LA is a melting point of cultures, and that is represented in their many restaurants, which is the main point of this documentary. The food critic Jonathan Gold has spent most of his career exploring those unusual recipes that have arisen in this city and that can only be found here. He shows us a Los Angeles that is not known by many and only can be appreciate it when you really get to know its more traditional restaurants, and that’s what this film City of Gold is trying to teach us, that LA is much more than just what movies show.
Los Angeles is one of the most famous cities in the world, but only few people get to really see the true faces of LA, what is below its surface, because all the glam for what it is famous is just the tip of the iceberg. LA’s diversity is one of its most especial qualities, because all this different cultures together are what makes this place so unique, and it enables people to get to know other cultures without needing to travel too far. For example, here in LA you can go to a restaurant and eat Himalayan food and then in the next block find a Brazilian restaurant as well just like that, and that is what amazed Gold so much. Just by walking through Pico Street you can experience that same feeling that is what made him immerse in this journey of discovering his own city to then share his knowledge so that others could discover it too.
Los Angeles is a city full of surprises, and even the food critic like Jonathan Gold “still continues to be surprise” with all of its gastronomy. But Gold is not just a food critic, he is an anthropologist who studies the social and cultural background of Los Angeles through its food, which is exactly why he won a Pulitzer Prize. He has helped broadened people’s understanding of what Los Angeles really is and all what it has to offer that before had passed unnoticed but now thanks to him has been given more value.