To understand what immigrants mean to California, eat at any restaurant

Taquerias, dim sum parlors, sushi counters, noodle shops, kebab stands, strip malls filled with businesses serving 12 different Vietnamese specialties: Immigrant excellence powers every single restaurant on the L.A. Times’ first ever 101 best restaurants in California guide. Without exception.

Even in the white-owned places serving Euro-centric dishes, who is doing the cooking or delivering the plates to the table? I see the greatness of immigrant contributions to our dining culture everywhere.

Given the past week in Los Angeles, amid the accelerated immigration raids and anti-ICE protests, and the many obfuscations across social media and national coverage in their portrayals of L.A. and Angelenos, it feels important to say plainly: The top-to-bottom glory of culinary California feeds and influences the nation and the world, and it would not exist without our immigrants.

That’s reflected in our new statewide 101 essential restaurants project, which went live this morning.

How to make the most of our 101 essential restaurants guide

This list isn’t full of super-secret, “undiscovered” amazements hidden in the furthest regions of the state. No. It’s built from fantastic restaurants of all kinds — the standouts, telling a collective story about who we are and what we eat.

Did I rank them? No, though of course I’m aware plenty of people crave stars and status to argue over.

The No. 1 reason to take the time to read over the guide is to see that, in the spirit of usefulness, the 101 restaurants are jumping-off points. There is too much brilliance to highlight at every level in California. So along with many of the write-ups, you’ll find “extra helpings” of restaurants similar in style or cuisine or geography.

For instance, you might glance down the list of places in San Francisco — the U.S. capital of fine dining, full-stop — and say, “These are out of my budget!” Keep reading, and you’ll see I’ve also included more affordable dining recommendations in the city.

The list’s big takeaway: “Personal narrative” cooking defines what California is

Eating well in California has outgrown simplistic notions of perfect fruit on a plate.

For almost 50 years, the architects of the modern California-wide dining culture drove the ethos of “seasonal” and “local” into eye-glazing cliches, and we know who farms all our beautiful produce.

But over the last decade, the foods of the state’s longest-standing immigrant communities — Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipino and Middle Eastern, among others — have become engines of creativity for a new generation of chefs cooking from their heritage.

At the stove, each person could choose to hue close to tradition or veer wildly into innovation. Someone could re-create their grandmother’s pozole, another could infuse the dish’s broth with Asian herbs and garnish it with edible flowers.

If it was delicious, it found an audience. It was a big element when, in the early 2010s, media and food lovers finally began acknowledging Los Angeles on the world map as a dining destination.

That approach — it can go by “third culture cuisine” or “identity-based cooking” — is no less thrilling these days, but it’s become a welcome part of our culinary consciousness.

The reaction isn’t so much, “Whoa, this take on mapo tofu is wild” as it is, “Ah, this is what you bring.” It’s the closest I have to a modern, working definition of the overly broad term “California cuisine.”

Food

For Subscribers

These are the 101 best restaurants in California

These are the best restaurants in California. From San Diego to the Bay Area and wine country, our food critic guides you to the best dining spots in the state.

June 12, 2025

Today’s top stories

Los Angeles police prepare to enforce a curfew in downtown Tuesday evening.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Immigration raids across the L.A. area intensify

• The sweeping federal immigration crackdown that sparked days of protests appeared to be gaining steam across many parts of the region from suburban retail centers to farmland in Ventura County.
• The White House confirmed that 330 people have been taken into custody by federal authorities since immigration sweeps began last week in Los Angeles, prompting days of protests.
• The sweeps come as Mayor Bass imposed a curfew from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. across most of downtown Los Angeles.
• Bass said she expects the curfew to remain in place for several days and will consult with law enforcement and elected leaders before lifting it.

Why L.A.’s food and yard waste is being dumped in the Antelope Valley

• A California law aimed at reducing the amount of climate-harming greenhouse gases at landfills is exacerbating the problem of illegal dumping in the Antelope Valley, according to local officials and residents.
• Experts say the law appears to be working in most regions of the state, but the Los Angeles area has been a problem because it hasn’t invested in the infrastructure it needs to deal with the increased organic waste.

