To render: In the food world, it means to “cook the fat out.” In the fashion world, to depict or to illustrate. And in the case of RENDER magazine, a new feminist food publication out of Portland, it might just mean to change, to disrupt.
“You just see a lot of magazines focusing on dieting, and there are a lot more issues to be talked about,” founder Gabi de León says. Looking at the latest news out there—food-shaming forks, You Did Not Eat That, and Blake Lively’s Preserve, to name a few—she might just be right. So, in RENDER’s debut issue, Flesh, they chat with a butcher about the ethics of whole butchery, look into how masculinity plays into the Paleo Diet, and pick apart the politics of being overweight. "It's important that people... are cognizant of how their own participation in foodie culture can contribute to latent forms of overlapping classism racism, sexism, and sizism,” editor-in-chief Lisa C. Knisely writes in a feature, which we've excerpted above.
“While in college I was struggling with an eating disorder for a while, and I was pretty much fixated on food, so I read a lot of food magazines,” de León says. “I noticed the way magazines were marketed toward women, focusing on homemaking and lots of dieting, and I realized I wasn’t okay with that.”
After an internship at Bitch magazine, de León turned her senior thesis into a full-fledged magazine, bringing on Danielle Knott as executive director. “Women have been predominantly the tastemakers in the domestic sphere for so long, so food is so intrinsically tied to the female experience, and I think that is underexplored,” Knott says.
The first issue dropped in September in Portland (and hopefully makes its way across the country), the second and third issue are already underway, themed Root and Timing, respectively. “For Root, we’re looking at wintry root vegetables, but we’re also looking at some history and origins,” de León says. Expect pieces questioning the role of authenticity in cooking, plus a history of beer brewing. As for Timing, the team plans to tackle the longstanding issue of balancing work and family, interviewing chefs who have successfully straddled working full-time in a restaurant kitchen and motherhood.
“I liked the word Render because it’s a food term, but it also relates to rendering an illustration, so how you portray something,” de Leon says. “I wanted the women to be portrayed in the kitchen realistically, not, like, perfect.”
Scroll through the images above to read an exclusive excerpt from Render's Flesh issue
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The cover of Render's latest issue. Photos courtesy of Render
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An exclusive excerpt from Render's latest Flesh issue![]()
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“You just see a lot of magazines focusing on dieting, and there are a lot more issues to be talked about,” founder Gabi de León says. Looking at the latest news out there—food-shaming forks, You Did Not Eat That, and Blake Lively’s Preserve, to name a few—she might just be right. So, in RENDER’s debut issue, Flesh, they chat with a butcher about the ethics of whole butchery, look into how masculinity plays into the Paleo Diet, and pick apart the politics of being overweight. "It's important that people... are cognizant of how their own participation in foodie culture can contribute to latent forms of overlapping classism racism, sexism, and sizism,” editor-in-chief Lisa C. Knisely writes in a feature, which we've excerpted above.
“While in college I was struggling with an eating disorder for a while, and I was pretty much fixated on food, so I read a lot of food magazines,” de León says. “I noticed the way magazines were marketed toward women, focusing on homemaking and lots of dieting, and I realized I wasn’t okay with that.”
After an internship at Bitch magazine, de León turned her senior thesis into a full-fledged magazine, bringing on Danielle Knott as executive director. “Women have been predominantly the tastemakers in the domestic sphere for so long, so food is so intrinsically tied to the female experience, and I think that is underexplored,” Knott says.
The first issue dropped in September in Portland (and hopefully makes its way across the country), the second and third issue are already underway, themed Root and Timing, respectively. “For Root, we’re looking at wintry root vegetables, but we’re also looking at some history and origins,” de León says. Expect pieces questioning the role of authenticity in cooking, plus a history of beer brewing. As for Timing, the team plans to tackle the longstanding issue of balancing work and family, interviewing chefs who have successfully straddled working full-time in a restaurant kitchen and motherhood.
“I liked the word Render because it’s a food term, but it also relates to rendering an illustration, so how you portray something,” de Leon says. “I wanted the women to be portrayed in the kitchen realistically, not, like, perfect.”
Scroll through the images above to read an exclusive excerpt from Render's Flesh issue
The cover of Render's latest issue. Photos courtesy of Render
An exclusive excerpt from Render's latest Flesh issue
