The LA Food Podcast

Come to the West Hollywood Pizza Run Club this Sunday July 12!-- Has Eater fully lost its place as the most influential name in food media? This week on The LA Food Podcast , Luca Servodio and SF Gate food writer Karen Palmer unpack Dana Brown's explosive deep dive into Eater's rise , evolution, layoffs, SEO strategy, and uncertain future under Penske Media. They debate whether the publica...

Father Sal calls in from his Los Angeles staycation ready to quiet quit the Michelin Guide, even as he heads to two-star Kato and makes the case for restaurants like Lielle, Anajak and Jacaranda. Luca and Sal recap memorable meals at Quarter Sheets, Oaxacalifornia, Asadero, Cafe Telegrama, Expendio de Maíz, Voraz and Anajak before asking whether The Bear Season 5 has somehow rediscovered what made...

James Beard Award-winning Los Angeles Times journalist Stephanie Breijo joins The LA Food Podcast to unpack her historic Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award win, becoming the first Los Angeles-based reporter to receive the honor. Stephanie reveals how she selected the three stories in her submission, what happened when her name was called and why the award represents a victory for local food journalis...

Karen Palmer joins Luca to break down Los Angeles’ huge night at the 2026 James Beard Awards, including wins for Dave Beran, Providence and Kato, Holbox’s heartbreak, LA’s four-year Best Chef: California streak and what the results reveal about the city’s growing culinary dominance. They also trade recent eats from Mish Deli, Rustic Canyon, Cambria’s Sea Chest, Guelaguetza, Delicious Pizza, Estran...

This week on The LA Food Podcast , Luca and Father Sal kick things off with a listener Q&A covering some of the most pressing issues in Los Angeles dining: where to find a trendy but affordable sit-down meal, whether LA has its own pizza style, how much power food influencers really have, what makes a restaurant creator trustworthy, and why Brazilian pizza at Sampa’s in Marina del Rey might be...

This week on the LA Food Podcast, Luca and Father Sal dig into the new North America’s 50 Best Restaurants list and what it says about the state of dining in Los Angeles, New York, Canada, New Orleans and beyond. LA landed four restaurants on the 2026 list — Holbox, Providence, Somni and Kato — while major Bay Area names fell off, raising the question of whether Los Angeles has fully closed the ga...

Andy Kadin, founder of Bub and Grandma’s , joins The LA Food Podcast for a deep dive into one of the most beloved bakeries in Los Angeles. If you’ve eaten at restaurants across LA, from Michelin-starred dining rooms to neighborhood sandwich shops, there’s a good chance you’ve had Bub and Grandma’s bread on the table. In this episode, Andy tells the story of how a home bread operation grew into a w...

On this episode of The LA Food Podcast, Luca sits down with Jessica Koslow , the chef and owner behind Sqirl , one of the most influential Los Angeles restaurants of the last 15 years. Koslow reflects on Sqirl’s unlikely evolution from a jam company into a defining all-day restaurant, the origins of dishes like the sorrel pesto rice bowl and ricotta toast, and why her background as a pastry cook a...

This week on The LA Food Podcast , Luca is joined by food writer Karen Palmer and LA food influencer Rick Lox for a two-part episode covering the state of Los Angeles restaurants, food media, and the city’s never-ending dining discourse. First, Karen breaks down the latest LA restaurant storylines, from the rise of luxury grocery stores like Laurel Supply to the possible comeback of the Helms Desi...

Luca and Father Sal break down the James Beard Awards media nominations , why LA continues to dominate, and how outlets like the Los Angeles Times keep scoring while The New York Times gets shut out. Plus: is the decline of Eater real, and are Substacks quietly replacing traditional food journalism? In “Recent Eats,” we’re talking airport burgers at Skillet , a return to Lodge Bread , Roman pizza...

This might be the worst episode of The LA Food Podcast we’ve ever released. Luca is sick, the brain fog is real, and for the first time ever… this episode is completely unedited . No cuts, no clean-up, no saving ourselves in post. What you’re about to hear is the raw, behind-the-scenes version of the show — for better or worse. Despite the mess, there’s a lot to get into. We kick things off with l...

The LA food media landscape is exploding in 2026, and it’s getting harder to keep up. From the return of Gourmet to the rise of Caper Media , RAVENOUS , and LA Material , new outlets are reshaping how restaurants, culture, and criticism are covered. In Part 1 of this episode, Luca and Father Sal break down the biggest food media launches of the year, debating which platforms actually have staying...

The LA Food Podcast is now on YouTube, and we’re celebrating with a brand new segment: VERSUS . This week, Luca and Father Sal go head-to-head debating two of LA’s most exciting modern Mexican restaurants—Echo Park favorite A Ti vs. the return of Ray Garcia at Broken Spanish Comedor —arguing which one is truly worth your next reservation. Plus, Chef’s Kiss Big Miss is back with takes on the latest...

