Latest news with #RoyChoi
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Roy Choi Shares His Healthier Recipes in New Cookbook
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways Seoul-born and Los Angeles-raised chef Roy Choi garnered a fast following when he established Korean American taco truck, Kogi, in 2008. The Netflix cooking series host is also owner, co-founder and chef of Tacos Por Vida in L.A. and Best Friend at Park MGM in Las Vegas. His bestselling book, The Choi of Cooking (released April 15), creates flavorful yet healthy takes on dishes like Kimchi Philly Cheesesteak. Here, he discusses why he shifted to healthy eating — and why it doesn't mean giving up your favorite foods. Choi's latest book, The Choi of Cooking, released April of Clarkson Potter/Publishers Q: How did you begin building your brand in L.A.? A: Kogi was a happy accident. We all got fired around the time the economy crashed, and a friend of mine — who I worked with at the Beverly Hilton — pitched the idea: Korean BBQ in a taco, [from a truck] parked outside the clubs. It cracked open a door that had always been there. I grew up around tacos, burritos, lowriding culture, Korean food. When people bit into [the taco], it tasted like our L.A.: Pico Union, Koreatown, East Hollywood, South L.A. That bite defined a city that hadn't really had its signature dish yet. Q: Your first book, L.A. Son, was as much memoir as cookbook. With The Choi of Cooking, you're again blending recipes with personal wisdom, but this time through the lens of balance and sustainability. What inspired this shift? A: L.A. Son was a time stamp of everything up to the Kogi days. Since then, I've grown a lot — lost friends to health issues and seen firsthand how processed food impacts our communities. My own health hit a breaking point. This book is about finding that middle space: creating comfort food with more intention but still flavor-forward, still soulful. Not Erewhon, but not junk either. It's for the working-class side of L.A. that deserves wellness too. GO GREEN Chef Roy Choi packs veggies into his dishes, like green bean and chicken of Bobby Fisher Q: How does this book challenge conventional ideas of healthy eating? A: A lot of wellness media only shows the final picture: perfect skin, yoga pants, beautiful people. But not everyone is there yet. This book meets people where they are. You can still have a burger or a hot dog — not everything has to be 100% healthy. Maybe it's butcher-made, or on artisan bread, or with homemade relish and mustard. It's about taking steps, not leaps. Q: What's one small step from your book that could make the biggest impact on how people eat? A: Flavor agents. People don't want to eat whole raw vegetables. But if you take those same veggies and puree them like guacamole or a salsa, that's creating a flavor agent. Keep these in the refrigerator. Then, you can put these flavor agents on and you're getting vegetables and nutrients. But you're getting them in a way that you want to eat them, because they're full of deliciousness.
Los Angeles Times
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
LA Times Today: Trailblazing chef Roy Choi shares the evolution of his cooking in new cookbook
Roy Choi is a trailblazing chef, entrepreneur and author – best known for revolutionizing the L.A. food scene with his Kogi BBQ food truck. His cooking blends the flavors of his culture and the diverse culinary landscape of L.A. And now, his new book, 'The Choi of Cooking' provides a flavorful journey through his life, with personal stories and recipes. Roy will at the L.A. Times Festival of Books this weekend, but first, he joined Lisa McRee.
