Noah Galuten Co-Hosts: LA Chef Mount Rushmore & Noma Art vs Artist Debate. Plus, LA Taco Enters The Chat (Finally).

Mar 20, 2026

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Today on The LA Food Podcast, James Beard Award-winning author, restaurateur, and longtime Angeleno Noah Galuten joins as guest co-host for a wide-ranging conversation on LA’s past, present, and future as a food city.

In a moment where the restaurant world is dominated by headlines around René Redzepi and Noma, we take a different approach. Instead of focusing on controversy, we draft our Mount Rushmore of Los Angeles chefs—asking a deceptively simple question: who actually changed the game? Not just the best chefs, but the ones who reshaped how LA eats, cooks, and thinks about food. The result is a competitive, snake-style draft filled with legacy picks, bold calls, and a few names that might spark debate.

We also dig into recent meals across the city, including Bistro Na’s, Loreto in Frogtown, and Secret Pizza, before diving into Noah’s career. From his early days running the influential food blog Man Bites World, to helping define some of LA’s most important restaurants of the 2010s, to his upcoming cookbook Grill Time, Noah shares how he’s built a career at the intersection of media, restaurants, and storytelling.

In Chef’s Kiss / Big Miss, we break down some of the biggest conversations shaping the food world right now:

A Helen Rosner take on whether you can separate art from the artist in the wake of Noma
The rise of LA’s pop-up culture and whether it’s sustainable long-term
Celebrities stepping into chef roles at events like the Oscars
The growing presence of global restaurant brands entering Los Angeles
And a wild slate of new Taco Bell menu items for 2026

Plus, we kick things off with listener feedback and what might be the early stages of a beef with one of LA’s most iconic food publications.

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