I’m not a big believer in New Year’s resolutions. The whole idea of them—developing some grand scheme that you parade around to family and friends on Facebook—always felt so contrived, like you were doing it for doing it’s sake. Plus, for me at least, the grander and more public the resolution, the harder I typically fell back into old habits. (And look, my birthday is in January, so any resolution related to health or dieting in particular had a way of falling flat even before February rolled around). 

But that’s not to say I don’t welcome a bit of change into my life from time to time. On the contrary, I’ve found real, authentic change to be enormously fulfilling, and I’m often striving to make careful, calculated steps toward disciplining myself and changing for the better.

Of course, you chefs and restaurateurs know full well that if there’s one constant in this industry, it’s change. Consumer trends change. Commodity prices change. Labor pools change. Rents change. But those are changes you can’t control. Of those you can control—your menu, your vendor partners, your dining-room décor, your messaging—there’s a whole lot of good that can come from designing a strategy around purposeful change, whether that’s in January or July. 

We commit every issue of FSR to helping you facilitate that change, and it’s no different this month. From a look at how renowned Chef John Currence has plotted his long-term evolution to a piece on planning ahead for special seasons and events, we’ve got plenty of content for you to chew over as you prepare for possible changes in the year ahead.

That preparation is something we’re doing at FSR, as well. Starting with this issue, we’re changing some of our editorial strategy to ensure that we’re addressing those people, restaurants, and subjects that matter most to you. We’ve refined our Chefs & Ingredients and Liquid Intelligence sections to feature more examples of innovation from around the industry. And we’ve also retooled the back of the book to home in more specifically on some of the areas that have become prominent today, including finance and service.

We’ve also brought in some fresh firepower to help with these changes. I’ll call it the “Laura brigade”; Laura Zolman Kirk and Laura D’Alessandro have joined the FSR team to help guide our coverage of this ever-changing restaurant industry. Kirk joins us from the consumer-publishing world, having worked for the last few years at regional magazines and newspapers, where she helped guide local food coverage. Meanwhile, D’Alessandro takes the editor reins from Connie Gentry, who gave this magazine a formidable foundation to build upon. Overseeing FSR’s print and digital strategies, D’Alessandro will leverage her past expertise in both the B2B world and most recently as food editor of online-video firm Tastemade. We’re ecstatic to have both Lauras on board. 

That’s right, it’s January and change is afoot at FSR. Call it a New Year’s resolution, call it a makeover—call it whatever you want. We’ll call it a change for the better, one we’re excited to show off to you throughout 2018.