January 31, 2024 • 40 mins
Eric and chef extraordinaire/pal Roy Choi talk about setting kitchens on fire accidentally and walking in on people having sex in a restaurant after hours. Never a dull moment when you are a professional chef. Eric talks about lying his way through a restaurant gig and immediately being fired after 3 days. Roy shares his tales of cooking stoned, his time of cooking in Japan, an infamous bombing moment with an Iron Chef, getting ripped by The New York Times, and asking the age old question: how does a tire mascot dictate "good food?" And last but not least, how witnessing people peeing into the tomato sauce will make you think twice about ordering pizza.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What up, y'all.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It's me Eric, and we are back with another edition
of Bombing, where I talk with friends, comedians, musicians and
chefs about their worst moments on stage and also their
worst moments in the kitchen. Today we have an esteam
chef on the pod, Roy Choi, the prolific restaurant tour
and one of the pioneers of the food truck movement
with the revolutionary Cogi food truck in La serving up
Korean taco deliciousness. He's a dear friend of mine and
(00:23):
he shares his Bombing moments in the kitchen and trying
to cook while blazed out of his mind. As always,
please subscribe to the podcast to get new episodes every
week raty five stars and on Apple Podcasts, subscribe to
Big Money Players Diamond to get an exclusive clip from
my chat with Roy Choi, plus add free episodes weekly.
Let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Bombing.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Bombing with Eric Andre called Bombing. I just want to
know the trials and tribulations of Roy Choi. I want
to know the worst gig you ever had, the worst
restaurant review you ever had, the worst meal you ever made,
the worst gig you ever had. I want to know
just like the word. I mean, you've you've lived in
(01:09):
and worked in some gnarly kitchens. I'm assuming with some
gnarly motherfuckers. Yeah, and you came up under some gnarly motherfuckers,
some hot heads and shit.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
So yeah, for sure I came up. I came up
before PC and before like you know, I'm from the nineties, So.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
We were saying racist shit to you in the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Oh yeah, racist time. Yeah, you know, Like I mean,
I held my own, you know, luckily, luckily enough, I
had a background to be able to hold my own.
But if if I didn't hold my own, yeah, I mean,
it's not just racist shit. It's sexist shit. It's racist shit,
is aggressive, competitive, toxic, toxic environments. But there's also like
a good side to it. There's a chill side. It's
like it's like any industry. You look at football in
(01:51):
the seventies, porn in the eighties, you know, cooking in
the nineties. You know, like it's like it's give and take. Yeah,
you know, it's what we it's what we got because
we don't have that much information now, there's too much
information that everything is like you're walking on needles. But
back then, outrage people are just going for it. Back then,
you're just going for it, Like I'm not I'm not condoning.
(02:12):
I'm just saying, like no one knew any fucking better, right,
you know, So it's just what's coming up? You know,
there's I kind of missed that, Like I don't know
if the right worst transparency, but just that that like
that that primalism of just like saying, whatever the fuck
was on your.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Mind, right, no filter, no filter, raw, no vasoline. Yes,
we had songs. We had songs that had no filter. Wait,
so what was like the worst gig? Like, what did
you before you had you know, your own restaurants, where
were you where'd you cut your teeth or what was
like the worst gigs you had?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I mean I cut my teeth in New York. I
went to culinary school out there. I cooked in New
York restaurants in nineties. In the nineties.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, well year you remember, like ninety.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Six, ninety seven, ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So this is back in the day when I remember
when with Bobby Flan Michael Woltajia one time, Tony Hawk
and by it Mede to the dinner and Voltajia told
me that like he goes literally, chefs would have cookbooks
that looked like they were like written by an old
Italian grandmother. There was no internet. I mean there was
like the earliest stages of the Internet, but like there
was actually like the secret recipe because you couldn't just
(03:20):
like go online and watch fifty five thousand YouTube videos
about every single recipe. You really had to like work
under some psycho chef and really get in their good
graces and figure out the each one of these recipes.
Like it was like it was medieval compared to now,
which you have all this information at your fingertips.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
It's very medieval. I guess it could be the same
as like stand up comedy in a sense where you
had to go out on the road and stay in
motels and like pay your dues and all that. You know,
the whole thing of paying dues like in our generations,
like it's real stuff because there was no internet, and
so yeah, you had Like right now, people think working
at a job for like or doing something for one
(04:00):
year is a long time, you know, I mean that's
almost too long for people like they want instant success.
Back then, you like it was understood that you would
work for seven years under someone in obscurity, you know,
and just learning and absorbing. It was very like Kung Fu.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
You know, he's like you're putting your hands in like
broken fire.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
It was very Yeah, it was very Saturday morning Kung
Fu movie, like going to the back top of the
bamboo forest. And yeah, balancing and hitting tree trunks, you know,
that's that's what it was, and that's the only way
you could learn. And and then yes there were books,
but these books were written like decades ago, and and
(04:42):
they were all European, right, and so yeah, if you
ever needed like something or vinaigrette or anything like just something,
if you're like kind of freestyling, you would have to
go back to the office, look up the book and
kind of like it was a very dewey decimal system.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Well did you see people get rocked ever in kitchens
like fucking spilled hot boiling water in themselves or just
burn themselves with hot.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I've hot mops. No, I've seen it. I was the
one that was spilling stuff and causing fires. And because
I got into cooking late and then I had I
had a I don't have real like horror stories. But
the one thing I did have in that time of
my life in the late nineties, was I had this
unique intersection ability where I would always walk in on
(05:30):
people having sex in the kitchen. Yeah, I don't know
if you have. I mean, it's just something that's followed
me on. I've been walked in on like five times
in my life. And then I just there was just
this period of time in the nineties where I would
always either be walked in on or I'd walk in
on something and it would just be like I would
be completely were just going down to get like flour,
(05:53):
you know, or bread curubs.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, just too like cooks.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Were so happening all the time in New York. It
was happening all the time.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
People just drunk, coked up, or just like the pressure
of work just led to these primal urges.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
It's the pressure.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
It's like sleep deprivation.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
It's just it was like just what it was back then.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
And then in New York, the kitchens have levels, right,
so in your mind you think that there are these
like hidden chambers. So there's the kitchen level, and then
there's like a storage level, there's the office on the
third floor, and then there's the basement. You know how
New York streets are, and so it was always in
the kegs are in the bottom, the fifty pound sacks
(06:34):
of flour, and those are perfect spots to get it,
get it on. But it was like, but the weird
thing is fucking fucking down by the flower man, because
there's six stacks of flower, fifty pound sacks of flour bins.
So you could do it either way. You could do
a doggy style, you could be on bottom, it doesn't matter.
(06:56):
You could lay down, you could do missionary whatever you want.
Keg kegs you have handles to hold on to, you know.
So it's just it was happening all the time, and
it was just like quick ship, you know, like a yeah,
I don't know why I know all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Well I know it.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
I know why, Yeah, I know it because I was
here walking in on it.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Man.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Unfortunately I wasn't the one being walked in on in
those situations, but I was the one always walked I
was always like this dumb mister Magoo, like walking in
with like an empty hotel pan trying to pick up
panko flower. And then yeah, so that's the type of
stuff that was happening to me, but I was in
New York. Rats, how I didn't see that many rats.
I worked in really good restaurants, so I didn't really
(07:40):
see that many rats in New York. I would see.
