Kat Craddock ’05 recalls having Saveur, the food and travel magazine, in her childhood home as early as 1994. Later, as an English major and studio art minor at Wellesley, she subscribed to food magazines, Saveur among them. “It was always my favorite,” she says. “It was so global and transportive.”

As a student, Kat cooked often. She worked in the Vil at Wasik’s Cheese Shop, spending her earnings on goodies to serve her dormmates in Lake House. Naturally, she worked in food after graduation. She went to culinary school in Chicago while working in restaurants. In Boston and New York City, she was a pastry chef and a bread baker. But finding the nocturnal hours unsustainable, she shifted focus to food media.

In 2014, Kat got an in at Saveur. She tested recipes and washed dishes two days a week while still holding restaurant jobs, moving up even as the publication began its downturn. In 2020, the publisher, Bonnier, sold Saveur to the company now known as Recurrent Ventures. In 2021, Saveur folded its print magazine. However, “I started to get the impression that Recurrent might be amenable to me acquiring it,” Kat says.

Kat partnered with a friend as an investor and in April 2023 announced her acquisition of the publication. More exciting news came in November: Kat, officially editor-in-chief and CEO, announced that Saveur’s print magazine would return, after many pleas from fans. Its publication this March coincided with the brand’s 30th anniversary.

Kat’s Saveur will feature the narrative storytelling and original photography that first drew her in, and design that hearkens back to early issues. She wants the magazine to be more than a “paper facsimile” of Saveur’s online presence. For now, she’s focusing on two issues a year, not looking to “scale wildly.” She’s trading wasteful large distribution for direct-to-consumer sales and placement at indie bookstores and specialty food shops—including Wasik’s in the Vil.

It’s important to her to bring in new people. “I started reading Saveur when I was 15 or 16,” Kat says. “I want 15- and 16-year-olds to be finding us and reading us also.”