Roy Choi

Roy Choi

Roy Choi from Kogi BBQ
Aspen Food & Wine Fest 2010
Born Roy S Choi
(1970-02-24) February 24, 1970
Seoul, South Korea
Education Culinary Institute of America
Southern California Military Academy
Website kogibbq.com

Culinary career

Roy Choi (born February 24, 1970),[1] is a Korean American chef who gained prominence as the creator of the gourmet Korean taco truck, Kogi.[2][3][4][5] He is a chef who is celebrated for "food that isn't fancy" and is known as one of the founders of the food truck movement.[6]

Early life

Choi was born in Seoul, South Korea, to South Korean father Soo Myung Choi and North Korean mother Youn-Jin Choi.[7] Choi's parents met in the US but after marrying moved back to Korea. The family ended up emigrating from South Korea permanently in 1972.[8]

Choi was raised in Los Angeles and southern California. As Choi grew up, his parents had many businesses: a liquor store, dry-cleaning shop, a Korean restaurant, and after selling jewelry door to door, finally a successful jewelry company.[9] His parents owned a Korean restaurant in Anaheim, California, called Silver Garden[10] for three years when he was young. Choi's mother made kim chee that was so popular within their community that they packaged it and sold it locally.[6] His favorite childhood memory is making dumplings at the age of eight at his family's own restaurant.[11] The family moved many times while he was young.[3] His family once lived near Olympic Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, as well as in South Central, the Crenshaw District and West Hollywood.[12]

Choi attended a gifted-students program, but changed schools in his early teens when his parents achieved prosperity in the jewelry business and moved their family into a predominantly white neighborhood in Orange County called Villa Park,[6][13] Choi began getting into trouble, with his marks slipping as he began taking drugs and hanging out with a bad crowd.[3] At age 15, Choi's parents sent him to Southern California Military Academy in Signal Hill, California. He remembers this as a good experience.[3]

After high school, Choi went to Korea and taught English there. He then attended California State University, Fullerton, graduating with a bachelor's degree in philosophy. Choi attended Western State University law school, but dropped out after one semester.[3] At 24, confused about his life, and in a dark period around 1994 or 1995, Choi said he became obsessed with Emeril Lagasse's "Essence of Emeril" show.[14] The show inspired him to enroll in culinary school. "Emeril saved my life," Choi said.[3]

In 1996, Choi began studying at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.[11] He enjoyed the highly structured block programs, where there was no "wiggle room."[6] He worked as an intern during this period at Le Bernardin in New York City.[3]

Career

Choi gained experience as a journeyman hotel chef since the mid-1990s.[2] In 2001, he started working for Hilton Hotels. After being promoted within the company, in 2007, Choi became chef de cuisine at the Beverly Hilton. It was there that Choi met his future business partner, Mark Manguera.[3]

Choi also worked at the Embassy Suites in Sacramento and the Rock Sugar Pan Asian Kitchen in Los Angeles.[2][11]

After this classical training and years of background in four and five star cooking, Choi said that the shift to the food trucks, initially based on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice[15] was great.[2] Choi's company, Kogi, was founded in 2008 with partners Mark Manguera and his wife, Caroline Shin-Manguera.[3]

He was named one of the top ten "Best New Chefs" of 2010 by Food and Wine magazine, and is the first food truck operator to win that distinction.[11] He currently runs several Los Angeles-area restaurants: Chego! which features rice bowls,[16] Sunny Spot which is Caribbean-inspired, A-Frame which conveys the Hawaiian idea of aloha and is built in a former IHOP,[6] and Pot[17] at the Line Hotel in Koreatown.[11] His cooking style fuses Mexican and Korean flavors and dishes.[18]

In June 2013, Choi along with fellow chefs Wolfgang Puck and David Chang, convened at the Hotel Bel-Air to fuse different styles such as ggaejjang style and kochujang onto the Hotel Bel-Air menu.[19]

In November 2013, Choi released his autobiography that is part memoir part cookbook[6] called L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food.[20][21]

Choi said he didn't start out to write a book, but that he kept getting asked the same questions about his food, its flavors, and how it is prepared.[22] While Choi doesn't see the book as social commentary, he felt it was important to show the "real deal" of the duality he felt growing up as an immigrant in the 1970s; the foods served in the restaurant were quite different from what the family ate at home. The book also talks about the culture of Los Angeles and how it has changed since the 1970s.[22]

The Jon Favreau movie Chef (2014) was loosely inspired by Choi and the food truck movement. Choi worked as a technical advisor to Favreau on cooking and restaurant scenes and appears in the end credits. In addition to touring all of Choi's restaurants, Favreau attended a French culinary school and trained in several of Choi's kitchens.[23]

