Despite the fact that men are just as likely to be found in the kitchen as women, publishers haven't always embraced the male gourmand, reports AdWeek.
But targeting men for magazines or TV was inevitable. Last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 41 percent of men did food preparation or cleanup, compared with 68 percent of women. In 2003, only 20 percent of men reported doing housework as opposed to 55 percent of women. Apps popular with men, such as How to Cook Everything and Weber's On the Grill, were the third and fourth (respectively) most downloaded lifestyle apps for iPads and iPhones last year, according to Apple.
From Bon Appétit to McSweeney's Lucky Peach, a quarterly collaboration of Chef David Chang (Momofuku restaurants in New York), writer Peter Meehan, and Zero Point Zero Production, producers of the Emmy Award-winning Anthony Bourdain: No Reservation, are ditching the feminine aesthetic to attract an audience of both genders. "The notion that guys are into food is not new," says Bon Appétit editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport, who's been behind a recent rebranding of the magazine. "Maybe it's just that right now, the publishing world finally understands that they can tap into that sort of enthusiasm."
Marcus Samuelsson's recently launched site Food Republic doesn't just include guys, but specifically targets them with articles like "Salsa, the Best Sports-Watching Food" and "Women We'd Cook For." According to Samuelsson, "Men interact with food a little bit differently. It might be gadget-driven, it might be knife-driven, or it might be, 'We want to know about burgers.' No matter who you are, food is part of our conversation, and as a guy, you don't want to be left out."
And what could be more appealing to a woman than a man that knows his way around the supermarket and stove?