Jonathan Gold

Jonathan Gold (July 28, 1960 – July 21, 2018) was an American food and music critic. He was for many years the chief food critic for the Los Angeles Times and also wrote for LA Weekly and Gourmet, in addition to serving as a regular contributor on KCRW's Good Food radio program. Gold often chose small, traditional immigrant restaurants for his reviews, although he covered all types of cuisine. In 2007, while writing for the LA Weekly, he became the first food critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Career

In 1982, while studying art and music at UCLA, Gold began working at LA Weekly magazine as a proofreader. He met his future wife Laurie Ochoa, a fellow journalist, there, and the couple followed each other to later jobs at other publications. By the mid-1980s, Gold was an editor in the Weekly's music section, initially writing about classical music as well as hip-hop, during which he covered the early days of gangsta rap, interviewing Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and the other members of N.W.A.

In 1986, with the reluctant support of Weekly founder Jay Levin, Gold started his first food column "Counter Intelligence", reviewing under-the-radar restaurants in ethnic neighborhoods of Los Angeles. The column eventually moved to the Los Angeles Times, where Gold worked from 1990 to 1996, while also writing reviews of more upscale restaurants for California and Los Angeles magazines, as well as music stories for Blender, Spin, Rolling Stone, and Details. In 1999, he moved from Los Angeles to New York City to become a restaurant critic for Gourmet magazine.