The Financial Times has launched Appetites, a new online home for its food and drink coverage from across FT Weekend Magazine, HTSI and FT Globetrotter.
The FT says the launch of Appetites coincides with the arrival of a star columnist line up at FT Weekend which now includes restaurant critic Jay Rayner and restaurant writer Marina O’Loughlin, whose moves to the FT were announced in November. Regular contributors will include food critic Tim Hayward, wine critic Jancis Robinson, HTSI columnists Ajesh Patalay, Laila Gohar and Alice Lascelles, and FT Globetrotter writers. Appetites will also showcase recipes, expert guides and articles on destination dining, added the FT.
Rayner’s first restaurant review, of Rules in Covent Garden, is free to read on FT.com here. The publisher says his weekly column will appear online on Fridays and published in FT Weekend Magazine every Saturday, starting, 22 March.
O'Loughlin’s new monthly column “Critic Unchained” will bolster the FT’s coverage of the global restaurant scene and food culture, with her first column juxtaposing US and UK tipping culture, the FT continued.
FT Weekend editor Janine Gibson said: “We’re inordinately proud to unveil our supergroup of expert columnists and to show off the breadth of knowledge and quality of writing across the print FT Weekend and our new Appetites digital home. We’ve always had world-class food and drink coverage, which continues to be one of our most popular topics, but this launch demonstrates our range and is the first step in our ambitious plans.”
FT Weekend Magazine ran a special issue on March 22 dedicated to food and drink called “The Rules of Modern Dining.” In it, FT Weekend columnists shared their most firmly held beliefs about restaurants – which have then been rated and debated by a panel of peer reviewers, including food writer Nigella Lawson; host of Topjaw Jesse Burgess; Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith, and founder of Cloud 23 hot sauce Brooklyn Peltz Beckham.
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