Winner of the first—and only—Pulitzer Prize for writing on cuisine, Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold is a beloved and imminently quotable cultural icon in that city. Laura Gabbert’s entertaining profile gives equal weight to the man and his métier. More than any other, Gold—whose portly, long-haired appearance put paid to the idea of the "anonymous" food critic—has done the legwork to uncover the different culinary wonder spots throughout the city’s vast, largely immigrant suburbs and environs, and then done his best to contextualize his experiences. In so doing, has turned the restaurant review into serious—and seriously fun—cultural criticism.
"All manner of writers have been trying to make sense of Los Angeles for years and, arguably, no writer has succeeded in making the sprawling, amorphous, eclectic and increasingly diverse metropolis seem more approachable, comprehensible and delicious than Jonathan Gold… Gold is the great democratizer of his profession, placing food truck tacos and Chinese mini-mall noodles on the same gastronomic plane as French haute cuisine or expense account sushi. Laura Gabbert’s accessible and informative close-up documentary City of Gold appreciates all this and usefully puts the man in context as it accompanies him around the city while he offers a running commentary on his enviable job."—Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter
Winner of the first Pulitzer Prize for writing on cuisine, Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold is a beloved and imminently quotable cultural icon in that city. Laura Gabbert’s entertaining profile gives equal weight to the man and his métier. More than any other, Gold has done the legwork to uncover the different culinary wonder spots throughout the city’s vast, largely immigrant suburbs and environs, and then done his best to contextualize his experiences. In so doing, he has turned the restaurant review into serious—and seriously fun—cultural criticism.
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