Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles

“Gold changed American food writing."--Time

The only food critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, Jonathan Gold pioneered a humanist’s approach to reviewing restaurants: COUNTER INTELLIGENCE collects over 200 of his legendary reviews, which were as much about Los Angeles’ neighborhoods and people as about what you were going to eat. He revealed the hidden kitchens where Los Angeles’ immigrant communities fed their own, including the best of cuisine from Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Burma, Canton, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand, Vietnam and more. Not to mention the indigenous dishes of L.A. car culture: the perfectly-prepared hamburger and the quintessential hot dog.

Originally published in 2000, COUNTER INTELLIGENCE remains an entry point to the food of the country’s most diverse culinary landscape; though some of the restaurants it lists have vanished as the twenty-first century has worn on (and its prices remain a point of nostalgia), “you could read it like a novel and be very satisfied (Ruth Reichl)”.

The first food critic to win the Pulitzer Prize, Jonathan Gold (1960-2018) wrote restaurant reviews for Los Angeles magazine, California magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and Gourmet magazine. His book Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles collects critiques originally published in his long-running column for the L.A. Weekly.

Gold was also the subject of the documentary, City of Gold.