[dropcap size=big]H[/dropcap]e was large, balding, usually wore suspenders and a frumpled shirt, and drove a beat-up pick-up truck as he tasted new delights in the culinary galaxy that is Los Angeles food.
Jonathan Gold, the L.A.-born journalist who redefined food writing and criticism for new generations of eaters enamored with tacos and kimchi, has died. Gold was 57 years old and his death was reported Saturday by the Los Angeles Times, where he served as food critic since 2012, a capstone to a career made in Los Angeles from beginning to end.
The journalist’s gift was his ability to cross cultural, social, and linguistic lines to engage the disparate and diverse communities of Southern California through the meager medium of a cheap plate of food.
Gold's love of Mexican cuisines in particular was immeasurable; he used the phrase "taco lifestyle" in his work. Gold put multiple names that are now in Los Angeles lore first on the map: places like Guelaguetza, Meals by Genet, Jitlada, or Mariscos Jalisco, the Boyle Heights mariscos truck that Gold called the finest in town.
To younger generations of food writers and journalists, not to mention celebrity chefs and on-air personalities, Gold gave us the template of the open, modest food mediator who effortlessly translated the wonders and virtues of even the most unseemly foods — such as fast-food chain tacos — to any eater or reader.