Now the Founder and Editor in Chief of Whetstone, a print magazine focused on local food culture of the world, Stephen Satterfield can see that he lived with the idea for a significant amount of time before he knew exactly what it was or what it could be. Having been trained in the culinary arts from a young age (he attended culinary school at nineteen and became a sommelier by age twenty-one), Satterfield’s food ideology was deeply affected by tenets of sustainable sourcing, farming, and eventually, justice. These ideals only solidified over time through his creation of ISAW and the non-profit’s subsequent three-year run, as well as his pivotal work as manager and content creator at San Francisco’s very own celebrated restaurant, Nopa.
“Now, I’m at a place where I’m finally doing the work that I want to do. The final act is figuring out how to pay for it.”— Stephen SatterfieldHis time spent at Nopa resulted in the creation of Nopalize, a high-level, multimedia project driven by Satterfield, focusing on videos, podcasts, farm tours, and editorial content. This project eventually became his full time position at the restaurant. Without fully realizing what he was establishing, Satterfield was quickly developing skills around storytelling, especially centered on issues of social justice via food.
“Now, I’m at a place where I’m finally doing the work that I want to do. The final act is figuring out how to pay for it.”
“The years of 2014 through 2015, I probably had the best job in the country,” Satterfield said. “Running a multimedia platform for a super hot restaurant.” After five years at Nopa, Satterfield took his passions and vision and directed them towards a new project. The end result? Whetstone. A living, breathing, food culture magazine with an indigenous focus. So much of what the publication does is lend a unique and viable narrative to communities that historically have had no platform to do so. With its launch in spring of 2017, Satterfield celebrates the progress but remains tenacious and hungry in regards to the work still to be mastered. Looking back on the years before the pop of his editorial and creative break, he says something that doesn’t just resonate with me; it reverberates. “It’s torturous to have such clarity of vision, and not be able to get there,” he tells me. “That’s the thing I’m always looking at, and that’s why I suffer to whatever degree I suffer.” He goes on. This time, with more realism and conviction. “Now, I’m at a place where I’m finally doing the work that I want to do. The final act is figuring out how to pay for it.”
I ask him a parting question as our time together comes to a close. As journalists today, we are constantly berated for the dissipating state of media. There is too much content. There is no continuity to the content. There is no rhyme or reason, no story to be heard above the din. Satterfield rejects this notion with a levelheaded positivity. “I think it’s a great time to be in media, actually. It’s very difficult, but lots of industries are difficult. Media is just one of them… Twenty years ago, if I wanted to publish my own magazine, that would have been such a different amount of ambition,” he explains. “Every single part of the supply chain can be outsourced. You can actually bootstrap a media operation. I think the technology that exists to amplify our work allows us to reach more people. As a media maker, if you are living in a moment when your work can be amplified and accessed by the ever-growing global community, it’s a good time to be making media. A lot of the things that people lament in terms of what was lost is really more of a commentary on the way things used to be.” Maybe that’s the movement. Not a mourning for an archaic system, but a call to action for readers and writers alike to be better, to reach further. He leaves us with this: “Create something irreplaceable. And make it real.”
A post shared by WHETSTONE (@whetstonemagazine) on Jun 10, 2020 at 6:13pm PDT
// whetstonemagazine.com; Originally published in issue 7 of Bob Cut Mag. Feature photo of Stephen Satterfield shot on location at Alamo Square Park, photography by Alora King.
