知名度の高い執筆者ばかり適当に揃えて一冊の雑誌を作る編集は

Question

知名度の高い執筆者ばかり適当に揃えて一冊の雑誌を作る編集は、例えて言えば、インスタント食品をうまく使って食卓を賑わす料理人みたいなものだ。

So I am trying to find the Topic of the sentence, the verb, and the object. Is this whole sentence the topic?

Why the hell do they make the topic one long winded sentence?
Verb = 作る編集
Topic = 知名度の高い執筆者ばかり適当に揃えて一冊の雑誌を作る編集は, why does this long winded topic include a verb?
Noun = 知名度の高い執筆者

Anyhoo my take on it:

Well-known authors ( what does ばかり do, as far as I know it means right after something happens, or to emphasize a point ) appropriately sort out a volume of magazines-> Make and edit it. For example making fake food on the table that makes it look like it came from a great chef.

So is the just of what they are trying to say is that these well known authors create a magazine and show fake food in them to make it look like its from a great chef?

Answer 1

The topic of the sentence is 編集. It's the only は-marked word in the entire sentence, isn't it? Here 編集 means "(magazine/book) editor" (person). You need to notice this basic structure:

編集は、料理人みたいなものだ。
An editor is something like a chef.

編集 and 料理人 each has a little long relative clause:

(...雑誌を作る)編集は、(...食卓を賑わす)料理人みたいなものだ。
An editor (who makes magazines ...) is something like a chef (who enlivens a dining table ...).

例えて言えば is an inserted phrase. "..., if put metaphorically, ..." or "metaphorically speaking, ...".

Therefore:

知名度の高い執筆者ばかり適当に揃えて一冊の雑誌を作る編集は、例えて言えば、インスタント食品をうまく使って食卓を賑わす料理人みたいなものだ。

An editor who makes a magazine by arranging only well-known authors at random is, metaphorically speaking, something like a chef who enlivens your dining table by using instant foods.