James Beard snubs LA (kind of), Trader Joe's trader woes, and a Father Sal food crawl feat. Yangban, Felix, Poltergeist and a Chris Bianco cameo

Father Sal joins us. There's a quick Top Chef recap, including a Kristen Kish assessment. Father Sal also fills us in on The Bear clip that leaked. News-wise we cover the announcement of the 2024 James Beard Award Finalists, a scathing Taste Magazine expose on the grocery store known as Trader Joe’s, and a long overdue minimum wage hike coming to California’s fast-food workers.  In Part 2, we recap a week-long food crawl Father Sal and I took while he was in town last week. We finally made it to modern Korean darlings Yangban in the Arts District, we revisited our old friend Diego Argoti at Poltergeist to see if that panang lamb neck was still hittin’, and, most surprisingly for me, we had a whirlwind at Evan Funke’s Felix in Venice, my first time visiting the restaurant since 2019. We also talk about Sal missing out on dinner at Pizzeria Bianco, where Chris Bianco himself made a surprise appearance... Helpful links: The Bear leak https://chicago.eater.com/2024/4/3/24120365/the-bear-season-3-trailer-clip-critics-fx-hulu LA's 2024 James Beard nominees https://la.eater.com/2024/1/24/24048240/los-angeles-james-beard-foundation-award-semifinalists-2024 Taste on Trader Joe's https://tastecooking.com/we-need-to-talk-about-trader-joes/ California minimum wage hike https://la.eater.com/2024/4/1/24118202/california-fast-food-worker-minimum-wage-explained LA Times' Stephanie Breijo on World Central Kitchen https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2024-04-01/world-central-kitchen-workers-killed-gaza-jose-andres Yangban https://yangbanla.com/ Felix https://felixla.com/ Pizzeria Bianco https://www.pizzeriabianco.com/los-angeles Poltergeist https://www.buttonmashla.com/ -- Shop The LA Food Podcast bundle on House of Macadamias https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/pages/la-foods -- Use LAFOOD10 for a 10% discount on your first order of First Light Farms wagyu beef https://www.firstlight.farm/