Irene S. Virbila

S. Irene Virbila is a former restaurant critic and wine columnist for the Los Angeles Times, where she worked for 22 years and left in 2015. Before joining The Times in 1993, she wrote about food, wine, and travel from Europe and Asia, trained as a sommelier in Paris, and had been part of the Berkeley culinary scene when Chez Panisse changed everything. Her work earned a James Beard Foundation Award and the American Food Journalists Award.