Soleil Ho

Soleil Ho (born 1987 or 1988)^[1] is an American chef, food writer, podcaster, and restaurant critic. They were formerly co-host of the podcast The Racist Sandwich.^[2]

Ho became the food critic at the San Francisco Chronicle in 2019, replacing Michael Bauer.^[1] Ho left the position in 2023, becoming a part of the Chronicle's opinion desk.^[3] Ho was awarded the James Beard Award for Criticism in 2022, and was nominated for the same award in 2020 and 2023.^[4]

Early life and education

Born into a Vietnamese-American family in rural Illinois, Ho was raised in New York City with their mother Francie, who worked in the fashion industry, and their sister.^[5] They graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 2005.^[6] Ho graduated from Grinnell College in 2009.^[1]

Career

As a chef, Ho has worked at restaurants in New Orleans, Minneapolis,^[7] Portland, Oregon, and Puerto Vallarta, where their mother owned a restaurant.^[1]

Ho and journalist Zahir Janmohamed launched a podcast titled Racist Sandwich about under-reported issues in the food industry in 2016; one of their listeners, artist and writer Blue Delliquanti, collaborated with them on the 2017 graphic novel MEAL about "eating bugs, queer desire, and opening a restaurant".

In 2019, they replaced Michael Bauer, who retired after 32 years as the restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.^[7] Ho has joked that Bauer, their predecessor at the newspaper, held the job since they were "not even a fetus".^[1] In their first year, they produced a new methodology for the Chronicle's listicles, prioritizing diversity, affordability and localness, detailing ADA compliance and plant-based options, using public transportation, and eliminating starred reviews.^[5]

Literary works

Ho is careful about the connotations of the words they select. A specific example is that they do not use the term "kaffir lime" because kaffir is a racial slur in South Africa. More generally, they do not think that "ethnic" food is a legitimate concept. Ho says "The imprecision of the word—and the assumption that it doesn’t apply equally to people and cuisines associated with Europe or white America—gives me such a headache."^[8] They consider terms like "sustainable," "responsibly grown" and "farm-to-table" to be marketing buzzwords that are too often abused.^[9] Ho is especially critical of gentrification in their writing, expressing concern that food writing can function as "the language of real estate marketing".^[5]

Ho mentions poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib, food critic Ruth Reichl and newspaper critic-at-large Wesley Morris as among their influences. Ho says that they want to write about restaurants that "tell a story" which may focus on "race, gender, class or the culture of the Bay Area".^[1]

Ho and journalist Zahir Janmohamed launched a podcast titled Racist Sandwich about under-reported issues in the food industry in 2016; one of their listeners, Blue Delliquanti, co-authored a graphic novel titled MEAL with them the next year. The book is described as a "graphic novel on culinary mentorship, queer romance, and eating insects".^[5][7]

Concerned about their legacy in a high-profile position, Ho commented, "What if I screw up and no one ever hires a queer woman of color for a role like this again?"^[10]