Roy Choi
| Roy Choi | |
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Roy Choi from Kogi BBQ
Aspen Food & Wine Fest 2010 |
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| Born |
Roy S Choi February 24, 1970 Seoul, South Korea |
| Education |
Culinary Institute of America Southern California Military Academy |
| Website | kogibbq |
| Culinary career | |
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Current restaurant(s)
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Television show(s)
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Roy Choi (born February 24, 1970), is a Korean American chef who gained prominence as the creator of the gourmet Korean taco truck, Kogi. He is a chef who is celebrated for "food that isn't fancy" and is known as one of the founders of the food truck movement.
Choi was born in Seoul, South Korea, to South Korean father Soo Myung Choi and North Korean mother Youn-Jin Choi. Choi's parents met in the US but after marrying moved back to Korea. The family ended up emigrating from South Korea permanently in 1972.
Choi was raised in Los Angeles and southern California. As Choi grew up, his parents had many businesses: a liquor store, dry-cleaning shop, a Korean restaurant, and after selling jewelry door to door, finally a successful jewelry company. His parents owned a Korean restaurant in Anaheim, California, called Silver Garden for three years when he was young. Choi's mother made kim chee that was so popular within their community that they packaged it and sold it locally. His favorite childhood memory is making dumplings at the age of eight at his family's own restaurant. The family moved many times while he was young. His family once lived near Olympic Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, as well as in South Central, the Crenshaw District and West Hollywood.
Choi attended a gifted-students program, but changed schools in his early teens when his parents achieved prosperity in the jewelry business and moved their family into a predominantly white neighborhood in Orange County called Villa Park, Choi began getting into trouble, with his marks slipping as he began taking drugs and hanging out with a bad crowd. At age 15, Choi's parents sent him to Southern California Military Academy in Signal Hill, California. He remembers this as a good experience.
After high school, Choi went to Korea and taught English there. He then attended California State University, Fullerton, graduating with a bachelor's degree in philosophy. Choi attended Western State University law school, but dropped out after one semester. At 24, confused about his life, and in a dark period around 1994 or 1995, Choi said he became obsessed with Emeril Lagasse's "Essence of Emeril" show. The show inspired him to enroll in culinary school. "Emeril saved my life," Choi said.
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Wikipedia