BIOGRAPHY
Writer | Photographer | Traveler | Critic
Brad A. Johnson is one of America’s leading voices on food and travel.
As a restaurant critic, Brad has earned the world’s top prizes from the James Beard Foundation, the World Food Media Awards, California Journalism Awards, Society for Features Journalism, 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 have 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. An admitted luxury hotel junkie, he has slept in nearly 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. Since the pandemic, Brad has temporarily refocused his travels mostly on California and Mexico, fortifying his already deep expertise in destinations closer to home but with an eye toward Asia in 2022.
For his day job, Brad serves 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. Brad 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 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 International Destination Travel Writing
Best Travel Column
Best Travel Photography
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
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 – 2017, 2018; Finalist, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Best Travel Writing – Finalist, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021
Best Independent Blog – Finalist, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021
Best Use of Social Media – Finalist, 2022
NATIONAL ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALISM AWARDS
Best Criticism, Food/Culture – Finalist, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 (x2)
Best Independent Blog – Finalist, 2019, 2020, 2021
ORANGE COUNTY PRESS CLUB
9x Best Restaurant Critic
4x Best Food Story
4x Best Travel Writing
Best Blog, Entertainment/Culture
2x Best Roundup Feature
Marjorie Freeman Award for Humorous Writing
3x David McQuay Award, Columnist of the Year (finalist)
3x Best Photography (finalist)
Real OC Award (finalist)