Time magazine had included Choi in their TIME 100 list of the most influential people in the world for 2011[4] and 2016.[24][25] Fellow chef and author Anthony Bourdain wrote that "Roy Choi first changed the world when he elevated the food-truck concept from "roach coach" to highly sought-after, ultra-hot-yet-democratic rolling restaurant."[24]

Personal life

Choi goes by nicknames Papi and El Guapo.[15]

He teaches students how to cook when he volunteers at A Place Called Home in South Central Los Angeles.[26]

Choi is a supporter of a South Central community coffee and smoothie shop called 3 Worlds Cafe, a collaboration among Choi, the neighborhood-based Coalition for Responsible Community Development, fruit conglomerate Dole Packaged Foods and nearby Jefferson High School.[27]

He also maintains a blog posting recipes and rants.[18]

During his difficult teen years and later as a young adult, Choi said that he had many addictions. He was addicted to crack for a short time and was addicted to marijuana and to gambling, which lasted for three years in his early 20s. Choi said he will never get rid of his addictions; his current addiction is feeding people.[6]

Choi has a daughter, Kaelyn.[3]

Publications

References

  1. ↑ Wang, Andy (28 February 2012). "Broken Social Scene". New York Post. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Bruno, Antoinette (1 March 2010). "Rising Stars: Community Award Winner Chef Roy Choi". StarChefs. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 McLaughlin, Katy (15 January 2010). "The King of the Streets Moves Indoors". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 19 June 2013. (subscription required (help)).
  4. 1 2 "The 2011 Time 100 Poll: Time 100 Candidates: Roy Choi". Time. 4 April 2011. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  5. ↑ Goodyear, Dana (10 May 2012). "Vegetable State of Mind: Roy Choi". The New Yorker. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Gross, Terry (7 November 2013). "Roy Choi's Tacos Channel LA And The Immigrant Experience". Fresh Air. Transcript of episode. NPR. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  7. ↑ "Roy S Choi, "United States Public Records"". FamilySearch. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  8. ↑ "Choi, Roy, 1970–". Library of Congress Authorities. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  9. ↑ Chaudhry, Nidhi (22 November 2013). "Roy Choi Author of L.A. Son Interview". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  10. ↑ "L.A. Son". Kirkus Reviews. 20 October 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 "2010 Best New Chef Award Profile: Roy Choi". Food and Wine. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  12. ↑ Knoll, Corina (12 April 2014). "Learning in reverse brought Kogi chef Roy Choi to the top". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  13. ↑ Tatusian, Tenny (21 November 2013). "Roy Choi: He's the face of L.A. at the moment". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  14. ↑ Stein, Joel (29 March 2010). "Gourmet On the Go: Good Food Goes Trucking". Time. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  15. 1 2 "Roy Choi – Kogi BBQ". KCET. 26 March 2010. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  16. ↑ Hallock, Betty (3 May 2013). "Roy Choi on Chego's move to Chinatown: 'The space has a kind of spiritual glow to it'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  17. ↑ Hallock, Betty (28 March 2014). "Roy Choi's Pot is open: Hot pots, uni dynamite and Bell Biv DeVoe". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
  18. 1 2 Sifton, Sam (12 July 2012). "Roy Choi's Food-Truck Barbecue Blends Mexico and Korea". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  19. ↑ Harris, Jenn (19 June 2013). "Wolfgang Puck, Roy Choi and David Chang cook a meal to 'shock' diners". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  20. ↑ Tomicki, Hadley (4 April 2013). "Roy Choi Releasing L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food in November". Grub Street Los Angeles. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  21. ↑ Coover, Doe (4 November 2013). "L.A. Son". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  22. 1 2 Choi, Roy (Speaker) (4 December 2013). Chefs @ Google: Roy Choi (Google Talk). Los Angeles, CA: Google – via YouTube.
  23. ↑ Epstein, Andrew (9 May 2014). "Jon Favreau on How Roy Choi Shaped Chef". Eater. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  24. 1 2 Bourdain, Anthony (21 April 2016). "The 100 Most Influential People: Roy Choi". Time.
  25. ↑ Snyder, Garrett (21 April 2016). "Roy Choi Just Made Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People List". LA Weekly.
  26. ↑ Barnett, Bob (29 May 2013). "What Chef Roy Choi Is Teaching South Central L.A. Students". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  27. ↑ Simmons, Andrew (25 June 2013). "Roy Choi's 3 Worlds Cafe Coming to South Central + An Opening Party". LA Weekly. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
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