December 2021 • Chris Stang & Angie Báez
From The CEO - A Letter From Chris Stang
Infatuation x Zagat Reader,
It was June of 2020, where—like many of you—our company took a moment to recognize the opportunity we had to utilize our resources and our voice to affect tangible change in a way that we simply had not committed to strongly enough in the past. Since then, we’ve been vocal and intentional about our commitments, sharing progress, reinforcing our values and wherever possible putting our dollars and resources towards making an impact for our readers, our staff, and the restaurant industry.
Accountability and transparency are essential. It's not enough to express a goal without holding ourselves to meeting or exceeding the results we promise. We committed to bringing in an experienced leader to join our leadership team and ensure the entire organization developed an understanding and awareness for how to make our work, internally and externally, more inclusive, explicitly anti-racist, and more representative then it had ever been previously.
Angie Báez—our Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)—is just that. We shared last year that an executive leader, dedicated to pushing us and holding us accountable, was an essential step in this process of improving our DEI-related business practices. Since Angie joined in the summer of 2020, we've taken strong steps to improve the way we think about and execute our business.
Under Angie's leadership, below is a reflection of the transparency and accountability we committed to and - in this case formulated as our company's first ever annual report on DEI, benchmarking where we are, what we’re focused on, and where we’re headed in the future. This is neither a gold star for effort or a certificate of achievement. Our work in this space is ever-evolving and our progress is only marked by the impact we’re able to affect as we grow.
It’s my pleasure to introduce Angie, who can share the vision she’s implemented at our company, and the progress we’ve made this past year—something we’ll be looking to grow as we build our business into the future.
Chris Stang
Introducing Angie BÁez, our Vice President, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
When I was engaged in conversations about joining The Infatuation x Zagat to be the company’s first leader in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion, I found myself drawn to the usefulness of the content, the energy and excitement of the people, and ultimately, the clear and unreserved support and resourcing for DEI provided by Chris Stang, our CEO.
So much of DEI comes down to community engagement and cultural connection—two things restaurants and The Infatuation have in common. Combining these two worlds through the lens of DEI not only enriches the quality of our content, but also works to deepen the connection to our readers.
Just over a year later I reflect on our progress, proud of what we’ve done, but more importantly, looking ahead to all we can accomplish by further deepening the connection with our employees, our readers, and the communities we serve.
We're excited to share the strategies we’re executing to position this company as an industry leader in this space.
In June 2020, Chris clearly laid out the opportunity in our open letter to the audience. Since that day, which includes my joining the company in August of 2020, the mandate was clear. After months of listening and learning, we rolled out our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy which we’re excited to share our progress on today. Last December we offered a 6-month update and today, we bring you our first annual report.
So, how does the work of DEI influence, enhance, and help grow
our business in real, tangible ways?
Here at The Infatuation & Zagat, we believe the work of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is not only the right thing to do for our community of readers, but it's also the best thing to do for our business and our staff. In order to truly embed DEI into the DNA of our company, we started with our Mission Statement with the knowledge that intentional inclusivity and expanded representation lead directly to better content and stronger recommendations for you, the reader.
OUR MISSION STATEMENT
“Our mission is to build the most credible, trustworthy, useful, inclusive, and entertaining recommendation platform in the world. By offering purposeful content, developing best-in-class products, and fostering a strong community, we work to give our users social capital in the form of useful knowledge in food, beverage, restaurants, and travel.”
Having prioritized DEI by way of our Mission Statement, we knew the importance of defining what DEI means for us as a company and a community. Being explicit in how we do this work—and for whom—allows us to prioritize and provide clearer channels of accountability for our staff and our readers.
our DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION STATEMENT
“At The Infatuation & Zagat, our diversity, equity, and inclusion work focuses on amplifying and honoring the experiences and perspectives of our employees, readers, and partners from historically underrepresented communities.”
Our commitment toward anti-racism served as more than just words: it was a foundation for us to create a clear, objective frame of reference to ensure our decision making processes and results are reflective of our commitments.
our DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION Foundational Principles
ANTI-RACIST
Acknowledging that ideological and structural racism are pervasive throughout all aspects of society—interpersonally, systemically, throughout industry—and actively dismantling racism in practice and approach.