I was living actually up just below Spanish Harlem, up
in like east Upper East Side, so i'd see something
like on the way home to work, but or on
the subway but not at work. But like the bombing
stuff for in the kitchens in New York was me
I was. I got into professional cooking a little bit later,
(08:01):
like in my later twenties, so I was like trying
to make up for lost time. So I kinda I
kind of went for kitchens I wasn't ready for yet,
you know. So I tried to, like, you be like
you're getting on stages you're not you're not even prepared for,
you know, like you haven't even put in the work yet, right,
And so I get in there and I was just
with all these like assassins and pros, and I was
just trying to keep up. And then I have this
(08:24):
really crazy problem when I get nervous, it doesn't happen
as much anymore because I'm not that as much as
nervous anymore. But when I was younger, I was really
nervous and shy. Yeah, I fucking bleed from the nose. No,
like fucking like you could have a fire hydrant.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Really.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Yeah, So you.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Get so nervous that your nose.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yeah. So yeah, And I think maybe part of well,
part of it is definitely like my anxiety and my
my shyness, but part of it is I was like
born with like a cleft, so my whole like nose
palette and bone bone is a little bit different. Yeah,
my whole nasal passages and everything is really weird. So
all that, and then so I'd be in the middle
of service and then my nose would start bleeding it,
(09:02):
and so I'd stuff one up and then I stuffed
the other up, and then and then one night I
was pulling a chicken stock off the thing and it
started the fat fell off the top, and then it
like the fire just took over the whole island. And
then once it took over the whole island, and my
nose wouldn't stop bleeding, so it looked like two big
(09:24):
like maxipads in my in my nostrils. And then they
had to stop service. For a second and clean up,
and then the chef just looks at me. It's just
shaking his head. But it was, like, I it was
a pretty comedic moment because he's looking at me. There's
this huge fire. They have to stop service. Everyone's pissed off.
But how can you get mad at me? I'm like
a little I'm like the little kid and stand by me,
(09:45):
you know, like, I'm just like you. I'm trying so hard.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
You really mean to do well.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
I really met to do well, and I'm sitting there
with two bloody noses and yeah, so they just like
everyone jumped in to help me out. That's a great
thing about kitchens is you know, like when they know
you're trying, they'll jump in and help you out.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So it's not all like the worst parts. It's not
all people trying to cut each other's heads.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Often it's not that. But it is a lot of competitiveness.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah, I mean there are horses, you know, like I
didn't really experience them too much, but there are a
lot of horstores where people bump in you with hot shit,
you know that, Yeah, or leave a knife out, you know,
leave a knife out that points outward or but those
are those are bad kitchen. Just like in anything in life,
there are bad people in bad situations and people with
(10:32):
malicious intent. In most cases, people are just trying to
like see what you're made of. I would say the
good is better than that. But that doesn't mean like
they're like nice. It means like they're just pushing you, see,
like can you keep up?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
They're testing your metal?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I worked in a kitchen for three days. I waited tables. Okay,
there's a restaurant called Burritoville in the West Village. This
is probably twenty years ago. I just graduated college, I
want to say, early two thousands, and I was the
worst server in the history of restaurants. I burned myself
every five seconds. I forgot you got to tell the
customer when the plate is hot, be careful. And it
(11:10):
was like very rowdy, loud gay guys in the in
the neighborhood at the time, So like I would like
put a plate down and be scalding hot, and the
guy would go to touch the plate. I forgot to
tell nothing.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
I'd be like, it's fucking hot, and I'm like, oh shit,
I'm supposed to tell you that and I lied on
my job interview and I told the guy I was
waiting tables since I was fourteen years old for my parents,
never worked in a restaurant once.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Or I was fucking horrible dropping plates. I would like
scoop when the when the customer would be like, can
I take this home and to go back, I would
just scoop it out with my hands, and the waiter
the other waiters were like, dude, don't if you're going
to do that, don't let the customers see you doing that.
And I was like, shit, and I want the best
chefs in the world use their hands. And the person
training me was like, you're not the best chef in
(12:00):
the world. You're horrible.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
You're horrible. Like we don't serve like hot plates anymore
like that. It sounds like a restaurant that would serve
like like a plate that was like yeah, yeah, yeah.
Other than Peter Lueger is no one that really doesn't.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Sometimes you get the sizzling fahiita play like a chili
this kind of thing. But that's that's telling you it's
fucking cooking. But my friend Derek Beckle's I hope it
doesn't mind me tell you a story he worked at
a restaurant in Manhattan. I gotta ask him which restaurant
this is not to put it on blast, just out
of curiosity. He was like, this was not like a
cheap restaurant. He goes, this was a fancy this is
(12:39):
a fans I don't know if it was Michilon Star,
but like whatever, but like it was, you know, fine dining,
white tablecloth chip and he tells the story. I wish
he was here to tell it.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
He tells it better than me.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
But there was a tomato soup tomato bisk or something
they were serving and everybody's wolfing it down. It's like
the special soup of the day. So soup dezure fucking people.
Everybody wolfing it down. People ask for seconds and ship
and then he goes back into the kitchen and he's like,
I got more soup. I need more soup. I got
(13:10):
more sup orders And the chef was like no, no, no,
and he's like what And he said, like the cauldron
of soup was like dumped out and going down the
drain or something, and there was like a gigantic, dead
bloated rat at the bottom. So he said, like people
were wolfing it down because I had this like gamy
rat Brian. I was giving it like the perfect flavor.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
It makes me think of this time in high school
where I knew a bunch of kids that were working
at a pizza spot. Again, I just had this thing
in life where I walk in on ship. Yeah, back
then I walk in and they're all peeing in the
fucking tomato sauce.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
What why?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Because they're fucking sixteen years old.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
That's a crime against humanity. People were eating.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yes, come on, Jesus Christ, it must be something with tomatoes,
and because I think they were busier never than that.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yea with Aericdrey. With Aericdre.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
What's the worst like restaurant review you ever had? Have
you gotten like ripped by? I don't read reviews. I
tell my publicist, like, unless it's good, don't send it
to me. I don't care.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Like I you know, I did get ripped apart by
The New York Times.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I got ripped there.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
By Pete Wells. The He's like he's like the theater critic,
you know, like like food, you know, like the type
of thing where people are waiting on pins and needles
for his his his review and then it's a make
or break situation, you know. But we opened the well luckily,
(15:06):
Like career wise, I wasn't at a point where I
really gave a fuck about it, but the project we
were working on mattered, you know. And I don't know
if you know about this project called Local I did
out in Watts and Oakland. But you know, it was
a project for you know, for the people I grew
up with, you know, like it was like going back
to the neighborhood building a restaurant, employing everyone, you know,
providing Wi Fi internet jobs, nutrition training, and we were
(15:31):
just building, like trying to build a great restaurant in
the hood, you know what I'm saying. And so we
started Watts, Oakland, you know, we went to San Jose,
San Francisco, all that, and uh, he came in. It
just ripped us apart.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Man.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Just wait, so there's stuffy white New York Times. Because
I'm uming.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
They're they're they're there. They were disguises. So I don't
know what.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Food reviewers were disguises when they come in. They do
they do because they want to be incognita. They want
to be treated as if they're They don't want special treatment,
so they know what the real deal is.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah, that industry now is kind of fleeting because of
the way the world is and the way the internet is. Right,
but when they were at when they were at in their.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Prime, you know, there's only like five of those people.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Fake reservations, burner phones, whoa you know, disguises like horrible
disguise like this.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
Guys you would wear disguises like you would wear yeah,
like mar fucking sabotage, beastie boys ship and they would
go in restaurants like that.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So that that guy missed the point of that project.
