CommentsBCK FILE--Los Angeles lost a treasure this past weekend.
Jonathan Gold was a Pulitzer Prize recipient restaurant critic but so much more.
Gold could change lives with the stroke of a pen. He didn’t just write about the trendsetting foodie destination where you need to know someone to score a reservation, though he did that with panache, as well.
Gold’s passion was for finding the best dumplings in an Alhambra strip mall. The reveal of his 101 Best Restaurants list was a highly anticipated event for foodies all over the Southern California.
When the documentary City of Gold was released in 2015, I featured it in my column here. City of Goldtold the story of a man who has such a zeal for exploring this city’s culinary chops--long before anyone else was doing so. The documentary, like Gold’s oeuvre, was also the story of passionate cooks and restaurateurs who brought the cuisine of their home countries to Los Angeles, truly transforming our city into a global culinary force.
The late travel documentarian and food explorer Anthony Bourdain once said:
Food is everything we are. It's an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It's inseparable from those from the get-go.
As we traverse the challenges of an administration that relies on jingoism and America First, it’s tragically ironic that we’ve lost the trailblazers who have enlightened Americans to global exploration through the dinner plate, whether Galbi Jjim in Koreatown or carnitas tacos al pastor at a food truck on Olympic.
The legacies left by both Bourdain and Gold have so many similarities. The two were storytellers who translated a passion for food into something much bigger, a vehicle for cultural exploration.
Back in 2011 when Bourdain was setting up Layoveron Travel Channel, he told LA Weekly,
“To do Layover, it's a challenge because you're looking to do an informative L.A. show [while] trying to avoid the usual suspects. So, yes, it's hard, particularly in L.A. I have to say Jonathan [Gold] made it a lot easier just by doing what he does in highlighting the kinds of places that he's been highlighting over the years. So, Koreatown was a major focus, and food trucks. As Roy Choi pointed out-- the difference between LA and so many other major cities is it's not European at all.
And the admiration seems to have been mutual. In the days following Bourdain’s suicide, Gold wrote in theLA Times, “And I cannot imagine how the food world is going to cope with this gaping Bourdain-shaped hole — not at its center but on its fringes, looking exactly like a man throwing rocks at the status quo.”
It’s just as hard to imagine a Los Angeles without Jonathan Gold who spent four decades as a de facto ambassador to our city’s culinary culture. Filmmaker Laura Gabbert, director of City of Gold, said of Gold’s passing, “I can’t imagine the city without him. It just feels wrong. I feel we won’t have our guide, we won’t have our soul.”
As we reflect on the loss of both Bourdain and Gold, especially in light of the wave of anti-immigration in this country, we can pay tribute to these great icons by continuing to explore areas outside of our own. Go on a quest for the best dim sum or Ethiopian meal in Southern California.
Let’s honor not only the memories of these two food culture icons but also the breathtaking global nature of the city we all love.
(Beth Cone Kramer is a professional writer living in the Los Angeles area. She covers Resistance Watch and other major issues for CityWatch.)
-cw
