Go Freelance

How to Pitch Bon Appétit: A Freelance Writer’s Guide

Learn how to land a delicious byline in this beloved food magazine

How to Pitch Bon Appétit: A Freelance Writer’s Guide
Jess icon
By Jess Focht
@jessfocht
Jess Focht is a writer and content strategist with 6+ years of experience in media, publishing, and brand storytelling. She has contributed to Insider, Grammarly, and The Creative Independent.
2 min read • Originally published June 5, 2023 / Updated March 19, 2026
Jess icon
By Jess Focht
@jessfocht
Jess Focht is a writer and content strategist with 6+ years of experience in media, publishing, and brand storytelling. She has contributed to Insider, Grammarly, and The Creative Independent.
2 min read • Originally published June 5, 2023 / Updated March 19, 2026

Reach: 6.2M subscribers

Background: Bon Appétit is a monthly American food and entertaining magazine, that typically contains recipes, entertaining ideas, restaurant recommendations, and wine reviews. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, and has been in publication since 1956. Here’s how to pitch for the popular food media brand, Bon Appetit.

General pitch guidelines:

  1. First, check to see if Bon App has covered something similar recently. If they have, consider what you hope to add with your story.
  2. Propose a few sample headlines. 
  3. Include a brief (about a paragraph or so!) explanation of the story you want to tell.
  4. If the story requires reporting or investigating, show them you’ve done some groundwork to support the angle you wish to pursue. 
  5. Include a few links to relevant articles you’ve written. 
  6. Their standard rates begin at $250 for stories in the 400-word range and go up from there as determined by word count, experience, and the complexity and/or amount of reporting in the piece.
  7. If there’s a social component that makes sense, please include that in your pitch. (Let’s say you’re going to write about pajeon, and you think an Instagram Story would be a great way to show how you make it.) We provide additional compensation for social storytelling.

Direct pitches to:

For cooking pitches, please email cooking@bonappetit.com with “PITCH: [your idea here]” as the subject line.

For shopping pitches, send Highly Recommend pitches to mackenzie_fegan@condenast.com.

For culture and lifestyle pieces, send pitches to culture@bonappetit.com with “WRITER PITCH” in the subject line. 

For restaurants, please send your pitch in an email with “PITCH” as the first word in the subject line to restaurants@bonappetit.com.

Topics:

Go Freelance, How to Pitch