Rao ’05 Tastes the World as New York Times Restaurant Critic
Tejal Rao ’05 won’t share any of the pseudonyms she’s used to make restaurant reservations. Like the ingredients of a chef’s signature dish, that’s top secret.
What Rao, one of the two newly named co-chief restaurant critics for The New York Times, will share is her insight into the life and career path of a food critic, starting with the fact that she originally was interested in poetry and fiction, and didn’t know that restaurant criticism was necessarily a viable option.
While at Emerson, where she majored in Writing, Literature and Publishing, she took an independent study class focused on food writing. That introduced her to works from noted food critic Jeffrey Steingarten, chef and food writer Ruth Reichl, and others. (Food journalism tip: Rao suggests reading both contemporary and former generations’ food critics)
“I didn’t know I’d be pursuing food writing. That class gave me a sense of how much I loved food writing,” said Rao.
Rao went on to work on the line in restaurants, including a night shift at a hotel pastry kitchen making croissants, and at a fish station at an Italian fine dining restaurant, cleaning lobsters, razor clams, and monkfish liver. Those experiences gave her a very good taste of how restaurants and kitchens work, and now helps her understand cooking.
As time went on, she realized food journalism was where she wanted to serve up her best work. Since then, she has won two James Beard Foundation Awards for restaurant criticism in 2013 and 2016, as a restaurant critic at The Village Voice and Bloomberg News, respectively.
In 2016, she also joined The New York Times as a food department staff writer and monthly columnist for its magazine. In 2018, she was named the Times‘ first California restaurant critic.
On her website, she highlights eateries she’s dined at and dispenses cultural cuisine critiques.
“I reviewed a bakery in Long Beach, a tlayuda stall in South Los Angeles, a truck stop in Bakersfield and a sushi restaurant in Malibu. I’ve also written about bagels, oysters, mall pizza, fake foods, how Kit Kat flavors are born in Japan and new developments in the world of vegan cheese.”
Like most of us, Rao’s palate grew from her childhood experiences. She was born in London, and spent time in Kuwait and Sudan during her youth before settling in Cobb County, Georgia, as a teenager. Her mother was born in Uganda; her father was raised in India and emigrated to Kenya, where he met her mother.
“A lot of east African and Asian foods built my early sense of taste,” said Rao. “At 9 or 10, I really became interested in cooking and food, and I am really lucky to have a family with cookbooks from all over the world, and parents who were interested in foods and took us out to restaurants. It gave me a sense of possibility.”
In her new role, she has more than 700,000 restaurants across the country to choose from — offering a vast array of cuisines to explore.
“Sometimes restaurants aren’t conventionally important or big, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something special,” said Rao. “Maybe the restaurant is doing something interesting. Maybe it’s under the radar and needs to be covered. I’m looking for something that feels important to get across to the reader.”
In today’s world of food journalism, Rao needs to both fly under the radar at restaurants, while also trying to personally connect with readers, and share videos and other visual content.
She goes with friends, family, and colleagues, and never uses her real name to make reservations. She wouldn’t want any critic-savvy employee to see her name and treat her differently than other guests. She never went so far as to wear disguises, but she jokes that she’s annoyed friends and family by banning them from including her in photos at restaurants.
She doesn’t visually take notes at the table, but takes photos of her food, because in the age of Instagram, everyone snaps shots of snapper, sushi, and sandwiches.
“Sometimes I pop into the bathroom and take a quick note or write something if I hear interesting dialogues and it’s a perfect quote,” said Rao. “Food makes an impression, but things do blur together, and a few hours later things disappear. I’m not obsessed with taking notes, because I’m trying to be as present as much as possible.”
With thousands of restaurants to choose from, be it upscale, holes-in-the-wall, bars, cafes, dining clubs, izakayas, steak houses, tea houses or even supermarkets – it’s impossible to choose a favorite restaurant.
“The place I’m really into is Komal in Los Angeles. The woman who runs it used to make tortillas for another restaurant and now has her own place mixing her own corn to make several types of masa for tortillas,” said Rao. “There’s this one dish of plantains and black mole – it’s one of my favorite things to order.”
And what if she had to choose a last meal? While she would strategize to make the meal as long as possible, she knows one thing she’s ordering.
“It’s a little corny to say, but my favorite food is my mom’s lamb biryani. It’s a very intensive process with rice, lots of cilantro, mint, lamb on the bone and potatoes,” said Rao. “It’s so delicious all baked together.”
Rao also loves the genuine emotional connection she gets from eating at restaurants.
“The best thing is going to a place and being surprised about how wonderful something is,” said Rao. “I love restaurants. Every now and again an experience is really, really special, and that’s so exciting. That makes me feel the fun and privilege of doing this work.”
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