Laurie Ochoa

Food editing at the Los Angeles Times has been shaped by Laurie Ochoa’s early editorial work at Slake: Los Angeles, where the assignment was less about narrow beat coverage than about reading a city through its meals, its arguments, and its habits of taste. That first role signaled a writer and editor working with range: attentive to what food says about place, and careful about how that meaning lands with readers in a city that changes quickly.

At Slake: Los Angeles, Ochoa treated food as a reporting lens rather than a standalone topic. The work sat inside culture, identity, community, and the daily texture of urban life, which is where food writing often earns its value for trade readers. The editorial posture established there was clear and unsentimental: observe closely, connect the facts to the larger civic picture, and keep the reader in view. At the Los Angeles Times, Laurie Ochoa holds the role of General Manager, Food, where editorial judgment and operational responsibility meet.

The work requires more than coverage decisions; it also means shaping how food is framed for a broad audience, with the Los Angeles Times serving as both a daily publication and a civic reference point. In that setting, food coverage has to carry practical relevance and cultural weight at the same time.

The present role of General Manager, Food at the Los Angeles Times extends the same editorial discipline that marked Laurie Ochoa’s earlier work at Slake: Los Angeles. The line between those positions is a study in continuity: food as culture, journalism as structure, and audience service as a daily standard. What changes is scale; what remains is the task of giving food coverage enough precision to reflect the city it serves.