Roy Choi: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Roy Choi turned a Korean taco truck into a referendum on who American fine dining is for — CIA-trained line cook, Le Bernardin alum, Koreatown kid, Twitter pioneer. This mix traces the French kitchens that built his technique, the Los Angeles food writing and hip-hop that gave Kogi its voice, and the street-food generation that followed him off the curb.

The Kynda mix for Roy Choi

• Key Influence · Emeril Live by Emeril Lagasse (1993). Choi has repeatedly told the story of a drifting, gambling-addicted twentysomething flipping channels and landing on Emeril Lagasse cooking on Food Network — the jolt that sent him to the Culinary Institute of America. Lagasse's televised kitchen as spectacle, pleasure and showmanship rather than hushed temple is the exact register Choi later brought to Kogi's lines and to his own broadcast work decades on.
• Influencia Obscura · Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles by Jonathan Gold (2000). Gold's strip-mall gospel — taco trucks, Oaxacan moles, Koreatown banchan treated with the seriousness of three-star cooking — built the critical vocabulary that let Kogi be read as cuisine rather than novelty. Gold was an early, loud champion of the truck, and his argument that Los Angeles's real food lives in immigrant neighborhoods is the intellectual ground Choi's whole project stands on.
• Local Roots · Koreatown: A Cookbook by Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard (2016). A document of the Korean-American diaspora kitchens — LA's Koreatown chief among them — that raised Choi: the galbi marinades, the banchan, the late-night soondubu. Choi grew up around his family's restaurant in the Koreatown orbit, and Kogi's short rib taco is unintelligible without that neighborhood's barbecue culture. This book maps the exact culinary geography he was born into.
• Beyond the Medium · The Chronic by Dr. Dre (1992). Choi has consistently framed Kogi in hip-hop terms — sampling, remixing, the street as source — and Los Angeles rap was the soundtrack of his teenage years. Dre's record is the sound of the same city and the same era of sampling culture that Kogi's Korean-Mexican mashup borrowed its logic from: take two existing things, lay one over the other, and make something that belongs to the neighborhood.
• Peer · Momofuku by David Chang (2009). Chang's Korean-American, technique-heavy, irreverent cooking broke in New York at the same moment Kogi broke in Los Angeles, and the two chefs are routinely paired as the faces of a generation that refused the fine-dining/casual divide. Both built their food on diaspora memory plus French training; Chang's book is the East Coast half of that simultaneous rupture.
• From the Canon · L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food by Roy Choi (2013). The memoir-cookbook that explains everything else: the family restaurant, the Koreatown adolescence, the gambling years, the Emeril epiphany, Le Bernardin, the hotel kitchens and the night the first truck rolled out. Written with Tien Nguyen and Natasha Phan, it is less a recipe collection than Choi's argument that a cook's biography and his city are the actual ingredients.
• Key Collaborator · Chef by Jon Favreau (2014). Favreau hired Choi as culinary producer and technical consultant, training the actor-director to cook convincingly and designing the film's food — the Cubano sandwich, the grilled cheese, the truck itself, drawn straight from Kogi's playbook. The partnership outlasted the film into The Chef Show, making Favreau the single collaborator who most shaped Choi's second career on screen.
• Legacy · Guerrilla Tacos: Recipes from the Streets of L.A. by Wes Avila (2017). Avila took a taco cart onto Los Angeles sidewalks in the wake of Kogi's success and turned fine-dining training and Twitter-announced locations into a brick-and-mortar restaurant — the full Choi trajectory run again. Avila has been open about Kogi proving that a chef could skip the investor-funded dining room entirely and still be taken seriously by critics.

What influenced Roy Choi

• Emeril Lagasse. Choi directly credited Lagasse with changing his life. (also via Emeril Live, Essence of Emeril) “"Emeril saved my life," Choi said.” (Wikipedia)
• Emeril Live by Emeril Lagasse (1993). Emeril Live (Emeril Lagasse) — titan for Roy Choi “At 24, Choi said he became obsessed with Emeril Lagasse's "Essence of Emeril" show.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Essence of Emeril by Emeril Lagasse. Choi identified the show as the inspiration for enrolling in culinary school. “At 24, Choi said he became obsessed with Emeril Lagasse 's "Essence of Emeril" show. [ 14 ] The show inspired him to enroll in culinary school.” (Wikipedia)
• La Technique by Jacques Pépin (1976). La Technique (Jacques Pépin) — titan for Roy Choi (openlibrary.org)
• The Chronic by Dr. Dre (1992). The Chronic (Dr. Dre) — culture for Roy Choi (musicbrainz.org)
• City of Gold by Laura Gabbert (2015). City of Gold (Laura Gabbert) — ghost for Roy Choi (themoviedb.org)
• Boyz n the Hood by John Singleton (1991). Boyz n the Hood (John Singleton) — culture for Roy Choi (themoviedb.org)
• Anthony Bourdain. L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food (Roy Choi) — legacy for Anthony Bourdain (via L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food) “Son: My Life, My City, My Food by Roy Choi, Tien Nguyen, and Natasha Phan, Prophets of Smoked Meat by Daniel Vaughn, Pain Don't Hurt by Mark Miller, and Grand Forks: A History of American Dining in 128 Reviews by Marilyn Hagerty.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) by Wu-Tang Clan (1993). Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (Wu-Tang Clan) — culture for Roy Choi
• Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles by Jonathan Gold (2000). Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles (Jonathan Gold) — ghost for Roy Choi
• Le Bernardin Cookbook: Four-Star Simplicity by Eric Ripert (1998). Le Bernardin Cookbook: Four-Star Simplicity (Eric Ripert) — titan for Roy Choi

