L.A. Son, Roy Choi
L.A. Son, Roy Choi
List: $17.50 | Sale: $12.25
Club: $8.75

L.A. Son
My Life, My City, My Food

Author: Roy Choi, Tien Nguyen, Natasha Phan

Narrator: Roy Choi

Unabridged: 5 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/09/2023

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

The maverick chef and co-founder of the wildly popular Kogi BBQ taco trucks, pays homage to the city he loves with this cookbook that captures the inventive, creative, and border crossing spirit of Los Angeles

“Spaghetti Junction” is the bittersweet nickname native Angelenos use to describe the famously tangled freeway interchanges that define L.A. For Roy Choi, the neighborhoods in the shadow of these overpasses are emblematic of all that he loves about the city: its sense of invention, its resourcefulness, the way disparate cultures come together to form their own patois, street food, music, insults—and the energy that results.

A gritty, charming, and flavorful love letter to Los Angeles, L.A. Son is the story of Choi’s love of food and his evolution as a chef. Choi returns to his childhood afternoons at his parents’ Korean restaurant, his nights in L.A.’s gambling halls, and his pizza-fueled studying at the Culinary Institute of America before making his way into some of the best restaurants in America.

It is a transporting, multifaceted story that tells the unlikely tale of how a Korean-American kid went from lowriding in the streets of L.A. to becoming an acclaimed chef.

* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF with recipes and tools from the book.

About The Author

Roy Choi was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and went on to cook at the internationally acclaimed Le Bernadin. He was named Best New Chef by Food & Wine in 2010 and he and his Kogi BBQ team are the recipient sof a 2009 Bon Appetit award for excellence in culinary innovation. Choi is the co-owner, co-founder, and chef of Kogi BBQ, as well as the restaurants A-Frame, Chego, and Sunny Spot. He lives in Los Angeles, California.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ruel on March 09, 2014

3.5 stars. Memoir/cookbook that I wished was fleshed out into two fuller, denser, and detailed books: one about Choi's life and the other, a cookbook dedicated to his fusion cuisine. I'm a huge fan of the Kogi Truck and couldn't wait to read about his life before, during, and after Kogi launched the......more

Goodreads review by Melissa on December 07, 2014

I liked reading about Roy quite a bit. He's definitely had a colorful life and the way he keeps overcoming the bumps on his road is inspiring. Much of the history and events between the highs and lows are left untold, leaving the reader to fill in the details. However, you can't help but root for hi......more

Goodreads review by Ralph Relador on October 15, 2024

Good read for any foodie. The book is a journey throughout Roy Choi’s journey highlighting the best parts of LA culture and the most toxic parts of the culinary industry. The beginning of the book makes it pretty difficult to find any positives about Choi but as the book ends Choi definitely redeems......more

Goodreads review by Kkraemer on February 06, 2014

The subtitle of this book is "My Life, My City, My Food," but the concept of the Korean taco sums up what it has to say. This is THE book of contemporary America, and it shows that the story of America is exactly what we all thought. Choi's life is the American story of hard work, mess ups, opportuni......more

Goodreads review by Dean on April 16, 2014

After reading through this book in its entirety I was really surprised at the lack of pages covering the venues that Roy Choi is best known for (Kogi trucks, A-Frame, Chego!, etc). Only after going through 300 pages that chronicles Choi's upbringing in the rich tapestry of multicultural LA does he f......more