FEBRUARY 15, 2024
Together, critic Jonathan Gold, food scholar Evan Kleiman, and chefs Ray Garcia, Bricia Lopez, and Carlos Salgado have spent more than a lifetime preparing, eating, and writing about Latin American cuisine. Before their recent panel discussion at the Getty, offered in conjunction with Pacific Standard Time, they sat down with us to reflect on the role of Mexican cuisine in the life of Los Angeles and how we might expand our taste buds to go deeper.
SS: As a chef (or critic), do you consider yourself an artist?
EK: Art to me often has an intellectual component. I think of food preparation as a craft–I don’t think of it as art.
RG: My personal approach to food is more of a craftsman. I like having my tools in hand, sort of creating and building, and my approach is much more trial and error. It’s part social scientist, and part repair person or builder. I put food out, and wait for the reaction, and see what we can push, what we can improve.
Source: Food Icons on the Evolving Role of Mexican Cuisine in LA