COLLABORATIVE
Engaging our collective intelligence, experiences, and perspectives to deliver best-in-class results.
INTERSECTIONAL
Affirming and combatting the interconnected nature of social and innate identities that create overlapping and interdependent ideological and structural systems of discrimination.
EMPOWERING
Identifying new and existing platforms to create more opportunities to better spotlight, reflect, and grow the diversity of our community.
By creating a multi-faceted DEI approach and forming strategic pillars, we can ensure we are making measurable progress across all areas of our business while expanding on the amazing restaurant content you’ve come to know.
OUR DEI APPROACH
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ENGAGE
top talent of unique backgrounds, perspectives, and identities, both seen and unseen, to unlock creativity and bring the best knowledge, skills, and expertise.
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EDUCATE
everyone, internally and externally, to equip them with the vision and skill needed to foster an inclusive culture that drives our teams and businesses forward.
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DEVELOP
rising leaders for professional growth through new experiences and opportunities to better reflect the diversity of our communities, specifically those who identify as women and BIPOC.
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EMPHASIZE
celebrate, and give platform to diverse voices, stories, and perspectives to establish ourselves as the most credible, trustworthy, and inclusive recommendation service in the world.
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Influence
industry-wide standards, culture, and practices to drive systemic change and lead by example.
This report represents a big milestone for our organization as it reflects all the work, programs, and learnings we’ve achieved in the last 16 months of our DEI journey. It also represents a personal milestone in my own career, encompassing years of collaboration, mentorship, iteration, and development (thank you). While we know there is still much to be done, we’re proud to keep moving forward, believing that any step in the right direction is a step worth taking.
I invite you to join us on this journey and look forward to hearing from you along the way!
Angie BÁez
Visibility survey
At The Infatuation and Zagat we define equity as balancing systems and processes to ensure equal access and fairness in treatment, opportunities, and resources. One way we ensure our teams and the content we produce are balanced for equity is by leveraging both anecdotal and observable data to set goals, determine priority, and measure progress.
Earlier this year in May, we launched our Visibility Survey, a voluntary self-identification campaign designed to better understand the demographic representation among our staff and community of freelancers. On a practical level, self-identification makes visible the dimensions of difference within our workforce, especially for those whose lived experiences are otherwise invisible. Learning more about the many intersections of our collective identities helps us cultivate a more inclusive work culture, in which our team members can create the best possible recommendations for our readers.
The Visibility Survey represents the first step toward quantifying observable data into our DEI approach.
While we are excited to have taken this vital first step towards a more data-informed approach, as we continue to grow as an organization, our observable data collection mechanisms and practices will scale along with us.
To that end, the following analytical breakdown offers a snapshot of the representation among our full-time staff voluntarily taken from April 30th 2021 - June 4th 2021 as well as the representation among our freelance writers over the first six months of 2021.
THE RESULTS
Engaging Top Talent
Full Time & Freelance Hiring
As is evident from the data in our Visibility Survey, our freelance editorial strategy set the pace for how we have approached Full Time hiring through the back half of 2021 in order to increase representation among all areas of our business.
As we’ve hired over the past 6 months, we’re proud to have refocused our hiring priorities and as a result, our full-time workforce today is much more representative of the diversity of our readership and business partners. We are committing to continually increasing the representation among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) as well as Women and members of the broader Transgender community as we continue to evaluate hiring goals in 2022 and beyond.
As is best practice for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion reporting, we are committing to tracking visibility data of current and past staff, on a rolling basis. Doing so will allow us to paint a full picture of the makeup of our organization—from race and ethnicity, to gender and disability status, and beyond.
Educate Everyone
“The Mosaic Collaborative (TMC) thoroughly enjoyed working with The Infatuation. Staff were engaged, present, and curious: the perfect combination for workshop attendees! Specific shout out to VP, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Angie Báez, who was a knowledgeable and invested collaborator. Great client experience!
”
DEI Starts At The Top: Executive Training Sessions
In the summer of 2020, we enrolled our C-level executives in a six week training program called the DEI Foundations Course by Jennifer Brown Consulting. The program aimed to equip our executives with a better understanding of what it means to be an inclusive leader, language to speak about the value of DEI and its importance in our organization, and methods to engage others in meaningful DEI work.
