It takes a village to publish a magazine—and website and app and Youtube channel and more. Phew! Today we’re introducing you to Bon Appétit’s senior culinary producer Mallary Santucci, who gets our recipes ready for their closeups. Bon Appétit: Hey, Mallary! How would you describe your job to someone you’re sitting next to on a plane? Mallary Santucci: I always say “I make food for TV” because that’s the simplest explanation.
But really, I handle all culinary logistics behind the scenes to make food appear on camera for our YouTube and social channels (like Instagram and TikTok). It’s a lot of project management: anything from buying groceries, to writing recipe prep lists, to sketching out a production schedule for culinary stylists and producers. I basically get food hair-and-makeup-ready for camera!
What’s a typical day like for you at Bon Appétit? Or does a typical day even exist? No! And that’s the best part of my job. Some days I am shopping at the farmers market or a specialty grocery store. Other days I am making a spreadsheet about recipe ingredients or writing what we call a run of show. Sometimes I’m in front of the camera (though you’ll only see my hands!).
It’s managed chaos at all times and I
It’s managed chaos at all times and I love that. My favorite days are when I am searching for specific ingredients. It’s like a city-wide scavenger hunt. What’s on your shoot schedule for this week and/or next? This week I prepped and then shot an episode of Taste Panel for Epicurious while overseeing another team on a new show in the Test Kitchen with our food director Chris Morocco.
Next week we are filming Bake Club, which we do every month. Then I’m shopping and prepping for French Fundamentals with chef Alexia Duchêne. It’s always a balance of shooting one thing and simultaneously preparing for the next shoot coming down the pipeline. What are your favorite types of assignments to work on? I love the shoots that are culinary-heavy. I have a knack for logistics and organization, which helps with my role, but my background is in restaurants, and cooking is the fun part of my work.
It sounds cheesy, but I want to help people learn to cook. I want the average person at home to feel confident making dinner for their friends and family—and have fun doing it. How about an assignment that was particularly challenging or taught you something new? We did a shoot with chef Dominique Crenn that was definitely challenging! And so fun and interesting. She does a lot of molecular gastronomy, which is not my area of expertise.
I was able to play with new ingredients
I was able to play with new ingredients and techniques, and it challenged me to learn a style of cooking I otherwise had not worked with. Though they may not know it, our readers have seen your adept hands many times! What’s a video where your hands star that you’re particularly proud of? This is so funny! My hands appear on camera all the time and my friends and family will send me a video and ask, “Is this you?” Usually, yes!
In this salsa taste test, it was even the manicure from my wedding. How does someone break into this part of the food industry? Any advice? Honestly, there’s no one right way to break into this (or any) industry. A lot of people go to culinary school and get into food media or the restaurant industry that way. But I never went to culinary school; I went to college for art and education.
As soon as I graduated I knew I wanted to work in food. It took a few years to make it happen—I moved to New York, worked in an unrelated field, left New York, taught abroad, traveled. When I came back to the US, I got a job working in front of house in restaurants. I was too intimidated to apply for a job cooking with no experience. But I showed such interest in the food and details, a chef told me I would “need to start somewhere” and encouraged me to start working in the kitchen.
That’s how I got my first professional cooking
That’s how I got my first professional cooking job. I just jumped in and worked hard. I had some basic skills from growing up in a family that cooked a ton, but learned all of my professional skills live fire while on the line. What recipes have you recently saved on Bon Appétit? Watermelon Som Tam: I could slurp it up all day during this hot sweaty summer! Miso Curry Beef and Green Beans: A flavorful, quick dinner after a long work day.
Tiny Tomato Galettes: Adorable and absolutely delicious. Have eaten for breakfast! What’s the Bon Appétit recipe you make most often? Our cooking director Emma Laperruque’s Sheet-Pan Halloumi With Avocado and Citrus. I am truly obsessed. I often sub croutons for the pita and think of it as a spicy citrus panzanella. I love anything acidic, spicy, creamy and crunchy. This one checks all those boxes.
Also, new in the rotation, our senior Test Kitchen editor Jesse Szewyck’s Grilled Steak With Spicy Peanut Dressing from the summer issue. I love to grill, and the peanuts and herbs are so texturally satisfying and fresh! You often test for our cookbook roundups. What’s a cookbook you’ve loved from this past year? And what about a timeless, all-time favorite on your shelf? I have a secret: I rarely ever cook a full recipe from a cookbook.
(I swear I stick to the rules when
(I swear I stick to the rules when reviewing for roundups!) But in my day to day, I tend to read cookbooks more for inspiration and the gorgeous stories and visuals. Some recent favorites are Boustany by Sami Tamimi, My Cambodia by Nite Yun, and Setting a Place For Us by Hawa Hassan. Some standbys I’ve loved are Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden, The Food Lab by Kenji López-Alt, and Made in India by Meera Sodha.
I also collect older cookbooks because the outdated food styling cracks me up. My wife urges me to not pick up the free cookbooks being given away on the sidewalk, but I can’t resist. The pictures are funny! What kitchen tool or gadget or appliance are you obsessed with right now? I am a less-is-more type of cook. I stick to the most basic and necessary tools, and find it hard to be convinced otherwise.
For me, the essentials are: a chef’s knife, wooden spoon, whisk, rubber spatula, Microplane, fish spatula, cast-iron skillet, Dutch oven, and cutting board. Gadgets take up space and have to be realllllly worth it for the space in a kitchen. I don’t think people need as much as they think they do (don’t tell the commerce editors!). Make Mallary’s go-tos
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Source: www.bonappetit.com
