Brad A. Johnson
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  • Photography
    • Food Photography
    • Travel Photography
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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

Brad A. Johnson is a writer and photographer specializing in food and travel. He is the only critic in America to have won both the James Beard Award and the World Food Media Award for restaurant criticism—two of the largest prizes for restaurant critics in America and worldwide, respectively.

Brad’s writing on food has also garnered recognition from the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the Association of Food Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Los Angeles Press Club, the Orange County Press Club, the California Journalism Awards (CNPA), the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, the Society for Features Journalism and the Jesse H. Neal Business Journalism Foundation.

Brad’s travel writing and photography have been equally distinguished, winning two dozen awards from the North American Travel Journalists Association, the Society of American Travel Writers and others. Award-winning subjects include a gorilla trek through Uganda’s Impenetrable Forest, an exhaustive quest to find the best pizza in Naples, a deep dive into pozole in Zihuatanejo, and a poignant exploration of the food and wine of Basilicata. He has visited 37 countries on six continents 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 for more than a decade he served as national food and travel editor. His writing and photography have appeared in dozens of publications worldwide, including New York Post, Toronto Star, The Hollywood Reporter, The Star Malaysia, B-Eat Magazin (Berlin), Time Out Los Angeles, Sunset, Angeleno, Manhattan, St. Regis Bespoke, and Mandarin Oriental’s Destination MO. Brad also served as the resident critic on the tv show Beat The Chefs, which aired nationally on GSN.

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, 22 Awards, including:
Best Travel Blog 2020
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, 2019-2020
Best Travel Photography / Illustrated Story, 2017
Best Travel Blog, 2011


SOCIETY FOR FEATURES JOURNALISM
Best Food Criticism, 2019
Best Food Writing Portfolio (finalist), 2019


ASSOCIATION OF FOOD JOURNALISTS
Best Restaurant Critic (nominee), 2019


INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CULINARY PROFESSIONALS

Best Food Column – Finalist, 2016


FOOD PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR AWARDS
Finalist, 2021


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 – Finalist, 2020
Best Travel Writing – Finalist, 2020
Best Independent Blog – Finalist, 2020
Best Restaurant Critic – Finalist, 2019
Best Restaurant Critic – 2018
Best Restaurant Critic, 2017
Best Travel Writing – Finalist, 2017


NATIONAL ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALISM
AWARDS
Best Criticism, Food/Culture – Finalist, 2020
Best Independent Blog – Finalist, 2020
Best Criticism, Food/Culture – Finalist, 2019
Best Criticism, Food/Culture – Finalist, 2018
Best Criticism, Food/Culture – Finalist, 2017


ORANGE COUNTY PRESS CLUB

7x Best Restaurant Critic
3x Best Food Story
3x Best Travel Writing
Best Blog, Entertainment/Culture
Marjorie Freeman Award for Humorous Writing
2x David McQuay Award, Columnist of the Year (finalist)

 

Feeling blessed. Out of more than 10,000 entries from 70 countries, I've been shortlisted in two categories in the 2021 Food Photographer of the Year competition. Thank you, @foodphotoaward ⁠⁠ 97 18
Maybe I’m biased because I grew up eating this kind of sausage from the old German smokehouses in the Texas Hill Country, but I believe the dry hunter sausages from Central Europe — landjäeger, gyulai, cabanossi and the like — are some of the best charcuterie in the world. And I finally found them in OC at Mattern Sausage Deli in Orange. Story online now at ocregister.com @ocregister⁠⁠ 99 6
How to gain 5 pounds in 1 week. ⁠⁠ 168 30
When's the last time your poured yourself a purple drank? ⁠⁠ 181 8
It’s starting to look like a light at the end of this dark tunnel. Please get vaccinated as soon as you can, and continue to keep others safe and comfortable even after you’ve gotten your shots. This isn't over. ⁠⁠ 160 13
Daydreaming of New York. If you get a chance, pick up a copy of the @ocregister newspaper today. It explains my recent posts. 50 2
Brad A. Johnson
  • Blog
  • About
  • Photography
  • Writing
  • Contact
Writer. Photographer. Traveler. Restaurant Critic.

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