Bringing In External Expertise: The Mosaic Collaborative
Earlier this year we launched our partnership with The Mosaic Collaborative, a Black and Queer-led organization dedicated to providing organizations with the framework and tools needed to incorporate all voices in decision making, cultural norms and programmatic innovations.
Together with TMC, we hosted four workshops with the goal of providing our team members with the nuanced skills needed to engage and navigate challenging yet necessary interactions, learnings, and dialogue that help foster intentional inclusivity. The workshop topics included:
Cultural Humility vs Cultural Competence
Bias and Microaggressions
The Four I’s of Oppression
Intersectionality
TMC’s work is guided by a therapeutic approach that opens the space for honest conversations and intentional learning that lead to transformational change.
Unpacking Tokenization with Studio ATAO
This fall we partnered with Studio ATAO, a nonprofit community-driven think tank founded by Jenny Dorsey, that creates tools and resources to implement system-based changes for more equitable representation in food media. Together with Studio ATAO, we hosted internal workshops on Tokenization in Food Media for our Editorial, Creative, and Social Media departments. We look forward to more partnership with Jenny and the Studio ATAO team.
Develop Rising Leaders
People Manager Training
In late 2020 we rolled out a required, three-part training series for all people managers, which focused on inclusive leadership and equitable hiring. The goal of this training series was to coach and educate our people managers toward key behaviors of inclusive leadership, as well as best practices for equitable and inclusive hiring. As of January 2021, all people managers had completed the initial training series and we have continued hosting trainings for newly promoted and/or hired managers.
Manager MEETUPS
While finite training series are important to develop our leadership, we also understand it is important to have consistent, year-round programming for our people managers to continue the dialogue. That is why we’ve hosted Manager Meetups, which is programming consisting of workshops; each focusing on a different topic relevant to our managers needs. We’ve found the discussions we’ve hosted to be highly beneficial, leading to meaningful conversations, peer-to-peer learning, and actionable tools for our managers to implement. Some of the topics covered so far include: reducing burnout, effective meetings, and conflict management.
Emphasize, Celebrate, and Platform Diverse Voices, Stories, And Perspectives
“I’m proud of the commitment The Infatuation has always had to bring people of different backgrounds together (inside and outside of their offices) and was honored to be part of the speaker series.
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Celebrating Culture: Cooking with Simileoluwa Adebajo
Earlier this year we had the privilege and honor of working with Simileoluwa Adebajo, Head Chef and Owner of Èkó Kitchen, a business local to the Bay Area bringing Nigerian comfort food directly to our homes. Along with sharing her experience as a restaurant owner in the pandemic and her favorite Black-owned spots across San Francisco for our readers, Simi also hosted a virtual cooking event for our staff.
INVESTING IN WOMEN: Ellevest Workshop
In the Spring of 2021, we hosted a workshop called “How Investing Works: Part 1,” in partnership with Ellevest. Ellevest is a company built by women, for women, that provides memberships and services around financial education and career development. The workshop was open to all women identifying employees at the company, and we were encouraged by the positive feedback it received. Over the next 12 months we will continue to partner with our internal employee community groups to host additional DEI related events, workshops, and/or trainings.
Building Community: Cooking with OMSOM
In the summer of 2021, our internal AAPI resource community, The InfatuAsians, hosted a virtual cooking lesson with OMSOM, the family-founded business offering a pantry shortcut for specific Asian dishes, combining all the sauces, aromatics, and seasonings you need. Check out more from OMSOM x The Infatuation!
GIVING SPOTLIGHT: Launching The Journey
In October of 2020, we kicked off an internal speaker series called The Journey, a program featuring a group of accomplished professionals, all from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
To date, we have hosted amazing speakers who are not only changing the industries in which they operate but are doing it by being authentically and unapologetically themselves. Check them out below!
The Journey SPEAkERS
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Jasmine Maietta
Founder and CEO of Round21, a brand where art and sport collide to celebrate the originality within each athlete through art and to bring people together through play.
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Jeff Staple
Design and streetwear icon as well as Owner of Reed Art Department [RAD}, a diverse group of individuals focused on helping our clients authentically connect with their consumers.
