L.a. Son: My Life, My City, My Food

(Hardback)

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Description

A gritty, charming, and flavourful 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 illegal 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. Fully illustrated with full-color photography throughout, it includes 60 inspired recipes for everything from kalbi and kimchi to chorizo and carne asada.

Reviews

Street-wise, honest in its admission of trials and punctuated with vernacular swagger, Choi's debut pays tribute to family and his enduring fascination with the melting pot of Los Angeles. -- Kirkus Reviews

"While [Jacques] Pepin's autobiography was the epitome of the traditional chef's life, it may be that Choi's will be the same for the new generation ... "L.A. Son," co-written with Tien Nguyen and Natasha Phan, pops with Choi's hip-hop verbal rhythms." -- Los Angeles Times

'With driving metaphors coming fast and furious throughout this memoir cum cookbook, there is no doubting and no pulling away from Choi's gritty embrace of L.A.'s mean streets." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Choi is the rare chef whose life story--which includes working with chef Eric Ripert and a weeklong cocaine binge--is as compelling as his food." -- Food & Wine

"At the moment, Roy Choi is one of the most prominent lenses the nation has into L.A." -- Los Angeles Times

His beautiful book .... is two parts story (Choi's coming up), one part recipe (his OMG crazy good creations, like ketchup fried rice). You may never cook from this book (though the recipes are eminently doable), but it won't matter. It's a fun flip even if all you do is drool." -- Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers

"A a memoir-cookbook that moves like a novel." -- New York Times, cover of 'Dining' Section, in article about Roy's new restaurant

"In its pages, and even more so in person, one finds in Choi a personality who is at once high-end and low-end, flawed and at the top of his game, relentless and chill, coarse and refined-and absolutely, unapologetically authentic." -- Ad Week