This week was a bleak one for those who love "see food"--as in the words and images of the 60-year-old magazine Gourmet, which will serve up its last meal in the November issue following a death notice from publisher Conde Nast.
This week was a bleak one for those who love "see food"--as in the words and images of the 60-year-old magazine Gourmet, which will serve up its last meal in the November issue following a death notice from publisher Conde Nast.
It's finally here! Tomorrow Union Station will be the site of "Jonathan Gold's Union Station Cocktail Party", which makes the name just perfect. The event is a benefit for Zócalo, "a non-profit organization that builds community by broadening access to civic discourse". Here is the third and final interview in our series with Jonathan Gold:
This Saturday sees the much-anticipated benefit for Zócalo, "Jonathan Gold's Union Station Cocktail Party". Participating restaurants like Rivera and Providence, along with Cedd Moses' signature cocktail pairings makes for an exciting event. Here is part two of our three-part interview with Jonathan Gold:
Rarely has an event caused as much buzz as the upcoming benefit for Zócalo. And who can resist? The restaurants are hand-picked by Jonathan Gold, LA's patron saint of good eats. Just check out a few of the participants -- Rivera! Perrier Jouet! Church & State! Providence! All this and one of the most beautiful locations in Los Angeles, art deco landmark Union Station. It definitely makes for a night to remember. How much would you pay? But wait!
You've seen the list, you've double-counted and confirmed you're not crazy--it is 105, not just 99, and now you're ready to tackle the task: Eat at all of the restaurants selected by the LA Weekly's Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold as LA's essentials. The annual list--err, event for the foodie set--is still fairly hot off the presses, and for many means that no matter how many hot spots they've settled in for a fork, hand, spoon, chopstick, or mouthful, there's still plenty left to try.
K-Town is getting its own food festival early next month and it looks like it could become a staple of LA's summer festival scene. How could grilled and smoked meats with magical flavors not be a hit? Details are slowly coming out for the event, set for August 8th, but here's what we know: Jonathan Gold and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are confirmed to be cook-off judges. Confirmed restaurants include Beverly Soon Tofu, Byul Dae Po (Star BBQ), Ham Ji Park, Mu Dae Po, Park's BBQ, Seoul Jung, So Hyang, Soowon Galbi. There will be a food eating contest
Four Los Angeles eateries received awards tonight at Dwell on Design honoring excellence in their design. The 4th annual 2009 Restaurant Design Awards presented by American Institute of Architects Los Angeles (AIA/LA) presented Bottega Louie and Chaya Downtown with top category jury prizes and The Conga Room with the lounge/nightclub award. The Lab Gastropub on USC's campus garnered the People's Choice award in the cafe/bar category.
Pulitzer Prize winning food critic Jonathan Gold did not discover an unknown but extremely tasty mom and pop restaurant in a strip mall in one of his reviews this week, but instead headed to LA Live's Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill. "To be honest, Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill feels more like Puck’s restaurants in the Midwest or Las Vegas than it does like Spago: This is the export model, food in the crunchy, spicy, sprightly, smoky, slightly sweet groove he does so well," Gold writes. "He’s not making any breakthroughs here. But Puck, the Magic Johnson of chefs, perfected many of the tropes of new American cuisine, from the Mediterranean-Asian thing to hardwood grilling, from exotic pasta to rowdy herbal accents to wood-oven pizza, and there is a sheen, a professional presence to the cooking here — burgers, chops, sautéed Alaskan halibut and beet-burrata salad — that Puck always seems to execute more consistently than anyone else."
The big media news today is that LA Weekly's Editor, Laurie Ochoa, is "parting ways" after eight years of leading the paper (she also worked there in various roles from 1978 to 1998). As that news hit, foodies were abuzz that is must be due to her husband, Pulitzer Prize winning food critic Jonathan Gold, being offered the Food Editor position at the New York Times. However, a source close to the matter at hand told LAist that Ochoa was fired and that Gold is staying.
The Official Recession has enveloped us for seventeen official months. It’s still no reason we can’t enjoy life. This is LA -- we have a ton of inexpensive options! A Recession Obsession is truly fantastic, whether you've recently been downsized or are about to cash a large commission check. It's not just a "cheap eat." We last obsessed over ginormous Korean Dumplings in K*Town, and via a Taco Crawl in Highland Park. Today, we obsess...
Thursday night 826LA presented a seminar titled, "Food Writing!" And as fans of punctuation know, anything with an exclamation point has got to be good.
After Pultizer Prize winning food writer Jonathan Gold caused a flame war between the two cities this week, LA Weekly has now highlighted noteworthy comments made on LAist and SFist. Among those noted is Orange County native and SFist Editor Brock Keeling sneaking over to LAist and writing "pst, your burritos are secretly much, much better."
