By Morgan Dickey University of Nebraska-Lincoln Julia Kramer is not only a big foodie, but a foodie who is a big deal. She is deputy editor at Bon Appetit Magazine in New York, one of the most well-known culinary magazines. As deputy editor, Kramer oversees and edits the content of the magazine and also writes. She travels cross country with her co-worker Andrew Knowlton to discover the year’s best new restaurants in America for Bon Appetit’s annual “The Hot Ten” piece. “I do a lot of things that look very glamorous, but my favorite part is hanging out with everyone who cooks. I love how knowledgeable and passionate about food they are,” said Kramer, 31. Kramer’s passion and dedication to food, which leads her on country-wide food tours, has led her to where she is now, but her career path wasn’t always so clear cut. From a young age Kramer was a lover of food. Her family was very big into food and made almost every gathering into something that revolved around food or a meal. The family’s incorporation of food into Kramer’s everyday life and gatherings formed her passion and love for food. Kramer recalls her mother’s love for having people over for dinner as something that she has inherited. It wasn’t until later in life that Kramer realized that unique family influence led to her love for creating and enjoying food. “I didn’t realize I was so into food because my family was so into food so I thought everyone was like that,” Kramer said. Growing up in her Chicago household where food was celebrated, it is no surprise that Kramer dreamed of working at Ben and Jerry’s. While she was in high school, a Ben and Jerry’s opened near her house, and she jumped to apply. She worked there and loved it. This was another experience that Kramer did not realize would impact her life so much. “Weirdly, Ben and Jerry’s didn’t make me think professionally. I didn’t realize it at the time. and it never occurred to me that I should go into the restaurant business,” Kramer said. The food pattern continued as Kramer was a college student at Pomona College in Claremont, California. This time Kramer, who was a history major, was baking cupcakes and started blogging about cupcakes, a more clear step in the direction of where she is today. “This was before cupcakes became a huge thing. I would write about recipes I was trying and I would visit cupcake shops,” Kramer said. The blog combined Kramer’s love of food and fiction writing. Her soon-to-be boss at Time Out Chicago read Kramer’s blog and it convinced her to hire Kramer on as an intern. This got Kramer’s foot in the door of food writing. She began writing for Time Out Chicago Magazine a week out of college and spent all summer eating at various restaurants in the Chicago area. “I had one writing prize after college and used all the money to go to restaurants and explore them, getting deep into the Chicago food scene,” Kramer said. After a whirlwind summer of eating out, Kramer was hired on as a restaurant critic and staff writer. She wrote there for five years as she continued to work up the ranks. Kramer worked as restaurant critic and staff writer, associate food and drink editor and then finally food and drink editor. In that time Kramer made a name for herself in the Chicago food scene, creating connections in the restaurant business with people such as Knowlton with Bon Appetit. “Every year he would come to Chicago, and he would call me. One time we went out to eat at Fat Rice and he told me to send my resume to Bon Appetit and in three months I was hired,” Kramer said. Going from Chicago to New York was an exciting but hard transition. After spending five years getting to know the Chicago food scene inside and out and making a name for herself, she now had to do the same in New York City. “I used to be a big fish in a small pond and to come to New York and be a small fish in a big pond was hard. I worked really hard to show my colleagues what I could do, I had to prove myself for sure,” Kramer said. As she explored the food scene of New York over the course of her time with Bon Appetit, Kramer continued to move up the ranks. She worked as a general associate editor, associate restaurant editor, senior editor to where she is today as deputy editor. As deputy editor she makes tough editing calls such as how to go about telling a story. This happened recently with a piece titled “Life on the Line” by Amanda Shapiro that showed a line cook’s daily life; it discussed pressing issues like wages. “It was hard walking the tightrope," she said. "How do we tell the story by respecting the woman and also tell the story in a way that appeals to the readers?” Even though Kramer’s job may have stressful times, it is clear that food has been a lifelong passion. “My hope for the future is to continue to push what we are doing digitally. We have really brought a level of quality and enthusiasm to our content, and I think it is the challenge to (keep) it up and continue that in the new initiatives that we take on,” Kramer said.
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