Choi was in New York last week for the launch of his new cookbook. Illustration: Sarah Kilcoyne
Roy Choi is a food-world legend, the chef behind Kogi BBQ, a regular presence on Netflix, and a verified member of California cooking’s Mount Rushmore. He’s also the author of the new cookbook The Choi of Cooking, which arrives more than a decade after his first, L.A. Son: “It’s 12 years between books — whenever you take that much time between something, it’s like, Do people even remember? Will what I have to say still resonate?” One thing that has changed is Choi’s approach to eating: “I was known for going hard. If we went to Korean barbecue, it was known that I would order enough food for nine people. If we got burritos, it was known I’d order two. If I was in Philly, I would knock down cheesesteaks one after another.” That kind of appetite caught up with him — “I needed to dial it back” — even if moderation for a chef looks different than it might for anyone else: “Now, instead of eating five cheesesteaks, maybe I’ll just have one.”
Thursday, April 10
It was the day before I left for Coachella, and breakfast at home was simple: raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries, all from the farmers’ market. I know you’re getting ramps in New York and you always have the best apples, but we’re right at the start of strawberry season and they’re getting pretty good. There’s a real difference when it’s the peak season — from late April to June, it’s like eating Jelly Bellies. I had those with a Little Gem salad with grapefruit and a quick balsamic vinaigrette I made and a soft-boiled egg.
I’m in a lunch club that we call Thursday Lunch Club. It’s a fun, eclectic group from fashion, music, entertainment — Phil Rosenthal the producer is in it — some food bloggers, and I’m the only chef. I’m like Larry David eating lunch with these people. It’s a group chat, and we all throw in suggestions for where to eat, but we have one Yoda in the club: Gary. He used to be the road manager for Bob Dylan, and going back to the ’70s, he started keeping a list of everywhere he should eat. It’s still going. It’s incredible. It goes back 50 years but is also very current. Anytime something opens, we joke that Gary’s been there. And every time, he chimes in, “Yeah I’ve been there.”
On this day, we had Persian: chicken shawarma, hummus, yogurt, cucumbers with some herbs, walnuts, and salmon shish kebab.
I didn’t eat too much after that. For a snack, I had frozen yogurt with berries, plus some Cara Cara oranges from the farmers’ market. These were from K & K Ranch, along with some red walnuts. And then I had leftover yellow rice from the Persian restaurant.
Friday, April 11
I was off to Coachella, so before I got on the road, I made a kind of Mediterranean stir-fry at home for breakfast. It was a little bit of leftovers and a lot of stuff I already had in the kitchen: spinach, kidney beans, chickpeas, lentils, rice, charred serranos, charred tomatoes, oranges, berries, leftover chicken shawarma, and then I threw in some spicy rice cakes. It was a lot of different flavors and good nutrients, not too much sodium, and a lot of herbs. The chickpeas had been cooked slowly, and when I add those charred flavors on top, I don’t miss a lot of the less healthy flavors I might have added in the past.
Now this is where people are going to maybe start making fun of me because there’s a lot of trail mix this week. I used to make fun of people for eating trail mix, and now I’m that guy. I had some before we stopped on the way at a Vietnamese place for vermicelli salad in La Quinta. I had some dried pineapple as a kind of dessert.
My company had two venues at Coachella, so I stepped into work mode, tasting all the food, checking the mise en place, having bites here and there. When it was time for dinner, I’d already been immersed in the heat and the crowds, and I went to the catering. At Coachella, they have catering for all the roadies, grips, security, everyone who’s working the festival. They have a really amazing setup, and they take really good care of everyone working there — they go above and beyond and treat it like family meal in a restaurant.
They’re famous for their iced-tea bar. It’s 25 different iced teas: ginger, lemon, chamomile, lavender. I used to be a huge coffee head — like in any city, any place I went, I was looking up the best shops. I’ll still have one or two cups a week, but it’s a lot of mint tea for me lately. Again, a lot of my old homies are going to be rolling their eyes.
Dinner was a big salad — walnuts, peaches, fruit, rice, chicken — and I had a Popsicle.
Saturday, April 12
Breakfast was at the hotel buffet, the omelet bar, and I was working at Coachella all day. They did have a big freezer full of Popsicles, so I had more of those — changed it up and did a Fudgsicle — while I tasted our food and ate catering throughout the day. Working at the festival is a little like working in the restaurant: You’re working and watching the different stages when you get a chance, kind of like stepping out into the dining room to meet a friend or greet someone.
At night, we had the great fortune to cater Green Day. They had requested us. I didn’t even know Green Day knew who the fuck we were, but I guess they’re fans. It was private catering after their set, and it was really cool to see how they take care of their whole crew. They felt like kindred spirits with our small operation, in a way. We’re loyal, and we take care of one another; everyone’s been with us for over a decade. And that’s how they roll. We were catering until 1 a.m., and again I was tasting tacos, sliders — making sure everything was on point.
