Roy Choi

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Roy Choi (born February 24, 1970) is a Korean American chef who rose to fame as the creator of the gourmet Korean-Mexican taco truck Kogi.

He is known as one of the pioneers of the gourmet food truck movement and is known as a chef who is known for "food that isn't fancy."

Early life

Choi was born in Seoul, South Korea, to Soo Myung Choi, a South Korean father, and North Korean mother Jai Nam Choi. Choi's parents met in the United States, but after marrying, they returned to Korea. In 1972, the family emigrated from South Korea permanently.

Choi was born in Los Angeles and Southern California. Choi's parents had many businesses as Choi grew up: a liquor store, a dry-cleaning store, a Korean restaurant, and, eventually, a profitable jewelry business. When he was young, his parents owned a Korean restaurant called Silver Garden in Anaheim, California. Choi's mother made kimchi because it was so popular in their community that they packed it and sold it locally. Making dumplings at the age of eight at his family's own restaurant is his favorite childhood memory. When he was younger, his family moved several times.

His family lived near Olympic Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, as well as in South Central, the Crenshaw District, and West Hollywood.

Choi completed a gifted-students course but moved his family's home to Villa Park, Orange County, when his parents' careers in the jewelry industry and relocated their family into a neighborhood with a different population. Choi's parents took him to the Southern California Military Academy in Signal Hill, California, at the age of 15. He remembers this as a positive experience.

Choi went to Korea and taught English after high school. He then attended California State University, Fullerton, graduating with a bachelor's degree in philosophy. Choi attended Western State University's law school but dropped out after one semester. Choi said he became obsessed with Emeril Lagasse's "Essence of Emeril" exhibits at 24 years old. The show prompted him to enroll in culinary school. Choi said, "Emeril saved my life."

Choi began studying at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, in 1996. He loved the tightly planned block schemes, where there was no "wiggle room." During his studies, he worked at Le Bernardin, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City.

Personal life

Choi goes by the names "papi" and "El Guapo."

When he volunteers at A Place Called Home in South Los Angeles, he teaches cooking.

Choi is a sponsor of 3 Worlds Cafe, a South Central community coffee and smoothie shop that is a part of Choi, the neighborhood-based Coalition for Responsible Community Development, fruit conglomerate Dole Packaged Foods, and Jefferson High School.

He also runs a blog on which he shares recipes and rants.

Choi had numerous drugs during his difficult teenage years and later as a young adult. He was addicted to crack, cocaine, and gambling for a brief period of time, but that didn't happen in his early 20s. Choi says his new addiction is feeding people.

Choi has a daughter.

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Career

Choi gained experience as a journeyman hotel chef, and in 2001, started working for Hilton Hotels. After being promoted within the company, Choi became chef de cuisine at the Beverly Hilton in 2007. It was there that Choi met his future business partner, Mark Manguera. Choi also worked at the Embassy Suites in Sacramento and the Rock Sugar Pan Asian Kitchen in Los Angeles.

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 was great. Choi's company, Kogi, was founded in 2008 with partners Mark Manguera and his wife, Caroline Shin-Manguera.

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. Choi currently runs Sunny Spot, in Venice, CA, which is Caribbean-inspired. He ran the Los Angeles-area restaurant Chego! which featured rice bowls, and A-Frame which conveyed the Hawaiian idea of aloha and was built in a former IHOP, in addition to Pot at the Line Hotel in Koreatown. In December, 2018, Choi opened a restaurant named Best Friend in Las Vegas, NV. His cooking style fuses Mexican and Korean flavors and dishes.

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.

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

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. 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.

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. In 2019, Favreau and Choi collaborated on a cooking show on Netflix: The Chef Show.

Time had included Choi in their TIME 100 list of the most influential people in the world for 2011 and 2016. 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." In 2015, Choi and chef Daniel Patterson opened a restaurant called LocoL in Watts, Los Angeles, with the goal of bringing quality, healthy, and inspired fast-food to inner-city neighborhoods.

In 2019, Choi produced and hosted a TV series, Broken Bread on Tastemade and KCET in Los Angeles.

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