Tejal Rao

Tejal Rao (born 1982 or 1983)^[2] is a restaurant critic, recipe developer and writer based in Los Angeles.^[3] She is one of the two chief restaurant critics for The New York Times.^[4] In 2018, she was named the first California restaurant critic for The New York Times.^[3] In 2021, she was named editor of the New York Times subscription cooking newsletter The Veggie.^[5]

Tejal Rao
Born	1982 or 1983 (age 41–42) London, United Kingdom
Education	Emerson College (BA)[1]
Alma mater	Emerson College
Occupation(s)	Restaurant critic, recipe developer
Employer(s)	The Village Voice, New York Times, Bloomberg L.P.
Website	www.tejalrao.com

Early life and education

Rao was born in London, but spent time in Kuwait, Sudan, and France during her youth before settling in Cobb County, Georgia as a teenager.^[6] Rao's mother was born in Uganda and her father was raised in India.^{[citation needed]}

Rao attended Emerson College, where she earned a BA in literature.^[6]

Career

In 2012, Rao joined The Village Voice as a food critic.^[7] In 2013, Rao won the James Beard Foundation’s Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award for her work for The Village Voice.^[8]

In 2014, Rao joined Bloomberg as a food editor and restaurant critic.^[9] In 2016, she won the James Beard Foundation’s Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award once again, this time for her work at Bloomberg.^[10] In the same year, Rao joined The New York Times as a food department staff writer and monthly columnist for its magazine.^[11] In 2018, she was named The New York Times' first California restaurant critic, to better serve the growing number of New York Times readers in the state.^[3]

In 2021, Rao was named The New York Times writer for the vegetarian recipe newsletter The Veggie.^[5] Although she is not a vegetarian, Rao enjoys cooking vegetarian food.^[12]

In June 2025, The New York Times appointed Rao as one of its two new chief restaurant critics, marking a shift toward nationally focused restaurant coverage and ending the tradition of critic anonymity.^[4]

Rao has also contributed to a range of other publications, such as The Atlantic, Edible, and Gourmet, among others.^[6]

Personal life

In December 2020, she contracted COVID-19 and lost her sense of smell. She used smell therapy to regain it over the course of two months.^[13][14] She lives in Los Angeles.^[15]

Awards and accolades

• 2012 – Forbes 30 under 30, Food & Wine^[16]
• 2013 – James Beard Foundation Awards, Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award for "Bangkok Pop, No F etishes,; The Sweet Taste of Success,; Enter the Comfort Zone at 606 R&D"^[8]
• 2016 – James Beard Foundation Awards, Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award for "A Health Food Restaurant So Cool It Will Have You Happily Eating Seeds"; "Revisiting Momofuku Ko, After the Revolution"; "Polo Bar Review: Ralph Lauren Corrals the Fashionable Herd"^[10]
• 2019 – Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Culinary Arts^[6]