California Didn’t Invent Fusion. We Lived It. Then We Wrote It Down. Our history has been vast and we will continue to build
CaliFoodReviews.com wasn’t born in a kitchen.
It was born on a sidewalk—next to a folding table—at a pupusa stand that didn’t have a sign, didn’t take cards, and didn’t need marketing to have a line 30 people deep.
The dish was hot. The salsa was too real. The masa was like memory.
That’s when I knew:
If I don’t write this down, nobody will.
That moment started this site. Not a campaign. Not a brand plan. Just flavor and urgency.
Table of Contents
What Came Before the Blog
California food culture has always been a conversation between borders—a remix of migration, hustle, resistance, and family.
I grew up in East L.A. Raised on tamales and tension. I saw food evolve not in restaurants, but in kitchens built for survival, joy, and identity.
Before this site launched, it lived in:
- Scribbled notes in my phone
- Photos with no captions
- Voice memos recorded while chewing
- Yelp drafts I never published because they felt too sanitized
Eventually, I stopped trying to fit into other platforms and built my own.
Timeline of What Happened Next
- 2019: First test posts went live under a pseudonym
- 2020: Official launch of CaliFoodReviews.com
- 2021: Focused coverage on L.A., Oakland, San Diego, and South Bay neighborhoods
- 2022: Added AI-enhanced visual storytelling and deep-dive historical food context
- 2023: Wrote our first “erased kitchen” piece about a closed Filipino bakery in Daly City
- 2024: Passed 250+ site visits and reviews—no sponsorships, no comps
- 2025: Rolled out full editorial code, mapped out regional influence tags, and defined our mission as documentary, not marketing
What We’re Actually Doing
This is not a foodie blog.
This is a cultural preservation project disguised as restaurant reviews.
We write about:
- Palestinian delis next to Korean barbershops
- 2-person ramen joints on the edge of gentrified neighborhoods
- Salvadoran women selling $3 meals to people who’ve forgotten what lunch costs
- Tacos al vapor made from 60-year-old family recipes—sold out of a van parked near train tracks
We document what’s real—not what’s PR-ready.
Why It Matters – it’s Our History
Because every month, we lose something.
Another restaurant closes.
Another culture gets watered down for a concept menu.
Another first-gen chef’s story gets reduced to a “twist on a classic.”
California is constantly being consumed.
We’re here to record what’s left before it’s rebranded and resold without its soul.
We’re not nostalgic.
We’re forensic.
And we write so that someone, somewhere, someday, can taste what it used to mean to be here.
Who’s Behind the Voice
I’m Jess R. Valez—Mexican-American, born in L.A., raised between lines.
I studied law, dropped it, and picked up the pen. Because documenting food was documenting everything else—migration, class, displacement, resistance, rhythm.
You can read more on my author page or dig deeper at my personal site.
Where We’re Going
We’re not stopping at reviews.
We’re building:
- Regional influence timelines by dish, migration path, and evolution
- A “dead kitchens” archive to preserve the memory of what we’ve lost
- Visual essays on cultural food spaces: corner markets, underground dinners, community kitchens
- A search system by cultural root, neighborhood, and emotional tone
This isn’t just content. It’s cartography for flavor.
If You Want the PR Gloss…
You can find California’s marketed identity at CA.gov.
Tourism, tech, climate—they’ve got that covered.
But if you want to feel California through the grease on your fingers and the steam in your face—start at our homepage.
If you want to understand how we operate, or why we write the way we do, visit the About the Author page.
CaliFoodReviews.com is a record.
Of how flavor builds identity.
And how identity refuses to be erased.
We’ll be here. Documenting. Until the lights go out.