Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco-based writer who covers the intersection of food and culture, from the spread of regional Chinese cuisines in the Bay Area to the impact of gentrification on San Francisco chefs. A former line cook turned journalist, he was a restaurant critic in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle for more than a decade, then spent five years as a features writer, columnist, and editor with the San Francisco Chronicle.

His reporting, storytelling, and restaurant criticism have won numerous honors -- in 2019 alone, he was nominated for three awards from the James Beard Foundation, aka the Oscars of the food world.