[dropcap size=big]A[/dropcap]lbert Bañuelos got an email and phone call on Monday: the family of Jonathan Gold wanted him to help cater their patriarch's Friday morning funeral. The burial would take place one day before Gold's July 28 birthday; he would have turned 58.
Of the thousand-plus restaurants the legendary Los Angeles Times writer had reviewed in a 30-plus years career — that saw him reinvent the genre and become the first food critic to ever win the Pulitzer Prize — Bañuelos' Burritos La Palma would help alongside Kogi BBQ, Guerrilla Tacos, and Mariscos Jalisco to feed the friends and family of Gold.
“I already wanted to do something, but didn't know what,” Bañuelos said just after he parked his lonchera on Nelson Eddy Drive at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, half an hour before Gold's service. “So I was honored. It solidifies how much he believed in us. It really is an honor.”
The first customer was The Simpsons creator Matt Groening.
On the morning of Gold's funeral, Bañuelos left his Orange County home before dawn to pick up a food truck in Irvine. He then went to the Burritos La Palma location in El Monte to start to cook along with two employees. They prepped four types of burritos — a bean and cheese, a birria de res (Jonathan's favorite), chicharrón prensado (his son's favorite), and a con todo. The crew left for Hollywood Forever around 8 a.m.