Do restaurant critics have a double standard for Mexican cuisine?

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People taste Mexican cuisine at the sixth annual Mole Fair on October 6, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.

Street food vs. fine dining: Mexican chefs argue food critics are biased against high quality meals in favor of small, humble, places or hole-in-the-wall, street-cart-style fare. Those are seen as authentic, while higher end Mexican places are dismissed as “inauthentic.

Street food vs. fine dining: some Mexican chefs argue food critics are biased against high-quality meals in favor of small, humble, places or hole-in-the-wall, street-cart-style fare.

Those are seen as authentic, while higher end Mexican places are dismissed as “inauthentic.”

When you go out for white-tablecloth meals, do you default toward French or Japanese instead of considering Mexican? If you normally pay a buck-fifty for a taco or tamale, would you shell out $15 or $20 if it used top-notch ingredients, organic and local to boot?

Guests:

Ricardo Cervantes, Proprietor, La Monarca Bakery; President of the Taste of Mexico Association - a restaurant association created in 2010 by LA’s top native Mexican restaurateurs.

Jonathan Gold, Restaurant Critic, Los Angeles Times; Pulitzer Prize winning food writer