That project you were trying to bring. You trying to
uplift marginalized communities and bring vitality to the hood. Just
bring bring culture, Yeah, bring jobs, create jobs. So that
guy like that's like a completely missing the point.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
The thing is we were too high profile chefs opening
a restaurant in watts There was a lot of attention.
You know, everyone was writing about this opening, and so
you know it was a big deal for them to
actually cover it. And and you know Pete he's a
tremendous writer. He's like, you know, he's the writer of
(17:18):
the New York Times. But he has a shtick where
he goes to a restaurant, like in the beginning of
each year he did Guy Fieri's restaurant he did, he
did a few others where he just fucking leans in
annihilates you. He gets I think. So I don't know,
but I think he does. And and you know we
got I got zero stars. I got zero stars from
the New York Times. So I would say that's bombings.
(17:42):
It has to hurt, right, It hurts, right, It hurts
on every level. Yeah, even though I say it doesn't hurt,
it hurts, you know, because we're not opening. You know,
we're not the ones peeing in the fucking pizza sauce.
You know, we're trying, you know, like we really care
about this thing, and you know, for us to get
a zero, all that work and get it. You know,
even if you know, like your your mission is higher
(18:03):
than that and it's not about the ego, it's still
it still hurts.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Like, you know, has he ever said anything nice? Has
he always been on your has he always been after you?
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Do you feel like I didn't even know I was
on his radar, you know until that? Yeah, so New
Yorkers don't really give a shit about us in LA.
They don't even think we exist, you know, so.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Was there like but that's no longer? Is that still
true maybe back in the day? Is that still like that?
Is there still like an East Coast West Coast Biggie
Tupac chef beef.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
I don't know if there's a chef, but I do
think that New York's New Yorkers still think that New
York is the center of the world, you know, in
many ways, you know, and uh, but they love to
live in LA.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
What about Parisian chefs? Are they even even more cool?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Man? Really? Like French new wave cinema man, the.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
New, the new, the new guns. I'm talking about the
old school cats with the chef boy. Are the fucking
hats the roughest hell in the kitchen, But they're cool.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
They're cool as being something. Really the French are cool?
Man smoked cigarette.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Oh no, I'm not. I'm not talking about all French people.
French chefs were the toughest in the their heart, their
fucking like brickship house fucking I thought they were like
the the teacher in that movie Whiplash, like throwing fucking
drum symbols at your fucking head.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yes, yes, but that's inside the kitchen outside there.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Outside the chill, so outside, the New York chefs are
not their dicks inside and out of the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
I wouldn't say it's the chefs. I would say it's
the more the patrons and the diners, you know that,
you know, just like New York and l A in general,
like a lot of times we get overlooked, you know, like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I think l A is the capital of I mean,
I'm not an expert, but I thought, like l A
is the capital of Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Yeah, but but you got to remember our casual attitude
and our lifestyle. A lot of people don't think that
we're trying, or it doesn't get computed that we actually
give a ship sometimes. So what I mean by that
is the Michelin Guide came here years ago. Like I
don't have too much beef with many things in life,
I'm pretty zen, right, but fuck the Michelin Guide, you know,
(20:16):
straight up and then and everyone. I comes from an
era where you fucking you know you remember ship and
you hold the line. I come from that era here.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Like, you know, like your word means something like you know,
you got people's back you fucking like you represent you know,
like and you and you hold down your ship, you
hold down your hood, you know, like the Michelin guy
came to La and told us that we were uncivilized. Yeah,
and that there was no place in this city that
could have great food to their to their measurements because
(20:52):
it wasn't European based, you know. And you know, because
you could go to a restaurant with shorts on or
whatever the case may be. You know, and this guy's
living in like the eighteen hundreds exactly. And then they
came back years later, seven eight years later and then
reintroduced themselves California, and everyone acted. Everyone just got back
on their dick like they didn't say that shit. And
(21:13):
for me, I just remember, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Like no, no, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
So a lot of people look at us like we
don't we're not trying hard, you know, whereas like in
other other cities, like because it's you know, very European
core base, it looks like it's more intelligent or whatever
the case may be.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Uh, you know, like there's like stuffy blue blood like.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Yeah, you know, Miami gets that a lot too. There
can't be great cuisine down in regions where people are
just chilling and having a great time, you know, because
it's so crazy.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I didn't know that La that's so fun. That's all
news to me. That's all news to me because I
thought like LA is the high water mark, and everybody's
trying to catch up to LA.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
But I guess it's like this new I would say,
like amongst the amongst the people, yes, you know, but
uh but still amongst the guard that old guard, the
gate t Yeah, the gatekeepers that control media or control
the industry in the sense that get kicked backs from
giving reviews or things like that. I would say, so
(22:15):
it's a corrupt too, there's some corruption there. I bet
fucking the Michelin guy has corrupt ship.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I've done. I've been to some Michelin Star restaurants that
fucking sucked that were like dog food. I went to
one in in Prague and I like left and I
was like that was mediocre. And my sister goes this
place is a Michelin Star, and I was like, dude,
this is I heard that. It's been bullshit from the beginning.
Though it's a tire company, right, isn't a company that
(22:42):
makes tires. It's Michelin. It's the same, it's the same company.
Company is a tire company, because they tell me what
the best fucking fog raws.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Well, the history of it is, they built the guide
because they want people to buy tires. They want people
to travel throughout Europe. Uh instead of taking the eurail
on the train. They wanted people to get in their
cars and travel to these remote regions and you know,
go and you know, go into the deep part of
France or you know, Hungary or Czechoslovakia or Prague or whatever.
(23:16):
And they wanted them to drive these you know places,
and so the guide was there, you know, to tie
it all in.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
So it's almost it's almost kind of been a scam
from the beginning. It's almost like they're in their own
self interest. I think that of the younger generations, nobody's
paying attention to that shit. Maybe I mean, I don't know,
but but I think you said, but I didn't know
that La was the underdog, And that's what I'm saying.
And I wanted to I wanted to apologize to your
(23:44):
business partner, who I think hates my guts because when
we ate.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Together, she was like, why are you leaving LA? Do
you remember this? Remember this in Chicago? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Can I tell this story and we can lift it
out if you know, because you were just about to
move to New York so we eat in Chicago. I
didn't know your business partners from LA, or I didn't
know LA had such underdog status, and you just spent
your life defending. I so hate where I'm from. So
anybody that loves where I'm from, I'm like, why do
you love where you're from? I fucking hate where I'm
(24:13):
I'm from Bokwerts on Florida. I don't have any nationalism
or for fucking I'm not like swinging the flash singing
the national anthem for where I'm from. So I'm like,
your business goes, why are you leaving in LA? And
I go I've been here fifteen years. I'm kind of
bored with it. I'm either in my car or in
my office or you're there's no spontaneity. I want to
(24:35):
be in New York against I'm walking around, I run
into a friend, I run into a I went into
a restaurant or a little shop I never saw before.