Los Angeles Times
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Spring forward with 5 recipes from the season's best cookbooks
Fall gets all of the hype, but spring has always been my favorite season. Especially here in Los Angeles. As ripe lemons fall to the ground, clusters of kumquats take their place in neighborhood trees. Star jasmine blossoms into little white pinwheels, their sweet, floral scent hanging in the air. Papery bougainvillea weave their way through fences like fuschia-colored ivy and thorny bushes bloom with roses for a few brief weeks. Spring is also when a wave of cookbooks reaches our bookstore shelves, encouraging us to take advantage of the season. This year, there are plenty of L.A. chefs and food figures offering recipes that celebrate our unique local bounty, like Kogi BBQ chef Roy Choi's ode to vegetables in 'Choi of Cooking,' or Fishwife founder Becca Millstein's approachable, picnic-perfect ideas in 'The Fishwife Cookbook.' Of course, the temperate and malleable nature of our region also makes it easy to experiment with cuisines and cooking styles that might not be as familiar. Chef Eric Adjepong's 'Ghana to the World' cookbook encouraged me to visit my neighborhood's African markets for the first time, to source ingredients like egusi seeds for a Ghanaian take on granola. In Caroline Pardilla's 'Margarita Time' cookbook with over 60 takes on the classic tequila cocktail, bartender Shannon Mustipher shares a version with hibiscus in homage to her hometown of Charleston, S.C. Though the port city is on the opposite coast, it blooms with hibiscus flowers this time of year, just as it does here in L.A. Just like sunlight and strawberries, culinary inspiration is abundant in the spring. Especially when armed with the Food team's annual roundup of our favorite new cookbook releases, with many this year focused on streamlining recipes and doing more with less. Our food writers (and some of our favorite local chefs) also mined our shelves for the cookbooks we can't live without, including vintage titles, out-of-print pamphlets and memoirs from the industry's most looming figures. To get you started, here are five recipes pulled from this year's crop, including a pineapple-ginger drink and egusi granola that makes its way into a peppery arugula salad. Eating out this week? Sign up for Tasting Notes to get our restaurant experts' insights and off-the-cuff takes on where they're dining right now. Don't be intimidated by the cook time for this simple cocktail. Most of it is spent preparing the hibiscus syrup, which yields a large batch that can be also be used in seltzer water or water with a splash of lemon. Once the syrup has cooled, it's just a matter of rimming a chilled glass with salt and shaking up the ingredients with the recipe. Cook time: 90 minutes. Chef and 'Ghana to the World' author Eric Adjepong grew up drinking tea his mother would brew with leftover ginger and pineapple peels and dried fruit and herbs. In his cookbook, he offers a refreshing version that's served chilled and topped off with Club the recipe. Cook time: 5 minutes I've long been a fan of egusi soup, a West African dish that calls for grinding the protein-rich melon seeds. In 'Ghana to the World,' Adjepong adds them to an everyday granola recipe that also features virgin coconut oil and coconut nectar. Buy the seeds whole or pre-ground from an African market or online — Adjepong recommends Jeb the recipe. Cook time: 2 hour 30 minutes. Makes about 3.5 cups. Adjepong's egusi granola can be eaten on its own or used as a topping on your favorite salad or dessert. It adds a rich nuttiness to this arugula salad, also from his 'Ghana to the World' cookbook. The greens are further enhanced with tangy sorghum syrup in the sherry vinaigrette, crumbled goat cheese and pickled red the recipe. Cook time: 40 minutes. Serves 2 to 4. Ari Kolender, the chef and co-owner of Found Oyster and Queen St. Raw Bar & Grill, is behind some of my favorite seafood dishes in the city. It's not exaggerating to say that I dream about the scallop tostada at Found, and the way it perfectly tightropes between crunchy and meaty textures, with fatty, citrus, tart, herby flavors. Now, when I'm too lazy to drive from my Mid-City home to the East Hollywood seafood shack, I can make it at home in under 30 the recipe. Cook time: 20 minutes.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gas Station Tacos, Midnight Tortas, and More Slam-Dunk, Feel-Good Recipes From Roy Choi
When Roy Choi was named as a 2010 F&W Best New Chef, he was as shocked as anyone. He'd come up through the ranks working at hotel restaurants and owned a food truck and said on an upcoming episode of the Tinfoil Swans podcast that he found himself at a party he'd never imagined being invited to. No one else was shocked, though. From his groundbreaking Kogi truck and community-oriented fast-food chain LocoL to his smash-hit Las Vegas restaurant Best Friend and brand new health-oriented cookbook The Choi of Cooking, Roy Choi has never been afraid to bust through boundaries and preconceived notions, honor his Korean heritage, and lift up the Los Angeles street food that made him the icon he is today. Here are his recipes for oxtail ramen, gas station tacos, a condiment you'll slather on everything, and a hot dog that's one of the best recipes Food & Wine has ever published. If you loved the movie