New Yorker profile of Jonathan Gold

The current issue has an interesting profile of LA Weekly food writer Jonathan Gold (unfortunately only available online with subscription).

It also includes the following snippet of particular interest to LTH'ers:

"Then in the spring of 2007, a visiting Chicagoan discovered that Jitalda had an untranslated menu of hard-to-find southern-Thai specialities....The Chicagoan posted an English-language version of the southern-Thai menu on a Chicago Web site, creating a sensation in the food blogging world"

Here's a link to an abstract of the article:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/11/09/091109fa_fact_goodyear

I caught that one as well! Great to make it into a New Yorker story. Not so great to not be named!

Ann Fisher wrote:Great to make it into a New Yorker story. Not so great to not be named!

Well maybe Goodyear would have referred to the board by name if "LTH" weren't such a pain to explain...

Just read it, and I was kind of disappointed by the profile. I think it depended too much on the reader being impressed with the lists foods Gold has eaten, which are no doubt impressive but include mostly things I've either eaten myself or at least heard about. The article made Gold seem perhaps even somewhat boring, not much picaresque about him or his eating. I wish the article had foregrounded more the fact that Gold was a student of Chris Burden, which I didn't know before and think is totally cool...teased out both the more performative and roguish aspects of Gold's food adventures.

That said, I had a culinary picaresque of my own planned for today, and the article has inspired me to try to spice and pork it up more...well as much as I can before needing to head over to the Sun Wah Welcome Back Blow Out Dinner.