The LA Food Podcast

We’re joined on today’s pod by the icon known as Joe Sasto. Joe is a Michelin-pedigree chef whose exploits at San Francisco’s Quince and Lazy Bear earned him the chance to go on Top Chef. His high-octane performance on his season earned him a third-place finish, the opportunity to compete on Top Chef All-Stars, and more importantly, a place in the pantheon of Top Chef greats. Today Chef Joe brings...

Today on The LA Food Podcast, is Langer’s closing for good? Is Chick-Fil-A going to save Hollywood? And does JD Vance even know what a donut is?  Father Sal is physically with us in Los Angeles today to discuss all this and more. We recap all of the amazing food he’s had in LA this week, from a beachside South American feast to an all-time steak dinner in Beverly Hills. I have him try the viral Gg...

Today on the LA Food Podcast, is work/life balance possible in fine dining? What the heck is postmodern craft beer? And why should Angelenos care about the passing of Famous Amos founder Wally Amos?  James Beard-nominated reporter Gab Chabran is with us today to explore all of these topics, and to tell us why he believes the city’s best tacos are in Whittier, and where you should consider heading...

Today on the LA Food Podcast, is Bill Esparza revolutionizing the restaurant review or is he merely feeding his ego? There’s an Anthony Bourdain biopic in the works, a New York Times article on whether the robots are ready to run restaurants, and a lightning round of bad idea / horrible idea featuring ice cream flavored water and and a Bon Appetit salad recipe that got way too personal.  Plus, my...

Michelin held its 2024 California Guide Ceremony earlier this week, and it’s fair to say that LA restaurants fared rather well. Jordan Kahn’s Vespertine earned back its 2 stars, Holbox, Uka and Meteora earned their first, and LA also dominated the list of new Bib Gourmands. But, like I ask my therapist on a weekly basis, what does it all mean? Father Sal’s on the pod today to help us make sense of...

We’re joined on the pod today by none other than Father Sal. As you know, dear listener, Father Sal doesn’t actually live in Los Angeles, but when he does visit our city, which happens often, he always comes prepared with the most thorough itineraries humankind has ever seen. If planning were an Olympic sport, Father Sal would take home gold, silver, bronze, and perhaps even the cutest leotard awa...

We’re joined today by Leah Marcus and Yasaman Bakhtiar, the co-founders of Good Girl Snacks, a company you might be familiar with if you’ve come across their viral Hot Girl Pickles on your social media feed. Yasaman and Leah join us to share their story of ditching their day jobs as recent grads to start a pickle company with a Gen Z twist. We’re also joined on the pod today by Father Sal to discu...

This week, legendary LA food writer Bill Esparza made waves when he dropped a scathing review of Villa’s Tacos on his Instagram stories. The review had been building for weeks, if not more than a year, and its Kendrick-style intensity left all of Los Angeles talking. Father Sal is with us today to dive deep into the situation, including what led to it, what the review got right and wrong, and how...

Father Sal is with us today to talk about the LA Times’ 2024 Restaurant of the Year Baroo. We break down what the award means, why it’s significant, and why we are so excited for our upcoming meal at this very special restaurant. We also talk about the LA Times’ Gold Award winner, the rise of non-alcoholic beer, and the sudden closure of Rampart Village restaurant due to homelessness question mark...

Part 2 of our The Bear Season 3 recap. Father Sal is with us to break down episodes 6-10. If you listened to Part 1 on Monday, you'll know that we weren't too sweet on episodes 1-5. Did the second half of the season change our opinion? Not exactly, but keep listening to find out where exactly we feel the show got lost in the sauce, and most importantly, Father Sal's killer conspiracy t...

Father Sal and I recap episodes 1-5 of The Bear Season 3, which is now streaming on Hulu. Helpful links: The Bear https://www.hulu.com/series/the-bear-05eb6a8e-90ed-4947-8c0b-e6536cbddd5f -- Get 10% off when you use code "LAFOOD" on House of Macadamias https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/pages/la-foods

Santiago Lastra is the chef of Michelin-starred restaurant KOL in London. He visited in LA on the heels of the World’s 50 Best ceremony in Las Vegas, where KOL was named the number 17 best restaurant in the world. He stopped by the City of Angels for a special collab dinner with Vespertine’s Jordan Kahn, and I’m really honored he made time to grab lunch with me at Gilberto Cetina’s Holbox, the 202...