I want that spontaneity to inform my creativity. I missed,
I miss walking, I missed the diversity of the area.
I'm like gushing about New York and I've never met
anybody else that hated me more. During a dinner, the
entire time she was like, uh huh, Like I was like,
(24:58):
it was reminding me of if I said that to
Tupac sug night.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
And she was so excited to meet you that.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, she was just like, did she really think I
was talking about La? She doesn't hate me. I really
felt like she turned. She she was very warm at
the top, and there was a sharp one aid. It
might have been it might have been I might have
been in my own mind, but I was like, shit,
I really shouldn't have some people actually like where they're from.
I should She can talk shit about bookards on Florida.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I'm proud of her, though, because us in LA we
don't like to we don't like, we don't like to
back down, you know, from people talk about our city.
Because people talk about our city all the time, they
make fun of it all the time. People make fun
of Elk because people come to l A. It's usually
people that come to l A and and don't get
everything they wanted. Out of the city, you know, whether
(25:53):
that's for a job, for acting, for creative endeavors, for
entrepreneurial ships, whatever it is. You know, like they'll come
to LA because we're the land of opportunity, and then
they'll come and then they'll they'll leave and say LA
is fucking horrible.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Oh they'll be bitter.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
They'll be bitter. So a lot we get a lot
of that. See, I don't think we get a lot
of stereotypes, you know, about who we are. And but
then again, those are things that people think of us
as if like if people only want the Times Square,
you know, and said New York sucks.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Right, exactly, the stereotype of LA is people are like
I went to LA once, I hated it, and I go, well,
what neighborhood did you go to? I went to Beverly
Hills for twenty four hours and there was a bunch
of plastic surgery. I go, that is not the Los
Angeles experience. Los Angeles is a massive city with no nexus,
and every single neighborhood has its own identity. It's a
patchwork of various neighborhoods, each with their own very specific identity.
(26:47):
So you really, you really cannot make a broad generalization
about it. I lived there for fifteen years and I
still am figuring out what it's about, so I would
agree with you on that. However, when I travel the world,
Las held in high esteem, I thought, yeah, we are
in because I'm from Florida, and I'll tell you the
butt of every joke ever. But I relish in that.
(27:09):
So it's funny that you're defensive of LA to me,
because when people make fun of Florida, it just gives
me more and more power. I'm like, yeah, because I
grew up hating it. I grew up in these suburbs
is filled with elderly people on death's door, which is fine,
but it just was like not a place for a
kid or a mixed kid that was like full of
energy and creativity. I resented it. So now everybody hating
(27:32):
on Florida and all these Florida man memes, I finally
feel so validated and vindicated and just I'm like, I
knew it, and I knew I got out as soon
as I turned eighteen. For a reason, I feel like
I relish in people's hatred of mine where I'm from.
Not only do I not defend it, I'm like high
five and motherfucker like, yeah, keep a porn gasoline. Yeah,
(27:55):
on the flames.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Florida is good at being yeah, being the worst of
the worst always, It's great.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I saw a meme it said America is the Florida
of the world. It's like America compared to other countries,
It's the Florida America. America is the world's Florida. That's
what I said. I was like, yes, but I love Miami.
I will say Miami is the exception because I Miami
was rough. I was born in Miami, and it was
(28:23):
very rough for a while, and then it was like
douchey house music for a while, like euro trash, douchey
club like like Mikonos fucked Las Vegas, and it just
made this like it was like that kind of culture
which was like vapid and whack. And then and then
all of a sudden, in the past ten fifteen years,
it's had this like renaissance and it's like all the
(28:45):
things awesome about it got more awesome and louder, and
now it's like one of my favorite cities in America.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Orlando outside of the tour stuff is cool too. Man,
there's a lot of great food in them.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Really.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Oh yeah, yeah, you got it.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You got only went to Disney World when I was
a little kid, and I haven't been there since.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
I heard Pensacolas though too. It's you know, it's it's rough,
but Pensicola. People out there that can't be Roy Jones, man,
besides Roy Jones, it's go out there.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
All right.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
With Aridre, with Aerdre.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Have you ever been two waisted at work? Has there
ever been a time where you got fucking trash and
you were like, ship, I did too much?
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Yeah, I've tried, you know, I'm I'm a celebrated stoner.
I love being you know, I love getting high.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
And uh, I thought it would be cool to cook stones,
but it's not. No, Yeah, it's like I thought it was,
you know, I thought it was like rock and roll,
but haven't. There's too much shit going on and so yeah,
it's just everything fell apart. I can't. And then and
then there are people relying on you.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I mean, did you smoke a blood? Did you do
an edible? Did you smoke a joint? Above? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Edible and smoke and just completely stone like fucking the
kid where you kind of got to hold the edge
of the table once in a while. And uh, but
you know, you think everything's cool, but like, you know,
like the difference of like maybe going up on stage
or even doing an act or whatever. Stone or the
thing about a kitchen is there are like thirty people
(30:36):
relying on you, right, you know, and then and then
things are coming at a pace that your mind is
not ready for. And then you're dealing with fire and
knives and and you got to remember shit. You can't
just like freestyle and ramble, So that that didn't go well.
I try. I always try, Like it's almost like a
seasonal thing. I try every year to get on the
(31:00):
line Stone to see if it to see if you
could hack it, see if I could hack it. And
I can't.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Edibles too, Yeah, edibles will knock you into yeah, and
so yeah, don't.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Yeah, I've tried to cook Stone. We at the Kogi
Truck one time made edibles. We made our cakes into
into an edible like trestle like chie cake, but we
didn't know how to measure the butter, so each cake
ended up having probably like an ounce of weed in it.
So we were like we ate it. So the team,
(31:34):
like five of us ate them. This was early Koch,
went out on the street and we couldn't.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
We couldn't function.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
We couldn't function. We had to leave the truck there
overnight because we couldn't drive it back and we couldn't
count the change. So we would just we just like
a like tricker like Halloween candy. We just dumped all
our change and our dollar bills like on the thing,
and we just told people just take the fucking money
or leave the fucking money, and then we would just
be making food. We didn't even follow the tickets. We
(32:01):
would just be making food. Whatever was in that burrito
was in that burrito. It didn't matter what order. But
that was a great day. Somebody somebody was there in
Venice on that Saturday. Somebody suited. Yeah, like what the
order was doing?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah, this is this in and now man.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Yeah, we were like a Madrid waiter.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Yeah, there's a restaurant in Japan where the servers are
elderly and they have dementia.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Yeah that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
You just get what you get.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
That's a dream restaurant.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Man, that's wild.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I love that ship.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
You would you would go.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I would make a restaurant like that. I've tried. I
tried to make a restaurant like that. Kogie was trying,
like you.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Try to hire people with dementia.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
No, I've tried to make a restaurant where nobody could
say or knew what they were getting. Oh, he was
that freestyle you just get what you get.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I love that. Yeah, it was like it's like it's
like you're the ship, You're the expert fucking hook it up. Yes,
I like that, but the dement jazz different, it's a
little different. That's that's like Russian roulette. That's fucking wild.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
But in Japan because they're so polite to each other,
so everyone is there and they just endure it, which.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Is yeah, have you gone to Japan?
Speaker 3 (33:20):
I have I worked in Japan?
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Really? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
I worked in Japan in Tokyo and Yokohama as a
cook back in the day. Oh, that was another time
I bombed in Japan.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
What what? What after New York?
