Jonathan Gold

Jonathan Gold was a Pulitzer Prize winning Los Angeles food critic who wrote passionately about the City of Angels' sprawling multicultural food scene over the course of his thirty-plus years as a professional food critic. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Gold's first love was music. He studied music theory at UCLA, eventually going on to earn his degree from the university in 1982, and soon embarked on a career as a celebrated music critic for LA Weekly, the city's most revered alt-weekly. Gold wrote about everything from hip-hop and punk bands, to heavy metal and classical. In addition to music, Gold also had a passion for food, and in 1986 the Weekly gave him his first food column. He called his food column Counter Intelligence, and in it Gold wrote about little known restaurants in LA's vast and widespread ethnic communities - a favorite of his. Readers soon began to take notice, and within a few years Gold's Counter Intelligence column became appointment reading for LA foodies. Gold left the Weekly to join the LA Times in 1990, where he continued writing restaurant reviews. As his reputation as a food critic began to build, Gold was approached by the prestigious Gourmet Magazine to become one of its food critics. He accepted and in 1999 moved to New York to start his new career. Gold thrived as a critic at Gourmet, and was twice a finalist for a National Magazine Award - the highest honor in the magazine world. Gold moved back to LA in 2001 to be closer to his wife after a two year stint at Gourmet, and was rehired by the LA Weekly. He then revived his Counter Intelligence column, writing with renewed zest and energy now that he was back home in Los Angeles. After 20 years of writing about food with passion, Gold was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism in 2007 - the most prestigious honor a critic could receive. He stayed with the Weekly for five more years before returning to the LA Times for a second time in 2012. Gold remained at the Times for the next six years, writing about food and always exploring LA's vast cornucopia of ethnic restaurants, up until his death from pancreatic cancer on July 21, 2018. He was 57.