Peers and kindred spirits

• Jon Favreau. Choi advised Favreau on scenes for Chef. (also via Chef) “In 2019, Favreau and Choi collaborated on a cooking show on Netflix : The Chef Show .” (Wikipedia)
• David Chang. Choi and Chang worked together on the Hotel Bel-Air menu. (also via L.A. Son, Momofuku) “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.” (Wikipedia)
• Chef by Jon Favreau (2014). Chef (Jon Favreau) — collaborator for Roy Choi “The Jon Favreau movie Chef (2014) was loosely inspired by Choi and the food truck movement.” (Wikipedia)
• Daniel Patterson. Choi and Patterson opened LocoL together. (also via Coi: Stories and Recipes) “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.” (Wikipedia)
• Kogi. Choi founded Kogi with two partners. “Choi's company, Kogi, was founded in 2008 with partners Mark Manguera and his wife, Caroline Shin-Manguera.” (Wikipedia)
• Dole Packaged Foods. Choi and Dole collaborated on 3 Worlds Cafe. “3 Worlds Cafe, a South Central community coffee and smoothie shop that is a collaboration between Choi, the neighborhood-based Coalition for Responsible Community Development, fruit conglomerate Dole Packaged Foods and nearby Jefferson H…” (Wikipedia)
• Momofuku by David Chang. Momofuku (David Chang) — peer for Roy Choi “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.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Mark Manguera. Manguera was Choi’s partner in founding Kogi. “Choi's company, Kogi, was founded in 2008 with partners Mark Manguera and his wife, Caroline Shin-Manguera.” (Wikipedia)
• Coi: Stories and Recipes by Daniel Patterson (2013). Coi: Stories and Recipes (Daniel Patterson) — collaborator for Roy Choi “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 …” (en.wikipedia.org)
• LocoL. Choi co-founded the named 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.” (Wikipedia)
• Meghan Markle. Choi appeared with Markle in a Netflix cooking project. “He also appeared in a recent Netflix project with Meghan Markle that features cooking segments in which they discuss their shared experience of growing up in Los Angeles.” (Wikipedia)
• Coalition for Responsible Community Development. Choi and the coalition collaborated on 3 Worlds Cafe. “3 Worlds Cafe, a South Central community coffee and smoothie shop that is a collaboration between Choi, the neighborhood-based Coalition for Responsible Community Development, fruit conglomerate Dole Packaged Foods and nearby Jefferson H…” (Wikipedia)
• Caroline Shin-Manguera. Shin-Manguera was Choi’s partner in founding Kogi. “Choi's company, Kogi, was founded in 2008 with partners Mark Manguera and his wife, Caroline Shin-Manguera.” (Wikipedia)
• The Chef Show. Choi produced the series. “Chang also appeared in another Netflix series The Chef Show , produced by his friends Roy Choi and Jon Favreau .” (Wikipedia)
• Wolfgang Puck. Choi and Puck worked together on the Hotel Bel-Air menu. “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.” (Wikipedia)
• A Place Called Home. Choi teaches cooking while volunteering at the named organization. “He teaches cooking when he volunteers at A Place Called Home in South Los Angeles .” (Wikipedia)
• Jefferson High School. Choi and the school collaborated on 3 Worlds Cafe. “3 Worlds Cafe, a South Central community coffee and smoothie shop that is a collaboration between Choi, the neighborhood-based Coalition for Responsible Community Development, fruit conglomerate Dole Packaged Foods and nearby Jefferson H…” (Wikipedia)
• Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (Anthony Bourdain) — collaborator for Roy Choi “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 …” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Broken Bread. Choi produced and hosted the series. “In 2019, Choi produced and hosted a TV series, Broken Bread on Tastemade and KCET in Los Angeles.” (Wikipedia)
• Natasha Phan. Phan is credited as a coauthor of the book. (via L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food) “Choi, Roy; Nguyen, Tien; Phan, Natasha & Fisher, Bobby (2013). L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food .” (Wikipedia)
• Tien Nguyen. Nguyen is credited as a coauthor of the book. (via L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food) “Choi, Roy; Nguyen, Tien; Phan, Natasha & Fisher, Bobby (2013). L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food .” (Wikipedia)
• Bobby Fisher. Fisher is credited as a coauthor of the book. (via L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food) “Choi, Roy; Nguyen, Tien; Phan, Natasha & Fisher, Bobby (2013). L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food .” (Wikipedia)
• Everything I Want to Eat by Jessica Koslow (2016). Everything I Want to Eat (Jessica Koslow) — geography for Roy Choi (openlibrary.org)
• The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook by Danny Bowien (2015). The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook (Danny Bowien) — peer for Roy Choi (openlibrary.org)
• Koreatown: A Cookbook by Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard (2016). Koreatown: A Cookbook (Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard) — geography for Roy Choi
• Crave: A Feast of the Five Senses by Ludo Lefebvre (2005). Crave: A Feast of the Five Senses (Ludo Lefebvre) — peer for Roy Choi
• L.A. Mexicano: Recipes, People, Places by Bill Esparza (2017). L.A. Mexicano: Recipes, People, Places (Bill Esparza) — geography for Roy Choi

Who Roy Choi influenced

• Guerrilla Tacos: Recipes from the Streets of L.A. by Wes Avila (2017). Guerrilla Tacos: Recipes from the Streets of L.A. (Wes Avila) — legacy for Roy Choi
• Amboy: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream by Alvin Cailan (2020). Amboy: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream (Alvin Cailan) — legacy for Roy Choi