Chef, you already know this luscious, garlicky pasta. Director Jon Favreau specifically asked Choi for the recipe to re-create when his chef character, Cal, makes a batch to woo the restaurant's hostess. It's nothing fancy — just garlic, lemon, red pepper flakes, parsley, oil, and Parmesan — but it's simply perfect. Get the Recipe "People think frying chicken cutlets is simple, but it's like cooking pasta," says Choi. "It's a dish that seems remedial, but when you get it right, it changes the whole ball game. I call it the cult of katsu." What's key, he says, is working cleanly in each step so you can maximize the distinctive panko crunch. Get the Recipe Leftover rice gets new life with a pop of chopped kimchi, and a stellar sauce of dried shrimp, gochugaru, jalapeño, and aromatics. The kimchi gets sweeter when it's heated while still bringing the funk and crunch. Get the Recipe A meld of herbs, spices, orange juice, garlic, and olive oil make a mighty overnight marinade for pork shoulder that's sumptuous on its own, or a killer filler for the greatest Cubano you'll ever make. Get the Recipe Speaking of Cubanos, that mojo pork is magic when it's pressed against boiled ham, Swiss, and dill pickles on a baguette slathered with butter and plenty of mustard. Pork roast from the store is fine, too, but c'mon — you deserve the extra oomph. Get the Recipe Roy Choi had Los Angeles' late-night scene in mind when he schemed this jalapeño-spiked sandwich. In true Choi fashion, it's a brilliant mash-up of cuisines, with skillet-crisped pork belly, lime-kissed fried eggs, wilted spinach, cotija, tomatoes, and plenty of fuel to keep the party going on through dawn. Get the Recipe If you're more in a meat-free mode, this A-plus sandwich is stacked with avocados, alfalfa sprouts, and arugula, along with cucumbers, onions, herbs, tomatoes, and cheese, and dressed in an orange juice and ginger-kicked vinaigrette that you'll want to pour on everything. Get the Recipe Spend time behind the wheel of a food truck, and you're bound to become intimately acquainted with gas stations. Roy Choi has a particular appreciation for their cuisine, and honors them with these clever tacos layered with American cheese, canned bean and jalapeño cheese dips, beef jerky, pork rinds, and apple matchsticks. No pan? No problem. These come together quickly in the microwave, served with whatever hot sauce is on hand. Get the Recipe Roy Choi considers himself a lifelong connoisseur of Korean barbecue and says, "Growing up, I was the ultimate Korean barbecue champion. If you took me to an all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue restaurant, forget about it." His short ribs rest in the fridge overnight in a marinade of onion, scallions, garlic, soy sauce, orange juice, mirin, sesame oil, sugar and sesame seeds before a quick sear on a grill on in a pan. Get the Recipe In 2018, Food & Wine named Roy Choi's signature hot dogs from his Kogi truck as one of our 40 best recipes of all time. These dogs are piled high with cabbage, kimchi, cheddar cheese, and a squirt of Sriracha, and they're the stuff of legend in Los Angeles and soon to be in your house. Get the Recipe It seems as if every restaurant has a signature burger these days, but Choi's are a standout, due to a toasted sesame seed mayonnaise and the distinctive flavor of perilla leaves. Life is short; don't shortchange yourself on the second patty. Get the Recipe If you haven't yet succumbed to the siren song of Spam, now's the perfect time. 'This is the peanut butter and jelly sandwich of Hawaii,' says Choi. 'If you've been swimming, if you've been hanging on the beach, it's the perfect snack. Something about it just hits the spot. And the best place to find it is at a 7-Eleven.' Get the Recipe Tender oxtails co-star in this rich ramen recipe and pull double-duty as broth and protein alongside daikon braised in sake and ginger. For a little extra crunch, you can't beat golden-fried slivers of garlic sprinkled on top. Get the Recipe The titular $24 pasta is a wink and a nod to a specialty at Scott Conant's Scarpetta restaurant, and Choi crafts his with tomato sauce amped up by a quick mushroom broth and slow-cooked garlic. Get the Recipe Choi credits the inspiration for this light, tangy chowder to his days working at the Los Angeles country club where he was tasked with making a heftier version on Friday nights. He swaps in coconut milk and lime along with green curry paste for an extra zing of flavor. Get the Recipe Side Street is the Honolulu dive bar where Choi fell in love with fried, glazed, tangy ribs. In his homage, he deploys hoisin, black bean sauce, oyster sauce and sriracha along with orange juice (you may have noticed a theme by now) for layers upon layers of sticky, meaty bliss. Sticky Glazed Baby Back Ribs In his days at the community-centric LocoL burger chain, Roy Choi and fellow F&W Best New Chef Daniel Patterson crafted a tomato-based spicy sauce with Korean chile paste that's a pow of a pairing with everything from fries and onion rings to burgers and chicken. Get the Recipe Read the original article on Food & Wine
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Meghan and the rise of the status apron
