Peter Meehan Has Joined the Los Angeles Times as a Contributing Editor
Meehan will help guide editorial direction and expansion of The Times’ food and dining coverage
The Los Angeles Times has named Peter Meehan a contributing editor, reporting to Senior Deputy Managing Editor Kimi Yoshino. Meehan is joining The Times’ Food staff during a period of rebuilding and expansion, following the death of Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Jonathan Gold in July.
“Months ago, under Kimi’s leadership, The Times began planning for a new era under private ownership and started thinking about the many ways we could add to our food coverage,” said Times Executive Editor Norman Pearlstine.
“Continuing Jonathan Gold’s legacy has been a major part of our planning discussions,” Yoshino said. “Peter Meehan shares many of the sensibilities that our readers appreciated in Jonathan, and we’re happy that he’s agreed to help us give Los Angeles the vibrant, layered coverage of food and culinary culture it deserves.”
Meehan will split his time between Los Angeles and New York, where he co-founded and edited the award-winning quarterly magazine Lucky Peach. He wrote the $25 & Under column for The New York Times in the mid-2000s and has since authored numerous cookbooks, written about food for many newspapers and magazines, and helped to create television shows for public television and Netflix.
“Los Angeles is the most exciting eating city in America,” said Meehan. “Jonathan spent decades teaching us all about it, and how to care about it, and about putting in the work to see it in all its diverse splendor. I am humbled by the opportunity to help the Los Angeles Times build and expand on his mission and the mission of good food writing anywhere: as a way to see and connect with and understand each other.”
Meehan will work closely with Acting Food Editor Jenn Harris, Test Kitchen Director Noelle Carter and Staff Writers Amy Scattergood and Andrea Chang, while also seeking new restaurant critics and authoritative voices to contribute to the section. Times food and dining coverage currently extends to its signature food festivals – The Taste and Food Bowl – as well as several live events, video projects and radio appearances throughout the year.
