“It’s not just who is covered; it’s who is writing the stories,” said Kat Kinsman, the senior editor at Food & Wine. “It is really important to have bylines and photographers and illustrators on stories that have to do with their identity. Her voice is an incredibly important one.”

The inclusion of personal experience in reported pieces can leave some wondering about the line between journalism and journaling. But, Ms. Kinsman said, “I don’t think you can separate food and identity. It makes everything so much richer.

“I think politics fit into this a whole lot because so much of the political position we’re in in the U.S. is because a point of view of someone raised like me is seen as the default,” said Ms. Kinsman, who is white and was raised in the suburbs. “And that’s not good, and correct, and moral, or any of that."

Hunter Lewis, the editor in chief, said one of Ms. Shah’s first projects will be working on the magazine’s annual Best New Chefs list. “They are, by and large, the people who have helped shape the food scene in America,” said Mr. Lewis. “Khushbu will have a hand in guiding that franchise.”

To compile and report this list, Ms. Shah will draw on her experience at Thrillist, where she created Prime 13, a list of the country’s best new restaurants. For the 2018 edition, she visited over 80 restaurants in 14 cities in under three months.

“She knows a lot about restaurants in New York, in L.A., in every part of the country you can think of,” said John Sellers, the entertainment director at Thrillist. “She does a great job.”

The Food & Wine editors are also hoping that Ms. Shah, a self-described “digital native,” can help expand the magazine’s online reach. Of 889,492 paid subscriptions for the first six months of 2019, only 37,952 were digital, according to data from the Alliance for Audited Media. Still, a spokesman said, the overall audience is at an all-time high, with wide social media appeal.