Tejal Rao is The New York Times' restaurant critic for California, a cooking columnist for The New York Times Magazine, and the author of the Times' weekly vegetarian newsletter, The Veggie. In today's session, Tejal opens up about losing her sense of taste and smell when she had Covid, what it felt like to get it back, how she's adjusted to life in Los Angeles, and being a picky eater as a child. We also cover the start of her career as a food critic, how she goes about writing a review, whether she worries about hurting a chef's feelings, going with her mom to Noma Tokyo and eating raw shrimp covered with ants (spoiler: her mom liked it!), and setting the internet on fire with her article claiming that California's bagels are better than New York's (I agree). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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