Ligaya Mishan

Coming Up

Food criticism at Ligaya Mishan’s level draws on reporting, editing, and a working sense of how restaurants actually function. Princeton University and Cornell University gave Mishan the academic base; food journalism gave the practice. From 2012 to 2020, that practice took shape in New York City through the Hungry City column at The New York Times, where Mishan wrote from inside the city’s daily dining life rather than above it. Since 2007, Mishan has been food columnist of The New Yorker, and since 2025 has served as chief restaurant critic of The New York Times.

Where They Are Now

Chief restaurant critic at The New York Times is a role that sits at the center of the paper’s food coverage, and Mishan took it in 2025. The position asks for judgment, range, and the ability to read restaurants as cultural as well as culinary institutions.

In Their Words “I’m interested in not just the food, but also the people and stories behind it, and how the way we eat tells us something about who we are.” “I got a job as a hostess at a bistro, and learned the madness (and thrill) of a packed house at full tilt and the labor and will required to keep a restaurant alive.”