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Donae Burston
Founder & CEO of La Fête du Rosé, a premium rosé wine label geared towards multicultural consumers who have a thirst for life, travel and wine.
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Kimberly Camara and Kevin Borja
Co-Founders of Kora, the Queens-based culinary experience and bakery committed to exploring the richness of Filipino culture through elevated hospitality & family recipes.
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Sushma Dwivedi
Vice President of Brand Marketing and Communications for Daily Harvest and Founder, The Purple Pundit Project, an NYC-based female Hindu Pundit Providing Progressive, Inclusive, LGBTQ friendly Services for families.
Editorial Update
Throughout 2021, The Infatuation's editorial team produced more inclusive content from a more diverse team of writers—both full-time and freelance. As restaurants reopened, we aimed equally to elevate diverse businesses and diverse voices, and did so in a number of ways.
Throughout the year, we greatly expanded our network of writers, bringing on local experts in every city we cover, which received great feedback from our audience. We have brought on writers to cover areas where our team lacked expertise - for example, working with the writers of the blog Muslim Foodies to produce content around Ramadan and halal dining in NYC, and founder of CaribBEING, Shelley Worrell, to create guides to the Little Caribbean neighborhood.
“I am honored and deeply humbled to center diverse communities such as Little Caribbean, Little Guyana and Little Dominican Republic through the lens of food and culture in partnership with The Infatuation. This large platform has contributed to the well-being and bottom lines of dozens of Black Owned businesses in NYC & beyond.”
In February, we celebrated Black History Month with an expansive collection of 36 articles, including lists of Black-owned restaurants and businesses, profiles of Black chefs and business owners, and personal essays, written by a combination of full-time staff and freelance writers. Using this blueprint, we continued our celebration of cultural heritage months throughout the year, continuously refining our approach and seeking feedback from team members and our audience about what styles of content were most resonant and impactful. Our celebrations of Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride, and Hispanic Heritage Month are examples of this content and its evolution.
It’s important to state that we don’t limit our coverage of these communities to only these dedicated months, rather, we utilize them as an opportunity to strengthen our relationships and create more open space for these voices across our content throughout the year. Many of the freelance writers who’ve partnered with us to share stories during these month-long celebrations have since written additional pieces highlighting diverse stories and communities.
In all cases, editors partner with the company's employee resource groups, working as a team on the ideal approach for these cultural moments. We were especially proud and grateful to have several of our full-time writers and editors share their own stories in personal essays in these collections, and we hope you’ll read them if you haven’t yet.
Finally, we also continued our content audit, a thorough review of old content. Over the past twelve months, our freelance sensitivity readers completed their work going through old reviews, and we moved into the phase where editors made changes to content flagged as problematic. As a next step, we are exploring different ways to share and publish the results of this work, to help both The Infatuation team as well as others who write about food.
READ MORE
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The Best Caribbean Food In Brooklyn’s Little Caribbean
Shelley Worrell, founder of CaribBEING and lifelong Flatbush resident, shares her favorite Black-owned businesses in the neighborhood.
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The ‘Bossy’ Badass Women Leading The London Hospitality Industry
From one of London’s most beloved landladies to the head chef of BAO, these are the women leading the London hospitality industry. -
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Honey Mahogany’s Favorite Bars & Restaurants In SF
The newly elected chair of the SF Democratic Party (and former ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ contestant) shares eight great spots she loves.
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The Best Halal Restaurants In NYC
MuslimFoodies is a popular NYC halal food blog founded in 2017 by Jiniya Azad, Sameen Choudhry, and Tahirah Baksh.
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25 Black-Owned Food and Home Items That Bring Me Joy
These are the brands Ryan Walker-Hartshorn encourage you to support now and always.
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Dacha 46 Is A Queer Love Letter To Eastern European Cuisine
Jessica and Trina Quinn are the married chef team behind Dacha 46, an Eastern European food project that is taking over…
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Where Simileoluwa Adebajo Finds Community In SF
The chef of Eko Kitchen shares her experience as a restaurant owner in the pandemic - and her favorite Black-owned spots across the city.