Speaker 1 (33:32):
No?
Speaker 3 (33:33):
This is yeah after New York. This was two thousand
and three. I worked in the summer of two thousand
and three in Japan to just be better, you know,
like and uh so I was working in Iron chef
Michiba's kitchen. He was the original iron chef. And then
I worked in a hotel in Yokohama, and I thought
I did. I thought I fucking I thought I brought it.
I thought I represented for the US of A.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, you were like gang.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Gang Gang Gang. I was dream Team. I was like
yeah at Johnson, I thought I And at the end
they gave me my my report card or my analysis,
and the only thing the Japanese could say about me
was that I was a good eater.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah I was.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
It was why, why, why you could have fucked up
that bad?
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Like what?
Speaker 1 (34:20):
What?
Speaker 2 (34:20):
What was that about?
Speaker 3 (34:21):
I've been, I've been. There was a period in my
life where I just I got by because of effort.
And that was for a long period, probably up until
probably up until about two thousand and five, It wasn't
that long ago. And then something kicked in, you know,
later on with and then with Kogie. But uh yeah,
(34:42):
I tried my best, and I just couldn't keep up
with these cooks. They're so good in Japan. They're so
fucking good. They're so precise, that's brutal. Yeah, and they
they're just everything is perfect. The cuts are perfect, and
I was just all thumbs and I was getting through it,
but I was like I was, I was like a
guy sweating bullets, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Like.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Everything.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
And they were supposed to make these comments on like
how my aptitude was and all these things, and the
only thing they wrote was that he was a great.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Oh that's a kick in the fucking crotch, but that's
a bomb.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
But it's great, you know.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Don't you think that all those failures and trials and
tribulations is what has made you so successful?
Speaker 3 (35:23):
I think, not only just me, but it helps I
think it's what helps me relate to a lot of
others because a lot of you know, we all fuck up, man,
we all bomb, you know, and that's what your podcast
is about. It's just we're not in a society where
we can share those things a lot or admit to
those things, because we're judged on those things. But I
think it would be better if we're able to express
them more, because then we can like all like laugh
(35:45):
about them and then like analyze them and then use
them as a part of like our own kind of identity,
you know, because without that then we're all just trying
to be kind of the same model of things. But
but yeah, I you know, I just hope that we
can talk about them more because, yeah, I think that's
what helps me relate, because you know, I feed people
(36:06):
on the streets all day every day, and I think
it's just the way that we express ourselves the way
our food taste. They can taste, you know, like mistakes
and failures and speed bumps in our food, you know,
as far as like when you eat it and it
just doesn't feel like fully put together, you know, it
feels like there There have been a lot of you know,
things that got that to that point. And I think
(36:28):
that's what it makes Kogie relate to so many people,
ye know, Yeah, yeah, because they're going they might be
going through right now. They might have fucked up at
their job and they come and eat at Kogie and
they're like, oh shit, really fucked up too.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
It makes it human human, Yeah, it.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Makes it human. Wow, it's fucking fascinating.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Wait.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
I had one other Oh, has there any ever been
like a robbery or like some fucking crazy ass customer
going fucking nuts, or like a meltdowns or anything at
any of your restaurants? Somebody coming in but naked and
taking a ship on the wall, any of that kind
of fucking crazy shit.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Oh man, I'm sure there are plenty of chefs that
have gone through that we have been lucky we haven't.
But early in the Kogi days, I was the fucking
train wreck because I would take food out of people's
hands because when I went, what happened was when they
were yes, really yes. When what happened was when we
(37:21):
started Kogi. We were all out of a job, and
it was our freedom, like it was like truly like
our ability to just do whatever the hell we wanted.
And so for me it was like finally my chance
to be just like this is what I serve and
that's what you get, you know, like just like no substitutions,
no sauce on the side, no nothing. And so it
(37:42):
was sushi bar style, Almocasti style in my mind. And
so when people would start to ask for things, instead
of getting mad, I would get so mad, but instead
of like getting violent or anything like that, I would
just walk out of the truck. I would take their
food out of their hand midpipe, place it with a
crumpled out bill, and then we would close the doors
(38:04):
and take off. So that was. That was kind of
the Kobe style and I kind.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Of wait, if they asked for a substitute, would.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Yeah, yeah, God forbid they asked for a sauce on
the side.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Were you like hot tempered in those days? Was it
like hot like hot blooded? No, it was frustrated.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
It was earnest. I'm kind of actually proud of it
at the time.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Man.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yeah, it was very earnest. You know, it was very earnest.
There was there's a famous sushi bar chef here called
uh Nozawa that his family now runs sugar Fish and
we do the same. He was, you know, if you
asked him for a California rollly kick you out, you know.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
So it was kind of dreams of sushi meets like
the soup Nazi from Seinfeld. Yeah, no soup for you.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Yeah, except on the streets, yeah, that you know. But
it was all out of love and that eventually evolved
into a deeper love where we took care people. But
I think Kogi's and everything that we do has been
lucky in the sense that you know, people relate, you know,
people feel like we're part of them. So you know,
like we can't go anywhere, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(39:14):
but no one's coming naked. I take a ship.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Maybe I'll do it tonight.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Yeah, you would have to.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
They tried to stop us, and we can't be stopped.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Can't be stopped, man, Roy CHOI.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Thank you so much, Thank you with Eric Andre. Bombing
with Eric Andre is brought to you by Will Ferrell's
Big Money Players Network and iHeart Podcasts. Executive produced by
Hans Sani and Olivia Aguilar, Edited and sound designed by
Andy Harris. Our art is by Dylan Vanderberg. And if
(39:47):
you want to confess to your own bombing moments or
give us a shout out, go rate us five stars
and drop a review on your podcast app of choice
right about your own stories of bombing at life. If
you're on Apple Podcasts, you can also subscribe to Big
Money Players Diamond to get exclusive bonus content with every
episode and listen to all my episodes ad free.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Bye
What up, y'all.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It's me Eric, and we are back with another edition
of Bombing, where I talk with friends, comedians, musicians and
chefs about their worst moments on stage and also their
worst moments in the kitchen. Today we have an esteam
chef on the pod, Roy Choi, the prolific restaurant tour
and one of the pioneers of the food truck movement
with the revolutionary Cogi food truck in La serving up
Korean taco deliciousness. He's a dear friend of mine and
(00:23):
he shares his Bombing moments in the kitchen and trying
to cook while blazed out of his mind. As always,
please subscribe to the podcast to get new episodes every
week raty five stars and on Apple Podcasts, subscribe to
Big Money Players Diamond to get an exclusive clip from
my chat with Roy Choi, plus add free episodes weekly.
Let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Bombing.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Bombing with Eric Andre called Bombing. I just want to
know the trials and tribulations of Roy Choi. I want
to know the worst gig you ever had, the worst
restaurant review you ever had, the worst meal you ever made,
the worst gig you ever had. I want to know
just like the word. I mean, you've you've lived in
(01:09):
and worked in some gnarly kitchens. I'm assuming with some
gnarly motherfuckers. Yeah, and you came up under some gnarly motherfuckers,
some hot heads and shit.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
So yeah, for sure I came up. I came up
before PC and before like you know, I'm from the nineties, So.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
We were saying racist shit to you in the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Oh yeah, racist time. Yeah, you know, Like I mean,
I held my own, you know, luckily, luckily enough, I
had a background to be able to hold my own.
