Soleil Ho
Podcaster and Critic-at-Large, the San Francisco Chronicle
Exploring the future of food criticism
Soleil Ho is a columnist and cultural critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, though they previously worked as that restaurant’s food critic. After graduating college at the height of the Great Recession, Ho moved from Iowa to Minnesota and worked at a farm for a season. They also had jobs in a sandwich shop and several restaurant roles.
Ho met journalist Zahir Janmohamed at a party in Portland, Oregon. A discussion between the two about sexism and racism in the culinary world inspired Ho to start the well-regarded podcast “Racist Sandwich.” The show, which explores the history and people behind the food we eat, was nominated in 2019 for a James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Award, one of the biggest honors in the culinary world.
In 2022, Ho won the James Beard Foundation Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award for three pieces: “Le Colonial Is an Orientalist Specter,” “The Ultimate Chaat Truck Crawl,” and “The Fantasy — and Reality — of Dining at Chez Panisse.”
By Tiffany Chang
I didn’t really plan on being a writer. Growing up, I wanted to work for NASA.
When I graduated from college in 2009, the recession had come into full swing. I had a liberal arts degree that I didn’t really know what to do with. I ended up working in restaurants doing pretty much every job in the business.
I would write about food in my free time because that was what was pertinent to me, what I had contacts for, and what could be the most useful to people.
At the time, I was frustrated over the status of food media. From about 2013 to 2018, that frustration converged with the rise of Donald Trump as a political figure and how, in reaction, a lot of nominally progressive or inclusive food magazines and food media would put out stories or statements about immigrants and how they were important to American food — token gestures towards equity and equality.
A Taste for Podcasting
In 2016 I started a podcast, “Racist Sandwich,” where I established a more critical point of view. It wasn’t necessarily criticism about food, but a meta-criticism on the way we talk about food.
It was an interview-based show with a budget of zero and recorded at KBOO, a community radio station in Portland, Oregon. We brought on local chefs and food people to talk about their experiences with how food and race intersect, like the rise and fall of Filipino food and how it kind of sputtered out in American food trends. We talked about culinary competitions and the whole “food bros” thing. We tried to get as deep into it as possible.
We ended up having a boisterous social media presence. At the time, it was peak “call out” season online. We were definitely a part of that, but in the food world. Our strength came from having little to lose in regards to things, like calling out racism at Bon Appétit. It gave me a reputation, certainly, and I feel less obligated towards following conventions of the medium and the genre of restaurant criticism. I derive inspiration from a myriad of sources and don’t necessarily read a lot of food criticism.
In 2018, I decided to focus on writing full-time, as opposed to splitting it between restaurants and writing. Then, I got a job at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Plating the Future of Food Criticism
My major was history, and it informed how I write and think about food. People have been taught to compartmentalize and not see the many connections between, for example, your computer and history. We don’t ask where all the components come from. Why do we use this material in particular? Who mined this metal? It’s the same with food. People are taught to turn off their brains and not think about where ingredients or techniques come from.
People want to know about the people who made the food, the context, the culture, the neighborhood, and where the food came from. What I’m doing is trying to meet that demand.
We are used to thinking, “Okay, we have this architecture because of this or that historical movement.” Why can’t we talk about dishes the same way? A plate of eggs in front of me is still historically constituted. It’s an interesting story, so why not tell it?
When writing reviews, I recalled everything about the facts of the experience and asked, “What is the story here?” There’s usually more than just, “I had this food and it was good/bad.”
Food-critic columns will still draw audiences, but nowadays you are competing with all of these review sites and food outlets, so you have to make it more interesting.
People want to know about the people who made the food, the context, the culture, the neighborhood, and where the food came from. What I’m doing is trying to meet that demand.
I did a story on Peet’s Coffee adding boba-inspired, brown-sugar jelly to its menu. I went to Peet’s. I drank the thing. I even did research on market analytics for boba. In short, a lot of homework for this short essay about a new boba drink that most people probably didn’t fully read, maybe even just skimmed the headline.
Also, having worked in restaurants, I think about the incredible amount of stress, pain, and difficulty that restaurant folks go through. That means that as a critic, I could stop and think, “What is my role in writing about that?” My perspective as a former restaurant person enabled me to push for stories about those struggles.
I’m writing about someone’s life, someone’s livelihood, and you don’t want to get things wrong or base your review on something that you just don’t remember or aren’t remembering correctly. I feel a lot of responsibility.