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Hello Tuesday, Let’s get to it… The sad news - Per his own paper: “Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times restaurant critic who richly chronicled the city’s vast culinary landscape and made its food understandable and approachable to legions of fans, has died. He was 57. Gold died of pancreatic cancer at St. Vincent Medical … Continue reading The Family Meal – Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Hello Friday, Quick programming note to start: If all goes well, Family Meal will switch servers on Tuesday and begin coming to you from Substack as opposed to Mailchimp. Reasons for the move: Substack is free for me, and it lets people who want to contribute contribute. Don't worry, there's no pay wall on the … Continue reading The Family Meal – Friday, July 20th, 2018

Hello Tuesday, And a quick shout out to everyone reading Family Meal down in New Orleans! Big day for Tales of the Cocktail, as the TOTC Foundation allocates its first $250k worth of grants this afternoon at the Hotel Monteleone. Let’s get to it… Bauer bounces – On Friday, after 32 years at the paper, critic Michael Bauerannounced his last … Continue reading The Family Meal – Tuesday, July 17th, 2018

Hello Friday the 13th, Wrapped up the RISE conference here in Hong Kong yesterday with an awkward 20 minute talk and follow-up Q&A from Marco Pierre White, who was attending a startup conference in Asia for… no idea. He responded to the only question about apps and startups by brandishing his OS-less Nokia and laughing that … Continue reading The Family Meal – Friday, July 13th, 2018

Hello Tuesday, Coming to you live(ish) today from the RISE Conference in Hong Kong, where I’ve been talking to foodtech companies about innovation in Asia. Spoiler for restaurants: Startups here would like a cut of your orders from consumers, and a cut of your orders to suppliers. They promise these cuts are reasonable, and correspond to value … Continue reading The Family Meal – Tuesday, July 10th, 2018

Hello Friday, Bit of a short one today, on account of nearly all of food media briefly pivoting to “cookout” for the Fourth. (Odd exception was the Washington Post, which went with a series of recipes for that midsummer classic: Single serving microwaveable mug dinners.) Let’s get to it… For the bar – In less than two weeks, … Continue reading The Family Meal – Friday, July 6th, 2018

Hello Tuesday, And Happy (almost) Fourth! 1776 feels like forever ago. Let’s get to it… What staff is reading – In SF, the Chronicle’s Jonathan Kauffman has a “months-long investigation” into labor violations at Mission burrito institution La Taqueria, which tells the story of four women who won close to $500k in damages and penalties for wage theft, and … Continue reading The Family Meal – Tuesday, July 3rd, 2018

Hello Friday, Let’s get right to it… Michelin Season – The first ever guide to Guangzhou, China is out, and… maybe the tourism board can get their money back? No restaurants earned two or three stars, and only eight earned the highest rating of one star: Bingsheng Mansion; Bingsheng Private Kitchen; Jade River; Jiang by Chef Fei; Lai Heen; Lei Garden (Yuexiu); Wisca (Haizhu); … Continue reading The Family Meal – Friday, June 29th, 2018

Hello Tuesday, By now you’ve seen the news that on Friday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders was politely asked to leave a small restaurant in Virginia, and politely left. A predictably small, civil online debate over whether the restaurateur acted in the right morally, legally, and/or strategically has followed, but in lieu of adding my personal editorializing, I’ll trust you … Continue reading The Family Meal – Tuesday, June 26, 2018