Chronicle critic Ho nominated for award

The Chronicle’s Soleil Ho has been nominated for a James Beard Foundation award for her restaurant criticism.

On Monday, the James Beard Foundation announced that Ho was among the finalists for its

Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award, along with Ryan Sutton of Eater.com and Pete Wells of the New York Times. The winner will be announced May 27.

Ho, 32, joined The Chronicle in January 2019 after moving from Minneapolis. Her previous work included cofounding the Racist Sandwich podcast and being a freelance food and pop culture writer and restaurant chef. The reviews nominated were “Le Colonial is an orientalist specter,” “The ultimate chaat truck crawl” and

“The fantasy — and reality — of dining at Chez Panisse.”

“In one year, Soleil has transformed restaurant criticism in the Bay Area through keen observation of not only individual restaurants but our restaurant world itself. She questions conventional wisdom. She pulls in high and pop culture. She is fearless. And she loves food with a crazy, burning passion — which always shows in her writing,” says Kitty Morgan, The Chronicle’s deputy managing editor for features.

Other nominees among the food journalism finalists included the publications the Bitter Southerner, Gastro Obscura, and the New Yorker for food coverage in a generalinterest publication, and writers Devra First of the Boston Globe, Lucas Kwan Peterson of the Los Angeles Times and Rosalind Bentley of Gravy for best food columns.