BRAD A. JOHNSON

BIOGRAPHY

Brad A. Johnson is a writer and photographer specializing in food and travel. He is the only critic in America to win both the James Beard Award and the Cordon Bleu World Food Media Award for restaurant criticism—two of the largest prizes a food critic can win in America and worldwide, respectively. Brad’s food writing has also garnered recognition from the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the Association of Food Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Orange County Press Club, and the Jesse H. Neal Business Journalism Foundation.

Brad’s travel writing is equally notable. He has won more than a dozen awards from the North American Travel Journalists Association and the Society of American Travel Writers for topics as wide ranging as tracking 800-pound gorillas in Uganda’s Impenetrable Forest to an exhaustive quest to find the best pizza in Naples or the best pozole in Zihuatanejo. He has visited every continent and has traveled by train, boat, bicycle, vintage car, private jet… even by camel. Brad was the only travel journalist from the United States to fly aboard the maiden voyage of the Airbus A380 Super Jumbo, the world’s largest airplane, on its inaugural flight from Singapore to Sydney.

Brad currently serves as restaurant critic for the Orange County Register in Southern California. He is a former longtime contributing reporter at Food & Wine, frequent contributor to Robb Report and columnist at Food Republic and Mexico Today. He previously helped pioneer Modern Luxury Media, the largest publisher of luxury lifestyle magazines in the U.S., where he served as national food and travel editor. His writing and photography have appeared in dozens of other publications worldwide, including New York Post, Toronto Star, The Hollywood Reporter, The Star Malaysia, Time Out Los Angeles, Sunset, Angeleno, Manhattan, St. Regis Bespoke, and Mandarin Oriental’s MO. Brad also served as the resident critic on the tv show Beat The Chefs, which aired nationally on GSN.

AWARDS

Brad is one of America’s most illustrious food and travel writers. This is an abbreviated list of global achievements.

WORLD FOOD MEDIA AWARDS 2010 — BEST RESTAURANT CRITIC
WORLD FOOD MEDIA AWARDS 2007 — NOMINEE, BEST RESTAURANT CRITIC
WORLD FOOD MEDIA AWARDS 2005 — NOMINEE, BEST RESTAURANT CRITIC

JAMES BEARD AWARDS 2008 — BEST RESTAURANT CRITIC
JAMES BEARD AWARDS 2007 — NOMINEE, BEST RESTAURANT CRITIC
JAMES BEARD AWARDS 2004 — NOMINEE, BEST RESTAURANT CRITIC