After watching City of Gold, you will want to rush right out to Los Angeles and
visit all the eating places talked about in this documentary about Jonathan
Gold, who writes about food and restaurants in L.A. Numerous people appearing in the film (including
people like Ruth Reichl, Calvin Trillin. and David Chang) remark about his
publications’ being as much about L.A. and its culture as they are about food
and restaurants. He clearly loves
the city where he grew up with a rich background in classical music (he plays
the cello), punk rock, and hip hop, along with museums and cultural arts
centers. He brings all this
experience to bear in his L.A. Times
articles, so not surprisingly was the first writer about food and restaurants
to receive a Pulitzer Prize in 2007.
Gold was one of the first food critics to seek
out-of-the-way places to write about, such as food trucks and ethnic
neighborhood restaurants. Many of
the owners have been gratified by their sudden popularity after they appear in
one of his columns. He has a
reputation for being fair and democratic in the places he visits and what he
says about them. When talking
about the large immigrant population in L.A., he says that when there was a
tremendous increase in people settling there from other countries in the
1960’s, it became “not a melting pot, but a glittering mosaic” in that
neighborhoods and larger sections of the city maintained their ethnic
identities. His reviews have been
described as a “cultural mapping” of Los Angeles.
The documentary by Laura Gabbart gives a full
picture of the man, his family, and the restaurateurs and critics he chats with
during the film. It also touches
on his relationships with L.A. Times
editors, and Gold’s need to be prodded to get his articles in on time. It omits any mention of negative
reviews—which, presumably, there have been.
About the L.A. Times Pulitzer prize-winning food and restaurant
reviewer: Delicious.
No comments:
Post a Comment