Danielle Dorsey joins the Los Angeles Times’ Food team as assistant editor for guides

The following announcement was sent on behalf of Food Editor Daniel Hernandez:

The feedback to this month’s rebranding of L.A. Times Food has been overwhelmingly positive and fruitful, from both our audiences and colleagues internally. With the success of the relaunch, Food this year hopes to keep expanding ranks to meet our goals. And to that end, Laurie Ochoa and I are happy to announce that Danielle Dorsey has joined The Times as Food’s assistant editor for guides.

This is a new role for our department, which reflects the newspaper’s overall commitment to utility journalism and service to our readers. Dorsey’s mission is to expand our growing slate of point-of-interest guides that reflect the range of L.A. cuisines, from restaurants, shops, dishes and drinks to neighborhood-specific maps.

She’ll work closely with our columnists, staff writers and freelancers, who collectively have already built an impressive stack of maps for such local obsessions as classic Mexican restaurants, halal food, dumplings and more.

Dorsey is uniquely qualified to lead these efforts. She joins us from Thrillist, where she served as senior West Coast editor, managing food, drink and travel coverage across California and Las Vegas. She has a remarkable well of up-to-the-minute knowledge on all aspects of dining and drinking in Los Angeles, from the high-end to the street level.

“Mapped guides can be really useful and convenient ways to dig into a neighborhood and maybe highlight restaurants or points of interest that you wouldn’t discover or that people don’t know to look for,” Dorsey says. “It’s just a handy tool to help people explore their city in a new way.”

Before Thrillist, Dorsey freelanced as a food and travel journalist, writing for publications including Lonely Planet, Culture Trip, Essence, Travel+Leisure, Travel Noire and Well+Good. She frequently weighs in as an expert on L.A.’s food scene, including past appearances on “Good Day L.A.,” KCRW’s “Greater LA” and “All Things Considered,” and recently, as a guest judge on the Netflix series “Pressure Cooker” (Episode 7 of the current season, for any fans).

Dorsey started in late December and dove right in. Her first original guide publishes today, a sample of enticing food specials available around town in observance of Lunar New Year.

A Southern California native, she grew up across San Diego and Riverside counties and is a graduate of Cal State Los Angeles. She has happily called L.A. home for 15 years.

What is Dorsey excited about covering in the near future? She replies: “There’s so many things! Speaking of drinks, you could argue that L.A. is one of the best places to try mezcal in the world, so I’m always interested in giving people resources to learn more about that, and especially in ways that can support local Oaxacan communities and other areas where mezcal is from.”