The Korean taco was a phenomenon... It just came out of us. We didn't really think about it.
— Roy Choi
I'm just trying to cook good food, and I'm not afraid to do whatever I need to do to keep the food evolving.
I grew up around so many different people in so many different neighborhoods, but the Latino heritage, the neighborhoods, and people have always been a part of my life, ever since I was a kid.
My restaurants are about community and about sharing and about warmth.
Everything I do is like tough love; everything I put out there in the universe is me trying to feed you. I really care.
For us in Asia, fermented, bubbly, creamy things are just the norm.
I'll never be able to outlive Kogi. Kogi is a beast.
I go by 'Papi' on the streets.
Being a cook, there's always pressure - not for your ego but for people to love your food.
I have a tendency to trail off in conversations. I don't look up at people sometimes when I talk or cook, and those are all pretty bad no-no's being in front of the camera.
All Korean food is not just one thing.
My parents worked and sold and hustled; they were gone from the morning, and I pretty much took care of myself. But in a Korean household, you're always eating with your family no matter what, and you're always cooking. And our food is not one you can just open a package and eat right away; a lot of our food takes time to develop.
I've lived through a lot of different neighborhoods.
In mainstream media, everything gets turned into a stereotype of ourselves.
A-Frame became an expression of creating a place where everyone would feel comfortable, even if you were made to feel uncomfortable in restaurants before. It's a place where I explored my own insecurities as far as being mistreated in restaurants or being given the worst table.
TV is a hard thing to do. It's a hard thing to get a show.
I think that a lot of times, we all want to help each other and be a part of each other's lives. It's just - we don't allow ourselves into each other's lives.
I want to reshape fast food in America.
I don't really do that much office work. I just go to the office, and I'm like Steve Carell in 'The Office.' You know, like, I just go around and like - I don't know what I do in the office. I look at paperwork and act like I'm understanding what's going on there, and I shake my head and put my hand on my chin and like, 'Hmm.'
I didn't just grow up lowriding: I grew up lowriding and also in mansions in Orange County.
I make food as affordable as possible.
I don't really care about job security.
Korean food is primarily based on herbs and shoots and sprouts. There's no pasture land in Korea; we eat like Hobbits.
I dream like a shaman.
You have to believe in something, and you have to believe in the things that you feel and find value in those things, and not be swayed all the time. Maybe you're gonna get swayed 90% of the time, to keep those things submerged, but you can't distrust yourself 100% of the time.
When Kogi started, I was dead broke, selling tacos on the street just to survive.
I'm a quiet person in real life.
People think that being Korean is all one thing.
I was a latchkey kid, from 4 or 5 years old.
Kogi changed what a generation eats, introducing people to fermentation and different vegetables and flavors.
When you never see yourself in the mainstream format, you are stripped of the strength of your identity.
A-Frame was a real, pivotal moment because that's where I really got to channel a lot of emotions.
Public television is a very important thing for our human race, and it allows us the ability to discuss the elephants in the room and understand stories beyond the headlines.
Go out one day and treat yourself. Go out and have the best sushi you can find, or go to the best barista in your city and have just a cup of cappuccino, and tell yourself that you deserve this. I think that is very empowering.
There is no typical day, not when there are so many people out there that I care about that can't access good food in their neighborhoods.
American barbecue is all slow and low, you know, or low and slow, as they say down in the South, in Texas. But Korean barbecue is thinner cuts of meat.
If you look at my life, I wasn't just poor; I was rich and poor.
I'm a little old-school in that I think there's some value in the classics and the steps of achieving a certain profession. If we start slanging the word 'chef' on anybody and everybody who cooks, it takes away a lot.
I've been through a lot of things in my life.
I don't know if I'll ever be as good as I was when I started Kogi, but I strive for that.
What if every high-caliber chef told our investors that for every fancy restaurant we build, it would be a requirement to build one in the hood as well?
I don't have a boss. I don't answer to anybody. I do everything that I want to do out of the purity of making people happy.
A lot of my friend's mothers and parents worked at Paramount Studios, so I would always go. I met the Fonz when I was really young, like four or five years old. I was always around people in entertainment all the time throughout my whole life.
Even as a kid I wasn't, like, a natural entertainer, where I would gather everyone around me and then sing or something at family parties.
Yes, a business should thrive, but it shouldn't thrive at the expense of everyone else losing.
I know what it's like to be a teenager in Orange County. I know what it's like to be a kid in L.A. I know what it's like to not have any money and have your lights turned off. I know what it's like to live in a house with five rooms.
Chefs don't have a union. We don't have a Screen Actor's Guild.
I was a salary man for so many years. I never had to worry about the ins and outs of business or entrepreneurship or funding. I just had to show up and do my job. And then, all of a sudden, I was having to be responsible for my own business.
It's so easy to produce food, throw it away, and watch people starve. It's so hard to produce food mindfully and to feed and to reduce waste.
I've got a lot of experience under my belt, but I still have a very naive and idealistic outlook on life.