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Three Great Drag Brunches In Miami
Just make sure to bring a pocket full of dollar bills to tip your queens. -
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The Best Haitian Restaurants In Miami
Our 13 favorite spots for griot, soup joumou, and more incredible dishes.
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5 Afro-Latinas You Need To Know About
Bartender Andra “AJ” Johnson gives us a history lesson, a video series, and a few signature drinks.
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Kahmora Hall’s Favorite Restaurants, Bars, & Drag Nights
Kahmora Hall, Chicago’s “Mackie doll,” tells us where to go this summer.
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Brewing A New Narrative With Black Beer Chick, Eugenia Brown
A conversation on being a Black woman in craft beer and how she’s helping other women break into the craft beer industry.
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10 Great Vegan Latinx Restaurants In NYC
Our favorite spots for plant-based dishes from Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, and beyond.
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Where Maurice Harris Finds Inspiration, Joy, & Great Food In Los Angeles
The owner of Bloom & Plume, a floral boutique & coffee shop, shares his favorite spots in LA.
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Zagat Conversations: ‘Diverse Coverage Is A Necessity’
Highlights from a three-day Slack chat among Black chefs, restaurateurs, entrepreneurs, and journalists
Influence Internal And Industry-wide Standards, Systems, Culture, And Practices To Drive Systemic Change And Lead By Example.
IYKYK & #StopAAPIHate
In February 2021, The Infatuation made an exciting announcement and introduced IYKYK: And If Not, Now You Do, a limited-edition, printed ‘zine dedicated solely to Hong Kong’s signature diner-style cuisine, cha chaan teng. Conceptualized and led by The Infatuation’s Senior Art Director, Emily Ng, the single-edition magazine featured chefs, writers, artists and creators from the Asian Community. A portion of ‘zine sales were committed to New York City’s non-profit organization, Welcome to Chinatown.
In support and solidarity, IYKYK featured chef, Lucas Sin, and Actor/Comedian Jimmy O. Yang hosted an Instagram Live cooking and fundraising event. The online event raised money and awareness for Stop AAPI Hate, an initiative by Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) that stands against racism and hate against Asian American Pacific Islander communities.
Zagat Celebrates its Launch in Miami’s Historic Overtown Community
This past year, Zagat officially relaunched its legendary user-generated restaurant review platform for the first time since being acquired by The Infatuation. Miami, FL is the first city to feature the new Zagat and its official launch was commemorated with a special celebration in Miami’s Historic Overtown Culture & Entertainment District, the historic epicenter of Black culture and business in the city. In working with the City of Miami, Zagat chose this historic community to specifically highlight the inclusiveness of the new platform. The celebration at The Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater Cultural Arts Complex featured performances by local Overtown musicians, food curated by Miami restaurants including Historic Overtown’s Lil Greenhouse Grill, Rosie’s and Red Rooster, among other favorites from across the city and was celebrated in partnership with distinguished guests including Mayor Francis X. Suarez and City Commissioner Jeffery Watson.
Sapphire Supports
The Infatuation and Chase Sapphire partnered to support restaurant recovery by awarding $1 million—by way of $50K business grants to 20 restaurants—who have displayed creativity, innovation, and a commitment to their community during these unprecedented times. Winners, which were comprised of a diverse group of restaurant owners from across the United States, were selected by a panel of notable judges, including Nilou Motamed, Bryant Terry, Klancy Miller, and Daniel Krieger. We received nearly 2,500 entries from 48 states and winners are announced here www.sapphiresupportsrestaurants.com. Profiles of the 20 winners can be read via Zagat Stories.
Feed The Polls
During the past year, we proudly supported underrepresented and underserved communities by connecting our work in food to ensuring Americans exercised their civic responsibility to vote on Election Day in November of 2020. In late September we created an initiative called Feed The Polls. In partnership with The Migrant Kitchen, Feed The Polls was a campaign designed to ensure that food insecurity didn't keep anyone, particularly those in lower income communities, from turning out to vote. We proudly served 41,000 meals on November 3rd in 18 cities across nine states, raising more than $533,000. Since its conclusion, the program has been cited for its work to support our country’s election process. Derek Jeter, CEO of Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins, pointed to the team’s involvement in the campaign as part of their response to the controversial voter suppression laws passed in Georgia in early 2021.
