Tejal Rao

I did not feel like I could walk away.

And you know, like, part of this was I grew up on Ruth Reichl and, you know, looking up to and reading sort of these industry titans, Jonathan Gold, of course, but also Pete Wells and, um, and Tejal Rao, you know, I, who was a critic when I was still sort of trying to figure out what I was gonna do with my life.

And, um, so when this job opened up, I called my friend Bill Addison-

Mm-hmm

324 years of journalism experience.

At the center of the project was restaurant critic Tejal Rao, a role she shares with Ligaya Mishan.

Tejal's here to talk about the manpower that it takes to pull off a feat like this and to discuss the restaurants in her own backyard that made the cut.

Hi.

Yeah, the focus on those different varieties of heirloom corn just seems like it's the perfect foil for simplicity.

Yeah.

LA Times restaurant critic Bill Addison lives in Silver Lake and has offered to pick me up in Mid-City to drive me to Yared Ma's bakery and deli.

Oh, have you not gone yet? In Glendale for lunch and returned me home.

And so they tell their story.

And then I talked to Tejal Rao, restaurant critic in the New York Times, about how they do that, how they pick the best 50 restaurants in America.

Yeah.

It seems a

That was Megan Strom and Juan Gonzalez, the couple behind Mesa Agricola, a taqueria in Escondido that was just named one of the 50 best restaurants in America by the New York Times.

For anyone inspired to take a road trip, they are open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Want to know what else is on the New York Times list of 50 best restaurants? On Friday's episode, we talked to Times restaurant critic Tejal Rao about the making of the list and which restaurants made the cut.

Until then, my thanks to everyone who helped make today's show.

Jillian Ferguson, Leryl Garcia, Elena Shatkin, and our engineers Michael Stark and Katie Gilchrist.

[laughs] Next one.

The New York Times' Tejal Rao says Sang Yoon, the chef who spent 26 years at Father's Office refusing ketchup substitutions or basically any evidence that the customer has free will, has opened Tiny's Burger in Costa Mesa, a cheerful fast food spot where you can modify your order however you want.

The burger still uses 30-day dry-aged beef but now comes with American cheese and a gochujang sauce, which is what happens when a control freak goes to therapy but keeps the tasting menu.

Father's Office taught an entire generation of chefs that they could tell diners no. Tiny's proves that eventually every uncompromising artist ends up in Orange County saying, "Sure, sir, we can do two naked patties." Karen, the commodification of Sang Yoon.