Today on Couch Potatoes , we’re breaking down the first six episodes of America’s Culinary Cup , the new CBS food competition series hosted by Padma Lakshmi—and her very public post- Top Chef return to the genre. We get into what the show is trying to be, how it stacks up against Top Chef , and whether the high-level talent—from Michelin-starred chefs to James Beard nominees like Buddha Lo, Beverl...

Today on The LA Food Podcast , we’re joined by Vanderpump Rules star and restaurateur Tom Schwartz for a candid, surprisingly thoughtful conversation about life in the hospitality industry. Recorded at Mae Malai in Los Angeles, Tom opens up about his journey from aspiring actor to bar owner, what it really takes to open and operate restaurants like TomTom and Schwartz & Sandy’s, and why the in...

Los Angeles shows out in a big way as the 2026 James Beard finalists are announced—and for once, it actually feels like the city is getting its due. We break down the biggest headlines, who got snubbed, and whether the Beards still mean what they used to for LA and fine dining at large. Then, we dive into the growing backlash against fine dining, sparked by Khushbu Shah’s viral Substack and a New...

On this episode of The LA Food Podcast , Luca checks in from Las Vegas in full Uncut Gems mode while Father Sal returns for a chaotic, no-holds-barred Q&A episode. You asked, we answered. We’re talking everything from which LA food influencers are completely full of shit, why certain “terrible” restaurants stay packed, and how to actually navigate tipping culture in 2026, to deeper cuts like u...

Today on The LA Food Podcast , James Beard Award-winning author, restaurateur, and longtime Angeleno Noah Galuten joins as guest co-host for a wide-ranging conversation on LA’s past, present, and future as a food city. In a moment where the restaurant world is dominated by headlines around René Redzepi and Noma, we take a different approach. Instead of focusing on controversy, we draft our Mount R...

This week on The LA Food Podcast , Luca Servodio and Karen Palmer break down the biggest restaurant industry story of the year: the escalating Noma scandal surrounding chef René Redzepi and the $1,500-per-person Noma pop-up in Los Angeles. Following a bombshell New York Times investigation into abuse and labor practices at Noma , protests erupted in LA led by former Noma fermentation director Jaso...

A new podcast is hitting the LA Food Podcast feed. Welcome to the debut episode of Couch Potatoes: A Food TV Podcast . To kick things off, Luca Servodio and Father Sal are joined by Bits Nicholas of Compliments to the Chef to preview Top Chef Season 23 and hold the first ever Fantasy Top Chef Draft for 2026 . The twist? It’s Team LA Food Podcast vs Team Compliments to the Chef . Each side drafts c...

Matt Rodbard of This Is TASTE joins Luca Servodio as guest co-host on The LA Food Podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of food media, restaurant discovery, and what’s happening right now in the LA dining scene. They dig into Rodbard’s recent interviews with Emma Orlow of Caper Media and David Cho of the restaurant discovery app Postcard , exploring the idea of “post-traffic” fo...

Father Sal records his final episode as a bachelor, we launch our new Couch Potatoes Top Chef recap series, and then we head straight to Santa Monica for one of the most ambitious meals in Los Angeles: SELINE . Chef Dave Beran’s winter tasting menu is structured around the idea of “outside” and “inside” — cold, memory, warmth, progression. We break down the sunflower sequence disguised as cod, the...

This week on The LA Food Podcast, we’re diving deep into LA’s cocktail culture with James Beard semifinalist Max Reis , beverage director of Mirate and Daisy Margarita Bar. Max shares his journey from Napa to Los Angeles, how he became one of the country’s most respected mezcal advocates, and what it takes to build a world-class bar program. In Part 1, Luca and Father Sal recap a legendary Echo Pa...

Alison Roman joins The LA Food Podcast for a wide-ranging conversation on cookbooks, creativity, and the unsettling rise of AI-generated recipes. We dive into Something From Nothing, her evolving aesthetic, growing up in the San Fernando Valley, and her early days in LA fine dining. Before that, Father Sal and Luca break down meals at Lucia , Bess , Max & Helen’s , and Cheesesteaks by Matu , p...

On this episode of The LA Food Podcast , Luca Servodio is joined by food reporter Karen Palmer to break down the viral LA dining discourse sparked by Kerry Rose Schwartz ( @comfywithkerry ) and her claim that “LA fine dining is a scam.” We dig into why Kerry’s videos exploded, the pushback from chefs like Jeremy Fox, and what the backlash reveals about hype culture, pricing, influencer power, and...