But if if I didn't hold my own, yeah, I mean,
it's not just racist shit. It's sexist shit. It's racist shit,
is aggressive, competitive, toxic, toxic environments. But there's also like
a good side to it. There's a chill side. It's
like it's like any industry. You look at football in
(01:51):
the seventies, porn in the eighties, you know, cooking in
the nineties. You know, like it's like it's give and take. Yeah,
you know, it's what we it's what we got because
we don't have that much information now, there's too much
information that everything is like you're walking on needles. But
back then, outrage people are just going for it. Back then,
you're just going for it, Like I'm not I'm not condoning.
(02:12):
I'm just saying, like no one knew any fucking better, right,
you know, So it's just what's coming up? You know,
there's I kind of missed that, Like I don't know
if the right worst transparency, but just that that like
that that primalism of just like saying, whatever the fuck
was on your.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Mind, right, no filter, no filter, raw, no vasoline. Yes,
we had songs. We had songs that had no filter. Wait,
so what was like the worst gig? Like, what did
you before you had you know, your own restaurants, where
were you where'd you cut your teeth or what was
like the worst gigs you had?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I mean I cut my teeth in New York. I
went to culinary school out there. I cooked in New
York restaurants in nineties. In the nineties.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, well year you remember, like ninety.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Six, ninety seven, ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So this is back in the day when I remember
when with Bobby Flan Michael Woltajia one time, Tony Hawk
and by it Mede to the dinner and Voltajia told
me that like he goes literally, chefs would have cookbooks
that looked like they were like written by an old
Italian grandmother. There was no internet. I mean there was
like the earliest stages of the Internet, but like there
was actually like the secret recipe because you couldn't just
(03:20):
like go online and watch fifty five thousand YouTube videos
about every single recipe. You really had to like work
under some psycho chef and really get in their good
graces and figure out the each one of these recipes.
Like it was like it was medieval compared to now,
which you have all this information at your fingertips.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
It's very medieval. I guess it could be the same
as like stand up comedy in a sense where you
had to go out on the road and stay in
motels and like pay your dues and all that. You know,
the whole thing of paying dues like in our generations,
like it's real stuff because there was no internet, and
so yeah, you had Like right now, people think working
at a job for like or doing something for one
(04:00):
year is a long time, you know, I mean that's
almost too long for people like they want instant success.
Back then, you like it was understood that you would
work for seven years under someone in obscurity, you know,
and just learning and absorbing. It was very like Kung Fu.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
You know, he's like you're putting your hands in like
broken fire.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
It was very Yeah, it was very Saturday morning Kung
Fu movie, like going to the back top of the
bamboo forest. And yeah, balancing and hitting tree trunks, you know,
that's that's what it was, and that's the only way
you could learn. And and then yes there were books,
but these books were written like decades ago, and and
(04:42):
they were all European, right, and so yeah, if you
ever needed like something or vinaigrette or anything like just something,
if you're like kind of freestyling, you would have to
go back to the office, look up the book and
kind of like it was a very dewey decimal system.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Well did you see people get rocked ever in kitchens
like fucking spilled hot boiling water in themselves or just
burn themselves with hot.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I've hot mops. No, I've seen it. I was the
one that was spilling stuff and causing fires. And because
I got into cooking late and then I had I
had a I don't have real like horror stories. But
the one thing I did have in that time of
my life in the late nineties, was I had this
unique intersection ability where I would always walk in on
(05:30):
people having sex in the kitchen. Yeah, I don't know
if you have. I mean, it's just something that's followed
me on. I've been walked in on like five times
in my life. And then I just there was just
this period of time in the nineties where I would
always either be walked in on or I'd walk in
on something and it would just be like I would
be completely were just going down to get like flour,
(05:53):
you know, or bread curubs.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, just too like cooks.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Were so happening all the time in New York. It
was happening all the time.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
People just drunk, coked up, or just like the pressure
of work just led to these primal urges.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
It's the pressure.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
It's like sleep deprivation.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
It's just it was like just what it was back then.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
And then in New York, the kitchens have levels, right,
so in your mind you think that there are these
like hidden chambers. So there's the kitchen level, and then
there's like a storage level, there's the office on the
third floor, and then there's the basement. You know how
New York streets are, and so it was always in
the kegs are in the bottom, the fifty pound sacks
(06:34):
of flour, and those are perfect spots to get it,
get it on. But it was like, but the weird
thing is fucking fucking down by the flower man, because
there's six stacks of flower, fifty pound sacks of flour bins.
So you could do it either way. You could do
a doggy style, you could be on bottom, it doesn't matter.
(06:56):
You could lay down, you could do missionary whatever you want.
Keg kegs you have handles to hold on to, you know.
So it's just it was happening all the time, and
it was just like quick ship, you know, like a yeah,
I don't know why I know all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Well I know it.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
I know why, Yeah, I know it because I was
here walking in on it.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Man.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Unfortunately I wasn't the one being walked in on in
those situations, but I was the one always walked I
was always like this dumb mister Magoo, like walking in
with like an empty hotel pan trying to pick up
panko flower. And then yeah, so that's the type of
stuff that was happening to me, but I was in
New York. Rats, how I didn't see that many rats.
I worked in really good restaurants, so I didn't really
(07:40):
see that many rats in New York. I would see.
I was living actually up just below Spanish Harlem, up
in like east Upper East Side, so i'd see something
like on the way home to work, but or on
the subway but not at work. But like the bombing
stuff for in the kitchens in New York was me
I was. I got into professional cooking a little bit later,
(08:01):
like in my later twenties, so I was like trying
to make up for lost time. So I kinda I
kind of went for kitchens I wasn't ready for yet,
you know. So I tried to, like, you be like
you're getting on stages you're not you're not even prepared for,
you know, like you haven't even put in the work yet, right,
And so I get in there and I was just
with all these like assassins and pros, and I was
just trying to keep up. And then I have this
(08:24):
really crazy problem when I get nervous, it doesn't happen
as much anymore because I'm not that as much as
nervous anymore. But when I was younger, I was really
nervous and shy. Yeah, I fucking bleed from the nose. No,
like fucking like you could have a fire hydrant.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Really.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Yeah, So you.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Get so nervous that your nose.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yeah. So yeah, And I think maybe part of well,
part of it is definitely like my anxiety and my
my shyness, but part of it is I was like
born with like a cleft, so my whole like nose
palette and bone bone is a little bit different. Yeah,
my whole nasal passages and everything is really weird. So
all that, and then so I'd be in the middle
of service and then my nose would start bleeding it,
(09:02):
and so I'd stuff one up and then I stuffed
the other up, and then and then one night I
was pulling a chicken stock off the thing and it
started the fat fell off the top, and then it
like the fire just took over the whole island. And
then once it took over the whole island, and my
nose wouldn't stop bleeding, so it looked like two big
(09:24):
like maxipads in my in my nostrils. And then they
had to stop service. For a second and clean up,
and then the chef just looks at me. It's just
shaking his head. But it was, like, I it was
a pretty comedic moment because he's looking at me. There's
this huge fire. They have to stop service. Everyone's pissed off.
