Daniel Hernandez

Daniel Hernandez has written about lowrider cruises, gentrification in Mexico City, cholo NFTs, raw milk drinkers in rural L.A. and the controversial $1,500 Noma tasting menu. He is currently a staff writer for the Food section at the Los Angeles Times, where he served as Food editor from 2022 to 2026. He was nominated for a James Beard Media Award in 2024 and 2026. He previously covered culture for Entertainment, receiving the inaugural Nell Minow Award for Cultural Criticism from the National Press Club for that work. In two other stints, he’s been a reporter in Metro and in the Mexico City bureau.

Hernandez has worked as a staff writer at LA Weekly; Mexico bureau chief and correspondent for Vice News; contributing columnist for Art in America magazine; and reporter for Styles at the New York Times. In 2017, he led the relaunch of L.A. Taco, resulting in the James Beard Emerging Voice Award for the site in 2020. He has appeared on a variety of major platforms, including NPR (“All Things Considered”), Netflix (“The Taco Chronicles”; “The Day I Met El Chapo”), HBO (“Vice News Tonight on HBO”), and Vice (“The Munchies Guide to Oaxaca”).

Hernandez studied English at UC Berkeley. There, he served as editor of the Daily Californian. He is author of a nonfiction book “Down & Delirious in Mexico City” and was a 2018 MacDowell fellow. Hernandez is a native of the San Diego-Tijuana border region and lives in South L.A. with his exceptionally chatty cat, Raspberry Dolores.