Roy Choi. I call him the culinary prince of LA. Of course that’s just in my humble opinion, but it’s hard to argue against. Immigrant kid, raised in and by L.A, food truck revolutionary, and mastermind behind a restaurant collective with enough flavor to keep your tastebuds satisfied year round. Am I fan? Ya I guess you could say that.

Having grown up on Costco frozen foods I have only recently gained an appreciation for finer dinning. But my humble roots often have a hard time connecting with food that I can barely make out its French name on the menu. This is where Roy cooks a home run for me. He took the fine dinning experience, flipped it, and remixed it to connect with 2.5 generational guys like me.

I came across this article in LA Weekly last year where Roy talks about how cookbooks changed his life. I went through and bookmarked all the chefs/books and I have been slowly working through the list hoping to be infused with the same culinary mastery. I’m a slow learner so don’t ask me to start a restaurant, but it has been great to get a glimpse into a world so different than my own.

Roy is coming out with an auto-bio/cook book in November 2013 that tells the “unlikely story of how a Korean American kid went from lowriding in the streets of L.A. to becoming an acclaimed chef.” You can get a taste here: http://ridingshotgunla.com/2013/09/26/l-a-son/

And Roy if you are reading this – mad respect! “El Hermano Serrano” would make a great name for your next culinary piece. Just sayin’…