Brad A. Johnson
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Brad A. Johnson

Food & Travel

Brad A Johnson
  • Blog
  • About
  • Photography
    • Food Photography
    • Travel Photography
    • Restaurant Photography
    • Hotel & Resort Photography
  • Writing
  • Contact

About

BIOGRAPHY

Editor | Writer | Photographer | Critic | Traveler

Brad A. Johnson is one of America’s leading voices on food and travel.

Brad is the Editorial Director at Internova Travel Group and the Global Travel Collection (the largest collection of luxury travel agents worldwide), where he is launching a new luxury consumer travel magazine unlike anything else in the market. Stay tuned for more details!

Long recognized as one of America’s leading restaurant critics, Brad has earned the world’s top prizes from the James Beard Foundation, the World Food Media Awards, the California Journalism Awards, the Society for Features Journalism, the Association of Food Journalists and more. He is equally accomplished for travel writing and hotel reviews, having collected more than two dozen awards spanning two decades from the North American Travel Journalists Association, the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards and others.

A photographer even before he was a writer, Brad’s food and travel photography has been selected for prestigious honors from the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the worldwide Taste Food Photography Awards and the Society of American Travel Writers, to name a few. In 2021, Brad was named a finalist in the global Food Photographer of the Year competition, with his work being chosen for exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society in England. 

Two things inspire most of Brad’s travels: great food and beautiful hotels — dueling passions that have lured him to 37 countries on six continents. Brad has devoted weeks at a time to eating pozole in Zihuatanejo or pizza in Naples. He has tracked gorillas on foot through Uganda’s Impenetrable Forest, fished for trout in the Himalayas of Kashmir, hunted winter truffles in Western Australia and traveled by rail for 1,500 miles through Southeast Asia. He was the only travel journalist from the U.S. invited to fly the historic maiden voyage of the Airbus A380 on its first-ever commercial flight with Singapore Airlines. An admitted luxury hotel junkie, he has slept in 20 Four Seasons and 10 Park Hyatts around the world (and counting), but he also enjoys a good roadside motel so long as the pillows and linens are top-notch. 

Brad recently served as the anonymous restaurant critic for the Orange County Register in Southern California (not connected to this blog). Before joining the Register, Brad helped pioneer Modern Luxury Media, the largest publisher of luxury lifestyle magazines in the U.S., where for more than a decade he served as national food and travel editor. He is a former longtime contributing reporter at Food & Wine and was the chief dining critic for the launch of Time Out Los Angeles. He has served as a frequent contributor to Robb Report and columnist at Food Republic and Mexico Today. His writing and photography have appeared in dozens of other publications worldwide, including Travel & Leisure, New York Post, Toronto Star, The Hollywood Reporter, The Star Malaysia, Mandarin Oriental and B-Eat Magazin (Berlin).

AWARDS

This is an abbreviated list of global achievements.


WORLD FOOD MEDIA AWARDS
Best Restaurant Critic, 2010
Best Restaurant Critic – Nominee, 2007
Best Restaurant Critic – Nominee, 2005


JAMES BEARD AWARDS
Best Restaurant Critic, 2008
Best Restaurant Critic – Nominee, 2007
Best Restaurant Critic – Nominee, 2004


NORTH AMERICAN TRAVEL JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION

2002 – 2020, 24 Awards, including:
Best Travel Blog 2020, 2022
Best Culinary Travel Writing 2020
Best Travel Photography 2022
Best International Destination Travel Writing
Best Travel Column
Best Travel Series


LOWELL THOMAS TRAVEL JOURNALISM AWARDS / SOCIETY OF AMERICAN TRAVEL WRITERS

Best Travel Blog, 2011, 2019-2020
Best Travel Photography / Illustrated Story, 2017
Best Column or Blog, Western Chapter, 2022
Best Culinary Travel Writing, Western Chapter, 2022
Best Short Work on Travel, Western Chapter, 2022
Best Travel Photography, Western Chapter, 2022


SOCIETY FOR FEATURES JOURNALISM

Best Food Criticism, 2019, 2021
Best Food Writing Portfolio (finalist), 2019, 2022


ASSOCIATION OF FOOD JOURNALISTS

Best Restaurant Critic (nominee), 2019


INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CULINARY PROFESSIONALS
Best Individual Instagram – Finalist 2021, 2022
Best Food Column – Finalist 2016


FOOD PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR AWARDS

Finalist, 2021
Shortlisted, 2022


PdN TASTE – INTERNATIONAL FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS

Best Food Photography on Social Media, 2016
Best Food Photography – Professional, 2016


CALIFORNIA JOURNALISM AWARDS
California News Publishers Association
Best Newspaper Columnist – Finalist, 2020


SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JOURNALISM AWARDS

Best Restaurant Critic – 2022, 2018, 2017; Finalist, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021
Best Travel Writing – Finalist, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021
Best Independent Blog – Finalist, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021
Best Use of Social Media – Finalist, 2022 (x2)


NATIONAL ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALISM
AWARDS
Best Criticism, Food/Culture – 2022; Finalist, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 (x2), 2022 (x2)
Best Independent Blog – Finalist, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Best Social Media – Finalist, 2022


ORANGE COUNTY PRESS CLUB

9x Best Restaurant Critic
4x Best Food Story
6x Best Travel Writing
2x Best Blog
2x Best Roundup Feature
3x David McQuay Award, Columnist of the Year (finalist)
4x Best Photography
Marjorie Freeman Award for Humorous Writing
Real OC Award (finalist)

Hey, OC. FYI in case you missed it, @ryegoods has opened a new location on Red Hill in Tustin, just down the street from Flight/Mess Hall. Same incredible breads and pastries as the original on the peninsula. No lines here, plus a huge seating area. #sourdough #pastries #coffee #orangecounty 322 9
One more post from our lovely stay at @fstokyo. Delicious lunch at @maisonmarunouchi, the casual sibling to @sezannetokyo. Excellent all around. And clearly popular with Tokyo's ladies who lunch: the clientele during our visit, almost entirely women. Quite the see-and-be-seen crowd. 57 1
I’m not sure which I liked better about the @fstokyo, the valet greeter and escort from the train station, the view of the trains from our room, or the super comfy pajamas. Excellent service all around. #Tokyo #Japan #hoteljunkie 79 3
I think @sezannetokyo ⁠has a #footfetish, and I’m ok with that. Truly fantastic lunch. Impeccable service. ⁠ 63 1
We had a really fun "Lost in Translation" moment at @meatman_roppongi. Google Translate failed hilariously. Delicious meat/fat overload anyway. Great staff, charming hospitality. Lots of sake. Thank you, @fstokyo for securing the reservation! #Tokyo #Roppongi #sake 76 1
Well, that was interesting.  A toast to 2022. And looking forward to ‘23. Cheers, and safe travels to all. 81 1
Brad A. Johnson
  • Blog
  • About
  • Photography
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  • Contact
Writer. Photographer. Traveler. Restaurant Critic.

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