S.Irene Virbila

S. Irene Virbila has been restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times since 1994 where her reviews have won the James Beard Foundation Award in 1997 and the American Food Journalists Award in 2005. Previously, as a freelancer, she traveled extensively through Europe and Asia researching stories on food, wine and travel for Wine Spectator, Food & Wine, Metropolitan Home, the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, among others. She trained as a sommelier in Paris and also writes a weekly Wine of the Week column for the Times.