Tejal Rao

Tejal Rao is a highly acclaimed restaurant critic and food writer who was appointed as one of The New York Times' two co-chief restaurant critics in June 2025, marking a historic shift toward nationally focused restaurant coverage. Born in London to immigrant parents (her mother from Uganda, father from India), Rao spent her youth in Kuwait, Sudan, and France before settling in Georgia as a teenager. She earned a BA in Literature from Emerson College and initially worked as a line cook in Northern California before transitioning to food journalism. Her career trajectory includes winning the James Beard Foundation's Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award twice - first in 2013 while at The Village Voice and again in 2016 at Bloomberg. She joined The New York Times in 2016 as a food department staff writer and was named the publication's first California restaurant critic in 2018. In 2021, she became the editor of The Times' vegetarian recipe newsletter 'The Veggie.' Her writing focuses particularly on marginalized communities and immigrant food stories, bringing cultural depth and social awareness to restaurant criticism. As co-chief critic, she maintains her California base while traveling nationally to review restaurants across the country, breaking The Times' tradition of New York-centric starred reviews.