Chef brings together diverse communities through cooking
Roy Choi, a renowned Korean American chef known for his Korean Mexican taco truck Kogi BBQ, kicked off the 21st season of the Distinguished Speaker Series Tuesday by speaking about his experience becoming a chef and entrepreneur.
During the conversation in the Performing Arts Complex on the Edinburg campus, Choi said the cultural influence of living in Los Angeles inspired him to combine Korean and Mexican cuisines.
“I grew up in a lot of Latino households,” he said. “All my friends’, like, abuelas and tías, they would always bring me into the kitchen and feed me.”
Choi explained his taco creation was inspired by his teenage years spent with lowrider crews and cooking various dishes, such as tacos and chili.
“This is my first time ever in … South Texas, but it feels like home because I grew up in an environment like this,” he said. “I grew up in a neighborhood that was mixed, mostly Latino, you know, Black, Asian. … In LA, it’s all mixed up like that.”
Choi said he encountered pressure from his Asian household to pursue a traditional academic path and explained he felt disconnected to his creativity while attending law school for a semester, which caused him to drop out.
“I knew I was creative, but I didn’t have an outlet,” he said. “I just sat there [in class] and I had an out-of-body moment where … I couldn’t understand anything, and I just walked out … in the middle of class and never looked back.”
Choi began selling mutual funds and worked for the Culinary Institute of America while attending school at night.
“Everything was just fitting into place: getting into culinary school … connecting with the teachers, absorbing the information … working in amazing kitchens and, you know, and really thriving in that environment,” he said.
In 2008, Choi opened Kogi BBQ with entrepreneurs Mark Manguera and Caroline Shin.
He said his goal was to create a single dish that could capture the diverse culinary culture of Los Angeles.
“I don’t think a Korean person from Korea could have made the Kogi taco, right?” he said. “It had to be someone that grew up … here in America. You know different things and different crews and people you hang out with … going into your friend’s homes and being exposed to … all the different foods.”
He said the food truck revolution has had a positive impact on changing public perception and reducing negative stereotypes often associated with traditional minority food trucks.
“Everyone looked at food trucks in a way where, if you ate at it … that you would get food poisoning or, you know, that it was dirty,” Choi said. “But they weren’t really saying that about the food trucks. They were saying that about the people. They’re talking about your family’s culture–you as a person, us as a people, as an identity. And that’s just very mean, very ugly and mean and horrible.”
Hyung Kim, an assistant professor in the Mathematical and Statistical Sciences department, said he followed a friend to the event and was impressed by the speaker’s ability to overcome adversity and inspire others.
“I liked it that he … was able to build a good philosophy of his life,” Kim said.
Lois Kim, a business owner from McAllen, said she had seen Choi’s television program and online content and wanted to see what kind of person he was.
“He was a true philosopher and he really thinks deeply about his, not even career, but his life and what he does through his life,” Lois Kim said. “That was very touching.”
