About Plate

Plate

Plate is a professional culinary journal for chefs, published in Chicago, Illinois, and devoted exclusively to presenting profitable, innovative menu ideas. Launched in 2002 by the Marketing & Technology Group (MTG), the magazine built its reputation on thematic editions — each issue focusing creative applications on one specific center-of-the-plate protein category — and on a simple editorial promise: to give chefs at all price and service levels trends and ideas they can use in their menu plans. Its website is PlateOnline.com.

The 2002 Launch

Plate was a new professional culinary journal announced on May 24, 2002, to be published by Marketing & Technology Group (MTG) — the parent of food industry magazines such as Meat Marketing & Technology, Poultry, and CarneTec, and producer of the meatingplace.com meat and poultry industry website. The launch team included veteran culinary editor Nancy Ross Ryan, creative director Queenie Burns, senior protein editor Dan Murphy, publisher Tom Imbordino, and editorial director Bill McDowell, plus contributors including Terry Sullivan (GQ), Brad Johnson (Food & Wine, Angelino), and Alice Van Housen (2003 Chicago Zagat Guide). MTG's existing titles — Meat Marketing & Technology, Poultry, CarneTec — served the meat and poultry industries; Plate was the company's move up the value chain, from the producers of protein to the chefs who put it on the plate.

The Protein-Theme Format

Each thematic edition of Plate focuses on creative applications for one specific, center-of-the-plate protein category. The entire magazine focuses on how to select, purchase, prepare, and present items for maximum profit and customer impact for the protein category being covered. "Plate is designed to enhance demand because each edition is totally focused on a specific protein category," said publisher Tom Imbordino. "Our analysis shows that a single issue of Plate will contain more category information than an entire year of many foodservice magazines. We believe the combination of targeted content and a hand-picked audience of menu influencers makes an attractive package for advertisers."

The Pork Premiere

The premiere edition covered pork and was published with support from the National Pork Board. Plate debuted in October to coincide with National Pork Month, and the debut edition reached more than 23,500 professionals — a hand-picked audience of menu influencers. The pork issue set the template: deep, single-protein coverage built with the support of the relevant commodity group, delivered to the chefs who decide what goes on menus. Debuting in October to coincide with National Pork Month gave the launch a news hook and a natural marketing partner; reaching more than 23,500 professionals with the first issue proved the concept to advertisers from the start.

A Magazine Created Specifically for Chefs

"Plate is a high-end magazine created specifically for chefs," said editorial director Bill McDowell. "Our goal is to tap the rich information resources of the protein commodity groups, supplement them with our own independent reporting, and present trends and ideas that chefs at all price and service levels can use in their menu plans." The editorial formula — commodity-group resources plus independent reporting — gave the magazine both depth and credibility: the protein boards supplied expertise, while the editors supplied journalistic independence.

The MTG Parent

Marketing & Technology Group, Plate's publisher, was an established food-industry publisher whose titles included Meat Marketing & Technology, Poultry, and CarneTec, alongside the meatingplace.com website serving the meat and poultry industry. The company's protein-industry roots made it a natural publisher for a chef magazine organized around center-of-the-plate proteins — and gave Plate direct access to the commodity groups whose support underwrote its thematic editions.

The Menu-Influencer Audience

Plate's audience was deliberately selective: a hand-picked group of menu influencers — the chefs and foodservice professionals whose decisions shape what America eats. The debut edition's reach of more than 23,500 professionals established the model: quality of audience over quantity, with each reader holding real purchasing and menu authority. That concentrated influence — menu influencers rather than mass circulation — was the magazine's core value proposition from the first issue. Each thematic edition functioned simultaneously as editorial product and marketing vehicle — 'more category information than an entire year of many foodservice magazines,' in Imbordino's phrase — a density of useful content that kept the magazine on chefs' desks long after the cover date. For advertisers — protein commodity groups, equipment makers, and foodservice suppliers — that concentrated influence was the magazine's core value proposition. Imbordino's pitch was explicit: targeted content plus a hand-picked audience of menu influencers made 'an attractive package for advertisers' — a B2B formula that traded mass circulation for concentrated buying power.

Profitability as Editorial Mission

Unlike consumer food magazines, Plate treated profitability as an editorial subject. Every thematic edition examined its protein through the lens of the professional kitchen's economics: how to select and purchase for value, how to prepare for consistency, and how to present for maximum customer impact. The magazine's devotion to "profitable, innovative menu ideas" reflected the reality of its readers' work — chefs who cook for a living, where a menu idea is only as good as its food cost. Selection, purchasing, preparation, and presentation were treated as a single discipline: how to choose a protein, buy it well, cook it consistently, and plate it for maximum customer impact — and profit.

The Thematic-Edition Model in Practice

The thematic-edition model was Plate's central innovation. Where general foodservice magazines spread their coverage across the whole industry, each edition of Plate drilled into a single protein — pork, beef, poultry, seafood — with the depth of a special report. A single issue, Imbordino argued, contained more category information than an entire year of many foodservice magazines: selection and purchasing guidance, preparation techniques, presentation ideas, and profitability analysis, all trained on one center-of-the-plate category. For a chef planning a menu around a protein, the issue functioned as both inspiration and reference.

The Commodity-Group Partnership

The premiere pork edition's partnership with the National Pork Board established a publishing model the magazine returned to throughout its run: commodity-group support underwriting deep editorial coverage of that group's protein. The arrangement served both sides — the boards reached the menu influencers who decide what proteins appear on menus, and the magazine gained access to what McDowell called "the rich information resources of the protein commodity groups." The editors' independent reporting kept the coverage journalistically credible rather than promotional, a balance the magazine maintained as its defining editorial standard.

The Chicago Food-Media Scene

Published in Chicago — one of America's great restaurant cities and a historic center of food publishing — Plate drew on the city's deep culinary talent pool. As a high-end magazine created specifically for chefs, it reflected Chicago's professional-kitchen culture: serious about technique, serious about ingredients, and serious about the business of feeding people. Contributors like Alice Van Housen of the Chicago Zagat Guide connected the magazine to the city's restaurant culture, while the magazine's national scope carried Chicago's chef-centric perspective to professional kitchens across the country.

Official Website

Plate's official website is https://www.plateonline.com, serving professional chefs and foodservice operators with profitable, innovative menu ideas, protein coverage, and industry resources. The magazine is published in Chicago, Illinois, for the menu influencers who decide what America eats.