorous, in which case, fuck ya. We're more interested in what, why and how people eat and the cooks who make it. Need ideas? Check below at Series.
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Artists
We need artists to help design article looks and layouts. We also need background images, full on food-related art pieces, comics and whatever else you can conjure up. Want to change our logo or our front page or do a takeover of the site's aesthetic, fuck yeah! Pitch us! If you want to be an "on call" artist to do work based on a piece, read The Process below, then send us some stuff at pitch@peonmagazine.com.
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Photographers
Food/kitchen related photo essays or just cool shit. And that doesn't mean food porn. Also, if you'd like to take photos based on an article we send you, read The Process below, then contact us at pitch@peonmagazine.com
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ANYONE, but cooks especially
At Peon, you don't have to be a writer to write. You don't have to be an artist to draw. You don't have to be a photographer to take pictures. Pitch us. If we like it, we'll publish it.
Second
The Process
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# 1
Read the Manifesto, then PITCH US by emailing pitch@peonmagazine.com
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# 2
If it's a yes, then we'll tell you to write the piece! If it's a no, we'll let you know in a timely manor. If we don't like the idea, but we like the way you think and the way you write, we might ask for more ideas.
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# 3
So, you've written the article. First, let's mention that you are heavily involved in the editing. We edit for clarity and readability, but it's your piece and you have to like it first.
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#4
Now that that's done, it's time to get some art behind it. Should you choose to be involved in the design process, the only limitations are those of the tools we use. We can spitball ideas for the layout. You can draw or take pics. Or maybe you have a friend who wants to do it. Or we can hand it off to an artist/photographer waiting in the wings. The formation of the article aesthetic is completely collaborative.
Third
Series ideas. Run with them.
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Restaurant Reviews
Eating is only a small part of what makes a restaurant. That being said, if you're going to review a restaurant, it's only right that you should get a sense of as much of it as possible. Stage for a week. Get your hands greasy. Learn what they do and why they do it. Then and only then do you have the proper perspective to review that restaurant.
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A Meal with...
An interview series where the interviewee chooses the meal or the interviewer invites them to a meal. Get weird. Get creative.
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Unconventional Tasting Notes
No mouth feel. No aromas. Just personal experience. Describe a dish, a wine, beer, whatever only using personal experiences.
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Fuck-ups
Cooks, what are your worst kitchen fuck ups?
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Cooking/Food in film
This one is for the cooks. Breakdown, condemn, commend, lament or glorify a cooking scene from any film. Certain dishes have been repped hard while others get a bad showing. What do you think?
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Proper Cooking
Extol the virtues of a certain dish and tell us how to properly cook it, eat it and why that's the way to go. This might require some research or some unwavering arrogance.
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Ingredients
What makes an ingredient really good? How is the best of that ingredient made? What's the process? Think katsuobushi. It's the special wood, the smoking process, the region from which it comes, etc.
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History of a Dish
Trace the history of a specific dish. Tell us how it came to be, what problems it solved, why it exists, etc. It can be as simple as nigiri sushi or as complex as canard au sang
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Kitchen Gripes
Another one for the insiders. Cooks, tell us about your kitchen preferences–equipment, station set-up, utensils, anything. The things you hate about your kitchen set up. The things you love. The fades in new kitchens–what you love about them and what you hate.
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Drugs & Food
This can mean whatever you want it to mean. Get weird.