Sunday, April 13
It was a travel day to New York. In the morning, back at home, I had rice with a sunny-side-up egg, kind of like a rice bowl, and then I had granola. There are a couple of really great no-sodium granolas, and I’ve really gone down the rabbit hole. They’re using a lot of coconut to substitute for the sweetness, and they’re really good. Then a bunch of tangerines, and water, and strawberries.
I’ve been pounding dark-chocolate bars, which is another thing I’ve learned has zero sodium. It’s not necessarily healthy for you, but it’s good. I picked up a green juice on the way to the airport, too. I’m a really light packer. No check-ins, that’s my rule. I could travel around Europe for three months with one backpack.
Dinner on the plane — spinach salad, nothing exciting — and I got into New York at 1 a.m. The funny thing about your city now is everything closes early. What the fuck happened to New York? My God, even the diners! When we got to the hotel, we had to do the unthinkable and ask the concierge for a recommendation. Anthony Bourdain would hate me.
We were staying in midtown, and the concierge sent us to a bar around the corner that was surprisingly good. I had a Cobb salad with chicken and then a 70 percent dark chocolate.
Monday, April 14
The hotel had a surprisingly good breakfast; I had veggie omelet and a fruit plate. We did a lot of stock signings in bookstores that day. We headed to Brooklyn. We went to Greenlight first, and I had a cortado across the street from Books Are Magic in Carroll Gardens. Frankies Spuntino is right there. We had some time, I’m friends with the Franks, and I haven’t seen them since they opened their pizzeria, so we went over there.
If you have a chance, go to Frankies right now and get the green salad. The vinaigrette is incredible. So is the broccolini. I thought it was going to be like a charred whole broccoli, but it was stewed almost. So good. The true standout were the gnocchi, like pillows. I have never had gnocchi done this well before. Transcendent.
We got back to the hotel, reset for 15 minutes, and took a 90-minute drive to a bookstore called Bookends in Ridgewood, New Jersey. It was a great day-zero event for the book tour, kicking everything off. We slid it in at the last minute because we had some time in New York, and I’m so glad we did. A lot of people came out; it was super-chill and filled with love.
From there, we went back to the city. My co-author, Natasha Phan, is an expert on TikTok food. She had been seeing this crab-roe soup over rice. It’s at Xie Bao. I’d never heard of it, and the outside of the restaurant just said “crab place.” They mix the roe of the crab with the meat into this cornstarchy … it’s almost like a chowder. It has the consistency of bird’s-nest soup or mapo tofu the way it’s poured over the rice.
I hadn’t yet tested the waters of trying my new kind of diet in an Asian restaurant. I’m Asian, so I know how treacherous it can be to ask for sauce on the side or do what I did and order halibut with no salt. This was my first time trying, and I’m happy it was being documented for New York Magazine because it was everything I expected. First, our server had to write down an essay on her notepad explaining very carefully why we wanted sauce on the side and no salt in very intricate terms because she didn’t want to get yelled at by the chef. And she couldn’t write one general note: She wrote this essay three times, for each item I ordered, and then the food came out salted and sauced anyway. I would expect nothing less, and I think the lack of attention to the request is the utmost form of respect.
Tuesday, April 15
We woke up early to do GMA. We were staying in midtown because we wanted to be as close as possible in case we woke up late. You have to get there at 6:45 a.m., but then they sent a car anyway so we could have stayed anywhere.
It was such an early morning we went back to the hotel to rest. I had a kale-and-quinoa salad with a side of salmon and asparagus.
This was pub day for the book. At night, we had an event at a wonderful place called Georgie’s on the LES. We paired with Yu & Me Books in Chinatown. We were planning to do the event there, but it started to grow so we were lucky to find Georgie’s. We began at the store and then it was like a 20-minute walk to Georgie’s, up through all these streets and alleys in Chinatown. I got to know the owners of the store, and I think that’s the beauty of New York: You can meet a stranger and then walk somewhere together and be family by the end. It was all a smashing, amazing success, and we went to Kiki’s after that.
All I could think was, This place is super-vibey. Everybody looks like the coolest kid in town; it looks like fucking Paris Fashion Week in there. Super-rad, and the food was good on top of that. We had green salad, whole fish with lemon, and scrambled eggs at night, which is always fun. The Greek yogurt was a standout. It had the consistency of a creamy soft serve, a little bit thicker, almost like a custard, with some fruit preserves on top. It was dense and thick but didn’t feel heavy. It was really nice.
And then, I know you won’t believe it, but when I got back to the hotel room, I had some dark chocolate.
