Seen side by side, the covers of the May edition of Texas Monthly and the recent issue of Parade have striking similarities. (Texas Monthly / Parade)
If you've seen one plate of barbecue, you've seen them all -- or have you?
A new mini-scandal has emerged on the media landscape, this time involving America's quintessential cuisine, barbecue.
On Sunday, Parade magazine, the weekly insert found in most weekend newspapers, released an issue heralding barbecue in all its finger-licking glory. The edition included a tribute to barbecue photo essay, a roundup of top barbecue joints from across the country and a "day in the life" with Chef Aaron Franklin, of Austin's iconic Franklin Barbecue.
But it wasn't the content inside the magazine that had people talking, it was the cover. The cover shows a blue tray loaded with just about everything on Franklin's menu, including sausage, brisket, ribs, baked beans, onions, pickles, potato salad and coleslaw in brown cardboard containers.
While many barbecue dishes do look alike, the plate on the cover of Parade is strikingly similar to the cover of the May issue of Texas Monthly. When compared side-by-side, both covers include the exact same items from the exact same Franklin's menu.The food is even in the same brown cardboard containers, on the blue same tray.
Is Parade playing copycat having run out of ideas? The magazine firmly says "no."
Following allegations that the cover was an imitation, Parade issued a public statement that read:
"Great barbecue clearly makes creative teams think alike. To illustrate this Sunday’s Parade cover heralding the golden age of barbecue—a story in the works for months—we spent a day shooting at Franklin Barbecue. When we asked Franklin pitmaster Aaron Franklin to put together a tray of the offerings available at his restaurant that day, he presented us with this beautiful display—and we shot it as he presented it. We didn’t have a food stylist or a prop stylist on the shoot. The similarity to a recent Texas Monthly cover is purely coincidental. But we at Parade are humbled that our cover does bear an unintentional resemblance to the cover of one of our country’s finest magazines. And next time a Parade staffer is in Austin, the barbecue is on us."
When contacted by FoxNews.com, a spokeswoman for the magazine declined to add any more comment, saying the statement speaks for itself. But threw in this kicker: "We've now moved on to the royal baby!"
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