Jonathan Gold is the first restaurant critic to win a Pulitzer Prize — which is no mean feat, as several interviewees are quick to point out in "City of Gold" — filmmaker Laura Gabbert's loving portrait of the Los Angeles Times writer and iconic culinary ethnographer, opening on Friday at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema .
As much a celebration of the LA food scene as a delightful documentary of Gold’s life and times, Gabbert manages to get a vivid, up-close and personal view — even if some of the restaurant and newsroom scenes come off nearly as cannily staged as a reality TV show.
The camera rambles along with Gold on perpetual pick-up truck rides around the never-ending megalopolis to check out taco trucks and strip center noodle shops — then swoops into the home he shares with his wife, Laurie Ochoa (a Times A&E editor), and their two children to glimpse the softer side of the man known as “The belly of Los Angeles.”
The cast of fellow writers, friends and admirers is especially impressive for the dining-obsessed, from colloquial food king Calvin Trillin to star chefs such as Ludo Lefebvre and Nancy Silverton.
But the heart and soul of the film is Gold’s groundbreaking work in telling the stories of the immigrant population of the city through the food trucks and restaurants they founded and the food they make.
What Gold calls “less a melting pot than a great, glittering mosaic” is all about LA’s sprawling numbers of international neighborhoods and communities and finding “extraordinary food in ordinary places.”
In that way, Los Angeles has much in common with Atlanta. And though after stepping out of the movie theatre you may feel inclined to book a westbound flight to check out Grand Central Market or Guerrilla Tacos or Meals by Genet, you might also be inspired to head out along Buford Highway .
One more thing: Given all the talk about immigrants during this political season, you might also be prompted to consider what all that could mean in terms of the kind of vibrant food culture we’ve come to take for granted in cities like Los Angeles and Atlanta.
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