As a child of immigrants, Roy Choi spent a lot of time alone on the streets of Los Angeles, feeling like he didn’t fit in anywhere. Scarred by cleft palate surgery, he felt like a wild cat, moving through the world silently. He pays attention to every detail of how people interact, especially in restaurants. It’s this nuanced, empathetic, human perspective that makes this 2010 F&W Best New Chef stand out in the restaurant world. He talks to Tinfoil Swans about feeling unwelcome in his life, how that influences every business decision he makes, his new cookbook, The Choi of Cooking, and why he sometimes feels like a baked potato.
Roy Choi was born in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up in Los Angeles, California. He was named a 2010 F&W Best New Chef and is considered one of the founders of the contemporary food truck movement. He pioneered the Kogi BBQ food truck, which used the power of social media to amass a following that is still going strong. In 2018, Food & Wine magazine named Kogi one of the 40 most important restaurants of the past 40 years.
Choi created the television series Broken Bread to explore social justice issues, for which he won the 2020 James Beard Award for Outstanding Personality/Host and multiple Emmy Awards. Choi co-hosts The Chef Show with actor and producer Jon Favreau, bringing recipes to life with The Chef Truck at Park MGM in Las Vegas. Choi is co-owner of Best Friend at Park MGM, as well as Tacos Por Vida, Kogi BBQ and Alibi Room in Los Angeles. In 2016, he was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. The neighborhood fast-casual restaurant he co-founded, LocoL, won the first Los Angeles Times Restaurant of the Year Award and was named one of Food & Wine’s Restaurants of the Year in 2016.
LA Son is Choi’s debut cookbook and memoir, which debuted on the New York Times bestseller list in 2013. His latest cookbook, Choi’s Cooking: Flavorful, Rule-Breaking Recipes for a Delicious Life, is out in April 2025. In it, Choi and co-authors Tien Nguyen and Natasha Phan explore the lessons and missteps Choi has learned along his culinary journey, aiming to help readers explore healthier eating habits they can maintain long-term while still enjoying the food they love.
Kat Kinsman is Food & Wine’s Executive Features Editor, author of Hello, Anxiety: A Life of Nervousness, host of Food & Wine’s Gold Signal Award-winning podcast, Tinfoil Swans, and founder of Chefs With Issues. Previously, she served as Senior Food and Drink Editor at Extra Crispy, Editor-in-Chief and Contributing Editor at Tasting Table, and Founding Editor of CNN Eatocracy. She is the winner of the 2024 IACP Award for Narrative Food Writing (with Recipes) and the 2020 IACP Award for Personal Essay/Memoir, and her work has been included in the 2020 and 2016 editions of Best American Food Writing. She was nominated for a James Beard Broadcast Award in 2013, won the EPPY Award for Best Food Website (1 million unique visitors per month) in 2011, and was a finalist in 2012 and 2013. She is a sought-after international keynote speaker and presenter on food culture and mental health in the hospitality industry, and is a former Vice Chair of the James Beard Press Council.
I was born in Seoul, but came to the United States before I was two years old. I was born with a cleft palate, and in a country that is very homogenous, any little physical imperfection, even a little mental imperfection, makes you stand out. My parents didn’t want me to grow up in that environment. I think they looked at each other and thought, ‘We need to come up with an escape plan, because this is not going to work.’ They came up with a plan and eventually took me back to the United States where they lived before. I see my scar on my face as a blessing. My life is probably very different from a lot of people’s. Although I have a family and relationships, I still have to move around.
I was a bit like a stray cat. I would sneak out, but I would always come back. Add to that the scars on my body – it was clear from a very young age that I had to deal with being different in some way. I had to develop defense mechanisms, jokes, a sense of humor, laughter, communication and social skills to deal with this.
“I’ve observed a lot of things while wandering around. As a kid, walking alone on the street, on the bus, or in a restaurant, people don’t really notice you, so they just be themselves and show their best or worst side. That’s influenced a lot of how I engage with the world, how I cook, how I run a kitchen, and how I treat people in my organization and my team. It’s not just about being the first, being the best kitchen, or doing the most innovative things. It’s more about cultivating and exploring how to cook delicious food and entertain as many people as possible. That’s why street food is my destiny. We always strive to cook for everyone. We never discriminate, and we never put up any barriers.”
Yesterday I talked to the general manager of Best Friend in Las Vegas. Our table 87 is right next to the restroom. Unfortunately, there will inevitably be a table next to the restroom, but we try to design it as low-key as possible. There is no “restroom” sign next to the restroom, and every customer outside of table 87 will complain: “Where is the restroom? ‘The restroom is in a dark corner, dimly lit, and looks like a haunted house. We try to design it as low-key as possible.
Everyone wants to put the “Restroom” sign there, but for that table’s sake, I don’t want it. I’d rather improve the communication and service or tell others in the restaurant some other way than have table 87 feel like they’re stuck next to the restroom. Little things like this matter.
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