Harvey Weinstein found guilty of sexual assault in a New York retrial

• The fallen Hollywood executive was found guilty of one 2006 sexual assault but acquitted on another from the same year in the high-profile retrial of his sex crimes case in New York.
• Weinstein was convicted in February 2020 of rape and a felony sex crime connected to individual allegations from accusers Jessica Mann and Mimi Haley, respectively. He was acquitted at the time on two charges of predatory sexual assault. A month later, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
• A New York appeals court overturned Weinstein’s rape conviction in April 2024.

What else is going on

• Death threats, vandalism, investigations: L.A. immigrant rights groups in the fight of their lives.
• Eerie silence hangs over Central Coast farm fields in the wake of ICE raids.
• Protests and curfew cancel L.A. Phil and ‘Hamlet’ as arts groups’ losses mount.
• In a test, one home burns, the other is unscathed. A lesson for fire-proofing L.A.?
• Brian Wilson, musical genius behind the Beach Boys, has died at 82.
• Amid fears of pending California education cuts, a top Trump official says the state is ‘at risk.’
• Former MTV VJ Ananda Lewis has died after a battle with breast cancer.
• More than five decades of snack food production came to an end this week when Frito-Lay closed manufacturing operations in Rancho Cucamonga.

Commentary and opinions

• Trump could help feed hungry people. Instead he’s throwing a vanity parade, argues columnist Mark Z. Barabak.
• Forget tariffs — GOP proposals on student loans will crack the economy, columnist Michael Hiltzik argues.
• Newsom’s ‘Democracy is under assault’ speech could turn the tables on Trump, writes columnist Anita Chabria.
• The scars from unrest can run deep, for protesters, residents and even authorities, writes guest columnist Jerel Ezell.

This morning’s must reads

California

For Subscribers

Hit men on motorbikes, wearing clown masks: Armenian gang war roils San Fernando Valley

In a war for control of L.A.’s Armenian underworld, federal authorities say rival crews of gangsters engaged in a series of dramatic shootings and kidnappings across the San Fernando Valley.

June 11, 2025

Other must reads

• With FIFA World Cup one year away, fans and politicians still aren’t sure what to expect.
• 50 years after Marshal Matt Dillon’s last draw, ‘Gunsmoke’ is a streaming hit.
• Inside Nike’s all-women half-marathon in L.A.: the good, the bad and the surprising.

For your downtime

On weekend mornings, Barbacoa Ramirez offers moronga de borrego and barbacoa tacos at its puesto in Arleta.

(Andrea D’Agosto / For The Times)

Going out

• Restaurants: 19 street vendors to support from the 101 Best Tacos guide.
• Hiking: Free admission offered at these California national parks and forests on Juneteenth.
• Meetups: Modern parenting can be so isolating. This L.A. dad group builds a village while the kids play.

Staying in

• Books: Peter Brown stripped down his original “Wild Robot” story for beginning readers, keeping the underlying message about a man-made device that learns how to care for others.
• Music: David Byrne announces a world tour and his long-awaited solo album “Who Is the Sky?”
• Recipes: Here’s a recipe for spring negronis.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

A question for you: What’s the best advice you’ve gotten from your father or father figure?

John says, “I was thinking about leaving a promising career in the corporate world working 50-60 hours a week to become a teacher. My dad asked me why. One reason was that I would be able to spend more time with my kids. He was retired from a job where he worked 50-60 hours a week and said that he wished he had worked less because he missed out on so much of my and my siblings’ lives. He told me to never put work before family like he had done.”

Katie says, “I grew up in Washington, DC, and was lucky to have a father who loved to take me out to eat at all kinds of restaurants. My father taught me from a very young age to always read the dessert menu first, so you could plan your meal accordingly.”

Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.

And finally ... from our archives

Mildred Loving and her husband Richard P Loving in 1965.

(AP)

On June 12, 1967, the Loving vs. Virginia decision deemed bans on interracial marriage unconstitutional. In recent years, the anniversary of that decision has been informally celebrated by multiracial families across the country.

In 2016, The Times invited readers to share their Loving Day stories and how interracial relationships have affected them.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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