Top Chef Season 21 is in the books. A champion has been crowned, both for Top Chef and our LA Food Pod Fantasy Top Chef. Father Sal and I are joined by Jessie Evans also known as Jessie Eats, and Daniel Wargo AKA Forking Around to recap the finale and the season as a whole.  But first, a few things that caught my eye this week. An iconic LA fast food restaurant has closed forever, there’s yet anot...

Kuya Lord’s Chef Lord Maynard Llera took home this James Beard Award this week for Best Chef California, and we’d like to extend him and his whole staff a heartfelt LA Food Pod congratulations. Today’s episode is all about awards. I’m joined by Father Sal to discuss LA’ showing at the Beards, as well as some of the most interesting takeaways from the World’s 50 Best, which was also announced since...

Gabe Kennedy is the all-star chef behind Highland Park’s Checker Hall. He joins us today to tell us his high-octane journey, which includes winning Anthony Bourdain’s competition show “The Taste,” co-founding one of the hottest plant-based supplement companies on the market, and uprooting his life in New York to relocate to LA and grace our city with one of the most fun dining experiences I’ve had...

We’re joined on today’s episode by the Infatuation’s Brant Cox for the first-ever in person podcast in LA Food Pod history. Brant and I met up for lunch at Mae Malai in Thai Town for some wonderful boat noodles (and much more). We caught up about what it’s like to be BFFs with Chris Pine, where he’s been eating lately, and oh yeah, a little thing called EEEEATSCON. That’s right - EEEEATSCON is bac...

Eddie Navarrette is the Executive Director of the Independent Hospitality Coalition in addition to being one of LA’s foremost consultants in helping restaurants navigate the debilitatingly confusing process of opening their doors. He’s been at the center of advocating for restaurants for several years now, helping shape much needed policies for boosting our restaurants during these unprecedented d...

A midseason check in on Season 21 of Top Chef. We’re about half way through the season, so LA Food Pod Top Chef correspondent Father Sal is on the pod to dissect the highs, lows and everything in between. We’re also joined by two of my new favorite people - Bits Nicholas and Nancy DaSilva, the hosts of Compliments to the Chef, the must-listen Top Chef companion podcast. They tell us about how they...

We’re joined by none other than Bill Esparza, the legendary award-winning writer, author, TV fixer and saxophonist. Maybe you’ve read his reporting at Eater, maybe you’ve eaten at one of his many finds, or maybe you’ve seen him on shows like Somebody Feed Phil. Regardless of where you know him from, Bill’s one of the most essential voices in LA food, and he’s with us today to talk about his journe...

We give flowers to the very deserving LA-based journalists and writers who did score James Beard nominations, including Gab Chabran, Daniel Hernandez and Noah Galuten. We also talk about what we learned from a New Yorker deep dive on the Wild West that is restaurant reservations, why Angelenos are flocking to two new bakeries that opened this week, and the four pizzas that stole the show at this w...

Coachella is behind us, my friends, and your humble podcast host had the chance to descend on the desert to catch up with 8 amazing chefs who were out there serving their food to the masses. Today’s episode is a compilation of those conversations. I spoke with Eric Greenspan about his latest concepts, including a delivery-only duck pop-up you simply must get your hands on. I got a scoop from Fatty...

Wendy Zeng is an award-winning chef and owner known around town and beyond for hosting cannabis-infused pop-ups, supper clubs and events. Make no mistake - we’re not talking about stoner food here, no shade to stoner culture. Wendy’s all about leaning into market-driven ingredients in the name of building community and destigmatizing recreational cannabis use.  What I found really fascinating, dea...

Daniele Uditi is the chef and partner behind Pizzana, one of Los Angeles’ best and most influential pizzerias. Daniele joins us for a wide-ranging conversation that covers everything from his upbringing living above his aunt’s bakery near Naples, Italy, to his spontaneous relocation to Los Angeles which ultimately led him to meeting Candace Nelson and launching a bona fide pizza empire. We talk ab...

Father Sal joins us. There's a quick Top Chef recap, including a Kristen Kish assessment. Father Sal also fills us in on The Bear clip that leaked. News-wise we cover the announcement of the 2024 James Beard Award Finalists, a scathing Taste Magazine expose on the grocery store known as Trader Joe’s, and a long overdue minimum wage hike coming to California’s fast-food workers.  In Part 2, we...

We’re joined by Scott Linder, one of the Founders and Operating Partners behind Matū, which just might be my favorite steakhouse in all of Los Angeles. Matū is famous for its dedication to serving only the highest quality grass-fed wagyu beef. But that’s not all - as they were getting ready to launch the restaurant, Scott and his fellow founders spent a ridiculous amount of time nailing down all o...