Soleil Ho Steps Down As SF Chronicle Restaurant Critic After Three Years of Transforming the Role

When Soleil Ho started at the San Francisco Chronicle as restaurant critic in 2019, they were widely hailed as exemplifying the “next generation” of criticism. Ho 86’d the star system, shifted away from breathless coverage of the glitziest restaurants and brought a social justice lens to their reviews. But a year into Ho’s ambitious overhaul, the COVID pandemic hit and the future of the entire restaurant industry was in question. “The moment marked an abrupt transition in what I thought, to be honest, was going to be a pretty straightforward job of eating stuff and writing fun things about it,” Ho wrote last week in an article announcing that they were stepping away from the position. “All of sudden, dining out became literally a matter of life and death.” As part of our All You Can Eat series with KQED food editor Luke Tsai, we talk with Soleil Ho about food criticism, the changing role of the critic and the state of the Bay Area’s pandemic shaken food scene.