Jonathan Gold

L.A. native Ray Garcia has emerged as one of the most articulate spokesmen for sustainable eating this year, putting together food-literacy programs in local high schools and teaching kids how to grow and eat vegetables. He has a forager on staff, although so much of his menu at any given......

 Red Medicine, whose co-owner unmasked and ejected the L.A. Times restaurant critic in his establishment's earliest weeks, is still more discussed in gossip columns than it is in food circles, and a lot of people who couldn't pick Wolfgang Puck out of a police lineup have strongly held opinions about......

Valentino may be grander than Vincenti, and Giorgio Baldi may draw a more famous clientele, but Vincenti is the spiritual center of fine Italian cooking in Los Angeles, its hearth. And befitting a hearth, much of Nicola Mastronardi's food comes from the big, hardwood-burning ovens, flavored with the presence of......