Roy Choi

Chef and co-creator, Kogi Truck, Chego, and A-Frame
Los Angeles, California

To a hot wok sizzling with oil, I add a handful of sliced onions,

chef Roy Choi at my side. In my left hand, I’m holding a large

ladle-like spatula, and my instinct is to move the onions around.

Choi stops me.

“The most important thing,” he scolds me, “is not to be

impatient. You have to let things happen.”

I set the ladle-spatula down, but Choi isn’t finished.

“You have to let go of all the fucking bullshit,” he continues as

the onions soften. “You have to feel what’s going on.”

He leans toward the wok. “I can feel everything about this wok

right now,” he says. “I can hear it. I can feel the heat.”

Is it time to move the onions? Choi says, “The biggest thing for

a home cook to learn is: we haven’t touched this pan once. We’re

allowing it to happen.” He gives me a knowing glance. “You

probably would’ve touched them to the point of molestation.”

Choi, the chef behind L.A.’s super-popular Kogi Truck and

Chego, the rice-bowl restaurant where we meet, is an intense guy,

and his intensity has a history. Earlier in the day, before stepping

into the kitchen, he had talked about growing up extremely poor.

“This shit really happened,” he told me. “I remember sewing an