Fil-Am Ligaya Mishan is new co-chief restaurant critic for New York Times
MANILA, Philippines — Filipino-American writer Ligaya Mishan has been appointed as one of the new co-chief restaurant critics at the prestigious American newspaper the New York Times.
Mishan joins Los Angeles-based critic Tejal Rao — who like Mishan has written about food for the newspaper for years — in formally replacing Pete Wells, who was the New York Times' chief restaurant critic for over a decade before stepping down.
This is the first time the newspaper will have more than one chief restaurant critics, and two women of color at that.
The two women's appointment is part of efforts to expand starred restaurant reviews across the United States instead of focusing nearly exclusively in New York.
Mishan will still be based in New York while Rao will continue writing from Los Angeles, though both are expected to travel a lot.
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The two will forgo anonymity when going to new restaurants but will still do their best to not draw major attention.
"We've tasked both Tejal and Ligaya with capturing this moment in American dining — the restaurants that are most interesting, exciting, and emblematic of our times," the newspaper said in a statement.
Mishan grew up in Hawaii with her Filipino mother from Cotobato and English father. She graduated from Princeton University with an English Literature bachelor's degree and from Cornell University with a Creative Writing and Poetry master's degree.
She has been contributing to the New York Times for just over two decades, including writing the "Hungry City" column from 2012 to 2020, and has featured Filipino cuisine a number of times.
In 2021, she and Filipino-American chef Angela Dimayuga published the cookbook "Filipinx: Heritage Recipes from the Diaspora".
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