Ever wonder what Anaheim tastes like? Tonight from 5:30-9:30 pm, the 14th Annual Taste of Anaheim takes place at the Gardenwalk on Katella. It’s an evening of music, wine and food -- from purveyors like Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Naples Ristorante, Catal Restaurant & Uva Bar, Tortilla Jo's, Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine, Mr. Stox Restaurant, and Alcatraz Brewing Co. Tickets are $35-$40.
LA Weekly's Jonathan Gold takes on burritos of the north and south in a question from a local reader about her Berkeley loving Burrito friend who is visiting. Says Gold: Bay Area residents tend to have peculiar ideas about burritos, which they regard as monstrous things wrapped in tinfoil, and filled with what would seem to be the contents of an entire margarita-mill dinner, including grilled meat, rice, beans...
Yesterday Jonathan Gold moderated the Carnivore! panel at the LA Weekly Festival held at The Ricardo Montalban Theater. The panel consisted of Mark Peel, Octavio Becerra, Susan Feniger and Vinny Dotolo. The panel members were not only representative of some of the finest chefs in LA, but they were well-informed, witty, and thoughtful. It seemed like everyone in the room, including the panelists, walked away with something of value.
The LA Weekend hosted by The LA Weekly and sponsored by Nike has a wide variety of free events happening at The Ricardo Montalban Theater tonight and tomorrow, including music, film, dance, readings, book signings, and even a visit from the Kogi Korean taco truck.
This year's list of nominees for the prestigious James Beard Foundation Awards has been released, and Los Angeles is repped via a venerable food scribe in the writing category and a bold newcomer and a perennial favorite in the restaurant categories. The Awards spotlight the best of the previous year in media food coverage and dining.
The Official Recession has enveloped us for fifteen official months. It’s still no reason we can’t enjoy life. This is LA -- we have a million inexpensive options! A Recession Obsession is somewhere fantastic, whether times are good or bad, because it's that damn good. We last loved on Leimert Park's Papa West and Santa Monica's Tacos Por Favor. Today, we...
Jonathan Gold, the king of all foodies and LA Weekly's Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic, has handpicked 30 of his favorite Los Angeles restaurants for a very special food event on Sunday, March 8 from 3-7pm at Smashbox Studios in West Hollywood. It's called the 2009 LA Weekly Gold Standard and will feature the likes of Animal, Hungry Cat, Jitlada, the two Mozzas, Palate Food and Wine and Providence to name the blessed few. There will also be a dj and wine and beer tastings.
If Kogi BBQ wasn't popular enough with hundreds of people lining up where Twitter tells them to go, now the only Pulitzer Prize winning food critic and journalist has penned his thoughts on the Korean taco truck that LAist covered last month. "The frequent tweets make you feel connected to Kogi, as if you were friends with the owners instead of just another hungry mouth, even if your only contact with them has been a quick fist bump when you picked up your tacos," Jonathan Gold explains. Last night, it was reported that Kogi BBQ was once again so crowded, some gave the extremely long line one look and found a sit down restaurant nearby instead.
Los Angeles is home to about a zillion and a half people. This includes, I hear, the largest Thai population outside of Thailand. Perhaps that's why we have a jillion Thai restaurants. Good thing their food rocks. It's pretty cheap too.
Dear Recession: With leading economists recent declaration that our great nation has been in one of you since December 2007, our emergence into December 2008 can only mean one thing. It’s time to celebrate your first birthday. Happy Birthday Recession!
This hot weather is way more summer than fall--par for the course here in LA, true--and that means we can keep acting like it's summertime. And eating like it's summertime. Back in the actual summertime, LAist wondered why the Weekly's esteemed Jonathan Gold had a dog face, as he ruminated about hot doggeries about town, and it wasn't long after that we, too, were inspired to get our hot dog on.
LA Weekly readers will notice that Jonathan Gold (ahem, PulitzerPrizeWinning-FoodWriterExtraordinaire-JonathanGold is his official title, I believe) has been a little obsessed with hot dogs lately. First there was his extended meditation on his father's food legacy and the importance of the Chicago-style hot dog: "weekends were often dominated by [Gold Sr's] search for hot dogs in Los Angeles, and he would drive me and my brothers around for hours in the old Studebaker on the rare occasions he found a stand that he liked." Gold's best bets for Chicago-style in L.A.? The Infield in Sherman Oaks, Portillo's in Buena Park, and Vicious Dogs in North Hollywood.
We can't get enough of talking about taco trucks, but we're not alone.
This is why Jonathan Gold won a Pulitzer Prize. He makes taco truck food sound like it should be eaten three times daily (and never anything else) while truly capturing Los Angeles:
Photo by Sundogg via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
TALK: Pulizer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold moderates a Zócalo discussion that focuses on “The Mexican Restaurant in Los Angeles.” Joining in on the roundtable are Gilberto Cetina of the Yucatecan restaurant Chichen Itza, Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu of La Casita Mexicana, and Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger of Border Grill. 7 pm // Central Library – Mark Taper Auditorium // 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles // Free. (Reservations are recommended.)...