In her new Netflix lifestyle series With Love, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex's California-cool wardrobe is just as aspirational as her 'darling and delicious' homemade creations. Featuring a high-low cross-section of fashion brands – a Loro Piana sweatshirt here, a pair of pleated linen Zara trousers there – Meghan's outfits exude exactly the kind of enviable, 'effortless' quiet luxury all were expecting. But among the soothing sea of crisp white shirts and ecru cashmere, one thing stands out: her frankly astonishing array of aprons. Practically every new scene features a fresh iteration, whether Meghan is artfully arranging crudités, icing a 'naked' cake or tending to a sun-dappled Montecito garden. Naturally, these aren't any old flour-dusted pinnies, they're carefully curated pieces that eagle-eyed fashion fans have already been quick to identify. Some aren't particularly practical; take a breezy natural-toned piece from Solino Home (£33), which is made from pure linen, or a button-strap number from Toshe, available on Amazon (£34), in an unforgiving shade of cream. Others feel more functional, including a light green waxed canvas gardening apron with multiple pockets, which Meghan wears while picking homegrown berries to make into jam. This one is thought to be from The Celtic Farm (£79), a small brand founded at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, not far from the coastal town in which the Sussexes live. As well as a connection to home-grown design, Meghan's apron choices sometimes nod to her philanthropic interests. She wears a denim style from Finery LA, an 'anti-uniform' brand that supports the hospitality industry and collaborates with chefs – including Roy Choi, who appears in the third episode of the series. In 2024, at a charitable cooking event, Meghan wore an apron from another LA foodie-favourite brand, Hedley & Bennett, which is coincidentally stocked on Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle site Goop. Whatever you might think of Meghan's bid for lifestyle guru status, there's no denying that her ensembles are chic. And with an assortment of aprons layered on top of them, they embody a farm-to-table aesthetic that's on the rise in the UK as well as the US. As an unlikely status symbol, the apron is eschewing its trad-wife associations and making the wearer look adept at hosting, concerned with local sourcing and unafraid to get their hands (but never their clothes) dirty. Meghan said as much in the inaugural newsletter from her brand – 'As Ever' – which was sent on the same day that the series dropped. She assured subscribers: 'I still dance in my kitchen, experiment with recipes, get my hands dirty in the garden…' Aprons are the domestic armour in her ongoing battle for wholesome relatability, even if they remain suspiciously immaculate throughout the series. Fittingly, her first officially registered gift as a member of the British Royal Family was an apron, presented to the then-Duke of Cambridge to pass on by a member of the public. Details about that particular present remain scant, but for those seeking to emulate Meghan's take, a neutral palette is key to looking more 'stealth wealth' than twee. There are plenty to be found on the high street at the moment; take Toast's linen crossback pinafore, in an earthy shade of tawny brown, or H&M's cotton-linen blend in light beige or grey stripe. Retailer Anthropologie says its bestselling apron is a rugby stripe style, which succeeds in nodding to more than one of the season's trends – a preppy sportswear aesthetic, pale pink, mellow yellow. Linen pinafore apron, £78, Toast Chef Nina Parker favours a rotation of styles. 'I have two different aprons that I'm wearing at the moment, the classic commercial kitchen style, which is blue with white stripes from Nesbits and still my favourite look,' she says. 'Then, if I want to channel a more 'I pick micro herbs for a living' vibe, it's a brown canvas apron from Labour + Wait in Shoreditch.' Shrewsbury-based Risdon & Risdon is another chef favourite that comes in chic indigo denim, handcrafted leather and classic cotton canvas – the latter is donned by Chris Leach at Shoreditch restaurant Manteca and Tom Cenci at Nessa, a Soho hotspot. Denim apron, £145, Risdon & Risdon For ultimate bragging rights, get your status apron from a hotel, ideally one with its own cookery school. The Newt in Somerset, an estate that Meghan would surely approve of with its acres of gardens and cyder orchards, has its own lifestyle range, including an apron. Reportedly, the manager at The Newt's Farmyard restaurant wears his full leather version every day, and guests delight in taking a forest green cotton version home. When it comes to hosting, the ultimate power play might be refraining from removing the apron when guests arrive, so as to radiate calm despite having been slaving over a hot stove. For those still keen to embrace a touch of maximalism, there are also plenty of bright hues and fun frills out there. At Damson Madder, there's an apron that comes in pink and red gingham, bow-adorned baby blue and even leopard print. Meanwhile, Instagram-famous kitchen brand Our Place offers a frilled 'Hosting Apron' in lavender, cobalt or on-trend chocolate brown. Hosting apron, £45, Our Place Delicious shades aside, there's no denying that an apron, whether humble or status, will always serve a rather obvious practical purpose. After all, everyone knows it's hell trying to get homemade jam out of cream cashmere – Loro Piana or not. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
