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With the end of the year comes the inevitable wrap-ups, reflections, and predictions, and in the world of food this is no exception. Here in Los Angeles our Patron Saint of Dining Out, Pulitzer Prize-winning LA Weekly columnist Jonathan Gold, offers his take on the eating year that was in the LA Times' Opinion section today, noting how many high-profile restaurants our city has seen launch despite the tanked economy (Rivera, Drago Centro, Bouchon, and so forth) and the resurgence of the "tony cocktail bar."As far as trends go, Gold is still as fixated on the technology + mobility marvel that is the KogiBBQ truck, and the dozens of "gourmet" food trucks that launched in its wake. Along the line of this modern day method of foraging comes the underground restaurant and the pop-up (bonjour, LudoBites!).
Someone who has become a bit of a rockstar-ish God to foodies is the irreverent Anthony Bourdain, who steps up to the soapbox (full of organic produce?) to reflect not on 2009, but rather 2007, as the NY Times looks at the decade that was. What was 2007 in food for Bourdain? Well, it was Top Chef and the Food Network, the ascension of the food blog, and one remarkable Angeleno: "The brilliant, pioneering work of LA Weekly’s Jonathan Gold was honored with a Pulitzer Prize, the first time for a food writer — and this, surely, was a Very Important Moment." Indeed. It's going to take us--Los Angeles--a while to get over that one. Rock on, foodies!
