Exciting! To be honest though, I don’t really read critic reviews. Bloggers and forums are much more indepth and approachable IMO.
The New York Times of Los Angeles
Don’t you mean The Failing New York Times of Los Angeles?
LAUGH. OUT. LOUD.!!! The best 
Enemy of the people indeed 
Choking 
More from Eater on this:
Rao’s recent work focuses on the people — women of color, immigrants, working-class restaurant and food-cart owners — left out by food media’s myopic focus on white male chefs and the restaurants they create largely for white patrons of the middle and upper class. These are the people who have long shaped how America eats — more so than any white male graduate of the CIA with a fine dining pedigree and a Michelin star or 10 — without receiving their due credit.
In other words, Rao’s perspective is needed all across food media, but most definitely in California, a state shaped by its Mexican history, its deep-rooted black communities, and its multilayered immigrant communities — a place where everyday food is constantly reshaping the state’s palate.
I am intrigued.
But didn’t this already exist in Jonathan Gold? Those snippets make this idea sound revolutionary.
And I was under the impression that the east coast folks didn’t take much interest on the west coast.
They sort of acknowledged that:
With the recent death of Jonathan Gold, a critic whose work not only highlighted the city’s food but also helped define the vision of Los Angeles that national publications are now so keen to embrace …
In San Francisco, one of the state’s two centers of restaurant culture, criticism is in a state of major transition. The San Francisco Chronicle’s longtime critic, Michael Bauer … is retiring …
The only way that might make a difference would be if they hired a good critic to replace him. He’s sort of the anti-Gold, a useless poser who never discovered anyplace and knew very little about anything outside of the fine dining scene.
I think it doesn’t require mention anymore that Gold’s shadow will loom large over every restaurant critic in California, and comparisons to Gold are inevitable to critics in other major cities in the rest of the nation as well.
Gold remains an inspiration to food writers all over, but I’m afraid otherwise he’s pretty much unknown outside of LA. I don’t think any of my friends in the Bay Area had heard of him.
I hadn’t heard of him until FTC whereas I had Pete Wells, Frank Bruni, etc.