But how can you get mad at me? I'm like
a little I'm like the little kid and stand by me,
(09:45):
you know, like, I'm just like you. I'm trying so hard.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
You really mean to do well.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
I really met to do well, and I'm sitting there
with two bloody noses and yeah, so they just like
everyone jumped in to help me out. That's a great
thing about kitchens is you know, like when they know
you're trying, they'll jump in and help you out.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So it's not all like the worst parts. It's not
all people trying to cut each other's heads.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Often it's not that. But it is a lot of competitiveness.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah, I mean there are horses, you know, like I
didn't really experience them too much, but there are a
lot of horstores where people bump in you with hot shit,
you know that, Yeah, or leave a knife out, you know,
leave a knife out that points outward or but those
are those are bad kitchen. Just like in anything in life,
there are bad people in bad situations and people with
(10:32):
malicious intent. In most cases, people are just trying to
like see what you're made of. I would say the
good is better than that. But that doesn't mean like
they're like nice. It means like they're just pushing you, see,
like can you keep up?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
They're testing your metal?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I worked in a kitchen for three days. I waited tables. Okay,
there's a restaurant called Burritoville in the West Village. This
is probably twenty years ago. I just graduated college, I
want to say, early two thousands, and I was the
worst server in the history of restaurants. I burned myself
every five seconds. I forgot you got to tell the
customer when the plate is hot, be careful. And it
(11:10):
was like very rowdy, loud gay guys in the in
the neighborhood at the time, So like I would like
put a plate down and be scalding hot, and the
guy would go to touch the plate. I forgot to
tell nothing.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
I'd be like, it's fucking hot, and I'm like, oh shit,
I'm supposed to tell you that and I lied on
my job interview and I told the guy I was
waiting tables since I was fourteen years old for my parents,
never worked in a restaurant once.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Or I was fucking horrible dropping plates. I would like
scoop when the when the customer would be like, can
I take this home and to go back, I would
just scoop it out with my hands, and the waiter
the other waiters were like, dude, don't if you're going
to do that, don't let the customers see you doing that.
And I was like, shit, and I want the best
chefs in the world use their hands. And the person
training me was like, you're not the best chef in
(12:00):
the world. You're horrible.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
You're horrible. Like we don't serve like hot plates anymore
like that. It sounds like a restaurant that would serve
like like a plate that was like yeah, yeah, yeah.
Other than Peter Lueger is no one that really doesn't.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Sometimes you get the sizzling fahiita play like a chili
this kind of thing. But that's that's telling you it's
fucking cooking. But my friend Derek Beckle's I hope it
doesn't mind me tell you a story he worked at
a restaurant in Manhattan. I gotta ask him which restaurant
this is not to put it on blast, just out
of curiosity. He was like, this was not like a
cheap restaurant. He goes, this was a fancy this is
(12:39):
a fans I don't know if it was Michilon Star,
but like whatever, but like it was, you know, fine dining,
white tablecloth chip and he tells the story. I wish
he was here to tell it.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
He tells it better than me.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
But there was a tomato soup tomato bisk or something
they were serving and everybody's wolfing it down. It's like
the special soup of the day. So soup dezure fucking people.
Everybody wolfing it down. People ask for seconds and ship
and then he goes back into the kitchen and he's like,
I got more soup. I need more soup. I got
(13:10):
more sup orders And the chef was like no, no, no,
and he's like what And he said, like the cauldron
of soup was like dumped out and going down the
drain or something, and there was like a gigantic, dead
bloated rat at the bottom. So he said, like people
were wolfing it down because I had this like gamy
rat Brian. I was giving it like the perfect flavor.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
It makes me think of this time in high school
where I knew a bunch of kids that were working
at a pizza spot. Again, I just had this thing
in life where I walk in on ship. Yeah, back
then I walk in and they're all peeing in the
fucking tomato sauce.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
What why?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Because they're fucking sixteen years old.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
That's a crime against humanity. People were eating.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yes, come on, Jesus Christ, it must be something with tomatoes,
and because I think they were busier never than that.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yea with Aericdrey. With Aericdre.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
What's the worst like restaurant review you ever had? Have
you gotten like ripped by? I don't read reviews. I
tell my publicist, like, unless it's good, don't send it
to me. I don't care.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Like I you know, I did get ripped apart by
The New York Times.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I got ripped there.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
By Pete Wells. The He's like he's like the theater critic,
you know, like like food, you know, like the type
of thing where people are waiting on pins and needles
for his his his review and then it's a make
or break situation, you know. But we opened the well luckily,
(15:06):
Like career wise, I wasn't at a point where I
really gave a fuck about it, but the project we
were working on mattered, you know. And I don't know
if you know about this project called Local I did
out in Watts and Oakland. But you know, it was
a project for you know, for the people I grew
up with, you know, like it was like going back
to the neighborhood building a restaurant, employing everyone, you know,
providing Wi Fi internet jobs, nutrition training, and we were
(15:31):
just building, like trying to build a great restaurant in
the hood, you know what I'm saying. And so we
started Watts, Oakland, you know, we went to San Jose,
San Francisco, all that, and uh, he came in. It
just ripped us apart.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Man.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Just wait, so there's stuffy white New York Times. Because
I'm uming.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
They're they're they're there. They were disguises. So I don't
know what.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Food reviewers were disguises when they come in. They do
they do because they want to be incognita. They want
to be treated as if they're They don't want special treatment,
so they know what the real deal is.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah, that industry now is kind of fleeting because of
the way the world is and the way the internet is. Right,
but when they were at when they were at in their.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Prime, you know, there's only like five of those people.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Fake reservations, burner phones, whoa you know, disguises like horrible
disguise like this.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
Guys you would wear disguises like you would wear yeah,
like mar fucking sabotage, beastie boys ship and they would
go in restaurants like that.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So that that guy missed the point of that project.
That project you were trying to bring. You trying to
uplift marginalized communities and bring vitality to the hood. Just
bring bring culture, Yeah, bring jobs, create jobs. So that
guy like that's like a completely missing the point.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
The thing is we were too high profile chefs opening
a restaurant in watts There was a lot of attention.
You know, everyone was writing about this opening, and so
you know it was a big deal for them to
actually cover it. And and you know Pete he's a
tremendous writer. He's like, you know, he's the writer of
(17:18):
the New York Times. But he has a shtick where
he goes to a restaurant, like in the beginning of
each year he did Guy Fieri's restaurant he did, he
did a few others where he just fucking leans in
annihilates you. He gets I think. So I don't know,
but I think he does. And and you know we
got I got zero stars. I got zero stars from
the New York Times. So I would say that's bombings.
(17:42):
It has to hurt, right, It hurts, right, It hurts
on every level. Yeah, even though I say it doesn't hurt,
it hurts, you know, because we're not opening. You know,
we're not the ones peeing in the fucking pizza sauce.
You know, we're trying, you know, like we really care
about this thing, and you know, for us to get
a zero, all that work and get it. You know,
even if you know, like your your mission is higher
(18:03):
than that and it's not about the ego, it's still
it still hurts.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Like, you know, has he ever said anything nice? Has
he always been on your has he always been after you?
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Do you feel like I didn't even know I was
on his radar, you know until that? Yeah, so New
Yorkers don't really give a shit about us in LA.
They don't even think we exist, you know, so.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Was there like but that's no longer? Is that still
true maybe back in the day? Is that still like that?
