95 & 96. Patricia Escárcega and Bill Addison — LA Times restaurant critics

Patricia Escárcega and Bill Addison were both hired as LA Times restaurant critics in December 2018.

Escárcega, the first Latina to assume the role in the paper's history, honed her food writing skills at The Arizona Republic and the Phoenix New Times, but she's also worked as a proofreader, poet-in-the-schools, amateur librarian, receptionist, warehouse worker, and "perennial service industry factotum," as she says.

Having grown up in southern California in a family of naranjeros (citrus pickers), food has always been a bit part of Escárcega's life, and her writing comes through the unique lens of class, race, and politics. She is also the great-great-niece of the founder of Mitla Cafe in San Bernadino, which is said to have provided the inspiration for Glen Bell to open Taco Bell.

Addison, meanwhile, previously spent five years as national critic for Eater — a job which saw him traveling around the US for about 40 weeks a year, eating 600 restaurant meals in three dozen cities, and reporting on the nation's best culinary gems.

Addison believes LA is the most exciting and energized place to eat in the US, and, despite eating out for around 15 meals a week, says he could never get bored of restaurant food. In 2017 he won a James Beard Foundation Award (the Oscars of the food world) for a story on the evolving culture of eating crab in Baltimore, his hometown.