Soleil Ho (born) is an American chef, food writer, podcaster, and restaurant critic. Formerly co-host of the podcast The Racist Sandwich,[1] Ho became the food critic at the San Francisco Chronicle in 2019, replacing Michael Bauer. Ho left the position in 2023, becoming a part of the Chronicles opinion desk.[2] Ho was awarded the James Beard Award for criticism in 2022, and was nominated for the same in 2020 and 2023.[3]
Born into a Vietnamese-American family in rural Illinois, Ho was raised in New York City with their mother Francie, who worked in the fashion industry, and their sister.[4] They graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 2005.[5] Ho graduated from Grinnell College in 2009.
As a chef, Ho has worked at restaurants in New Orleans, Minneapolis, Portland, Oregon, and Puerto Vallarta, where their mother owned a restaurant.[6]
Ho and journalist Zahir Janmohamed launched a podcast titled Racist Sandwich about under-reported issues in the food industry in 2016; one of their listeners, artist and writer Blue Delliquanti, colloborated with them on the 2017 graphic novel MEAL about "eating bugs, queer desire, and opening a restaurant".
In 2019, they replaced Michael Bauer, who retired after 32 years as the restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.[7] Ho has joked that Bauer, their predecessor at the newspaper, held the job since they were "not even a fetus".[6] In their first year, they produced a new methodology for the Chronicles listicles, prioritizing diversity, affordability and localness, detailing ADA compliance and plant-based options, using public transportation, and eliminating starred reviews.[4]
Ho is careful about the connotations of the words they select. A specific example is that they do not use the term "kaffir lime" because kaffir is a racial slur in South Africa. More generally, they do not think that "ethnic" food is a legitimate concept. Ho says "The imprecision of the word—and the assumption that it doesn’t apply equally to people and cuisines associated with Europe or white America—gives me such a headache."[8] They consider terms like "sustainable," "responsibly grown" and "farm-to-table" to be marketing buzzwords that are too often abused.[9] Ho is especially critical of gentrification in their writing, expressing concern that food writing can function as "the language of real estate marketing".[4]
Ho mentions poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib, food critic Ruth Reichl and newspaper critic-at-large Wesley Morris as among their influences. Ho says that they want to write about restaurants that "tell a story" which may focus on "race, gender, class or the culture of the Bay Area".[6]
Ho and journalist Zahir Janmohamed launched a podcast titled Racist Sandwich about under-reported issues in the food industry in 2016; one of their listeners, Blue Delliquanti, co-authored a graphic novel titled MEAL with them the next year. The book is described as a "graphic novel on culinary mentorship, queer romance, and eating insects".[4] [7]
Concerned about their legacy in a high-profile position, Ho commented, "What if I screw up and no one ever hires a queer woman of color for a role like this again?"[10]