Is there still like an East Coast West Coast Biggie
Tupac chef beef.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
I don't know if there's a chef, but I do
think that New York's New Yorkers still think that New
York is the center of the world, you know, in
many ways, you know, and uh, but they love to
live in LA.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
What about Parisian chefs? Are they even even more cool?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Man? Really? Like French new wave cinema man, the.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
New, the new, the new guns. I'm talking about the
old school cats with the chef boy. Are the fucking
hats the roughest hell in the kitchen, But they're cool.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
They're cool as being something. Really the French are cool?
Man smoked cigarette.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Oh no, I'm not. I'm not talking about all French people.
French chefs were the toughest in the their heart, their
fucking like brickship house fucking I thought they were like
the the teacher in that movie Whiplash, like throwing fucking
drum symbols at your fucking head.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yes, yes, but that's inside the kitchen outside there.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Outside the chill, so outside, the New York chefs are
not their dicks inside and out of the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
I wouldn't say it's the chefs. I would say it's
the more the patrons and the diners, you know that,
you know, just like New York and l A in general,
like a lot of times we get overlooked, you know, like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I think l A is the capital of I mean,
I'm not an expert, but I thought, like l A
is the capital of Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Yeah, but but you got to remember our casual attitude
and our lifestyle. A lot of people don't think that
we're trying, or it doesn't get computed that we actually
give a ship sometimes. So what I mean by that
is the Michelin Guide came here years ago. Like I
don't have too much beef with many things in life,
I'm pretty zen, right, but fuck the Michelin Guide, you know,
(20:16):
straight up and then and everyone. I comes from an
era where you fucking you know you remember ship and
you hold the line. I come from that era here.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Like, you know, like your word means something like you know,
you got people's back you fucking like you represent you know,
like and you and you hold down your ship, you
hold down your hood, you know, like the Michelin guy
came to La and told us that we were uncivilized. Yeah,
and that there was no place in this city that
could have great food to their to their measurements because
(20:52):
it wasn't European based, you know. And you know, because
you could go to a restaurant with shorts on or
whatever the case may be. You know, and this guy's
living in like the eighteen hundreds exactly. And then they
came back years later, seven eight years later and then
reintroduced themselves California, and everyone acted. Everyone just got back
on their dick like they didn't say that shit. And
(21:13):
for me, I just remember, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Like no, no, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
So a lot of people look at us like we
don't we're not trying hard, you know, whereas like in
other other cities, like because it's you know, very European
core base, it looks like it's more intelligent or whatever
the case may be.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Uh, you know, like there's like stuffy blue blood like.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Yeah, you know, Miami gets that a lot too. There
can't be great cuisine down in regions where people are
just chilling and having a great time, you know, because
it's so crazy.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I didn't know that La that's so fun. That's all
news to me. That's all news to me because I
thought like LA is the high water mark, and everybody's
trying to catch up to LA.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
But I guess it's like this new I would say,
like amongst the amongst the people, yes, you know, but
uh but still amongst the guard that old guard, the
gate t Yeah, the gatekeepers that control media or control
the industry in the sense that get kicked backs from
giving reviews or things like that. I would say, so
(22:15):
it's a corrupt too, there's some corruption there. I bet
fucking the Michelin guy has corrupt ship.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I've done. I've been to some Michelin Star restaurants that
fucking sucked that were like dog food. I went to
one in in Prague and I like left and I
was like that was mediocre. And my sister goes this
place is a Michelin Star, and I was like, dude,
this is I heard that. It's been bullshit from the beginning.
Though it's a tire company, right, isn't a company that
(22:42):
makes tires. It's Michelin. It's the same, it's the same company.
Company is a tire company, because they tell me what
the best fucking fog raws.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Well, the history of it is, they built the guide
because they want people to buy tires. They want people
to travel throughout Europe. Uh instead of taking the eurail
on the train. They wanted people to get in their
cars and travel to these remote regions and you know,
go and you know, go into the deep part of
France or you know, Hungary or Czechoslovakia or Prague or whatever.
(23:16):
And they wanted them to drive these you know places,
and so the guide was there, you know, to tie
it all in.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
So it's almost it's almost kind of been a scam
from the beginning. It's almost like they're in their own
self interest. I think that of the younger generations, nobody's
paying attention to that shit. Maybe I mean, I don't know,
but but I think you said, but I didn't know
that La was the underdog, And that's what I'm saying.
And I wanted to I wanted to apologize to your
(23:44):
business partner, who I think hates my guts because when
we ate.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Together, she was like, why are you leaving LA? Do
you remember this? Remember this in Chicago? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Can I tell this story and we can lift it
out if you know, because you were just about to
move to New York so we eat in Chicago. I
didn't know your business partners from LA, or I didn't
know LA had such underdog status, and you just spent
your life defending. I so hate where I'm from. So
anybody that loves where I'm from, I'm like, why do
you love where you're from? I fucking hate where I'm
(24:13):
I'm from Bokwerts on Florida. I don't have any nationalism
or for fucking I'm not like swinging the flash singing
the national anthem for where I'm from. So I'm like,
your business goes, why are you leaving in LA? And
I go I've been here fifteen years. I'm kind of
bored with it. I'm either in my car or in
my office or you're there's no spontaneity. I want to
(24:35):
be in New York against I'm walking around, I run
into a friend, I run into a I went into
a restaurant or a little shop I never saw before.
I want that spontaneity to inform my creativity. I missed,
I miss walking, I missed the diversity of the area.
I'm like gushing about New York and I've never met
anybody else that hated me more. During a dinner, the
entire time she was like, uh huh, Like I was like,
(24:58):
it was reminding me of if I said that to
Tupac sug night.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
And she was so excited to meet you that.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, she was just like, did she really think I
was talking about La? She doesn't hate me. I really
felt like she turned. She she was very warm at
the top, and there was a sharp one aid. It
might have been it might have been I might have
been in my own mind, but I was like, shit,
I really shouldn't have some people actually like where they're from.
I should She can talk shit about bookards on Florida.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I'm proud of her, though, because us in LA we
don't like to we don't like, we don't like to
back down, you know, from people talk about our city.
Because people talk about our city all the time, they
make fun of it all the time. People make fun
of Elk because people come to l A. It's usually
people that come to l A and and don't get
everything they wanted. Out of the city, you know, whether
(25:53):
that's for a job, for acting, for creative endeavors, for
entrepreneurial ships, whatever it is. You know, like they'll come
to LA because we're the land of opportunity, and then
they'll come and then they'll they'll leave and say LA
is fucking horrible.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Oh they'll be bitter.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
They'll be bitter. So a lot we get a lot
of that. See, I don't think we get a lot
of stereotypes, you know, about who we are. And but
then again, those are things that people think of us
as if like if people only want the Times Square,
you know, and said New York sucks.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Right, exactly, the stereotype of LA is people are like
I went to LA once, I hated it, and I go, well,
what neighborhood did you go to? I went to Beverly
Hills for twenty four hours and there was a bunch
of plastic surgery. I go, that is not the Los
Angeles experience. Los Angeles is a massive city with no nexus,
and every single neighborhood has its own identity. It's a
patchwork of various neighborhoods, each with their own very specific identity.
(26:47):
So you really, you really cannot make a broad generalization
about it. I lived there for fifteen years and I
still am figuring out what it's about, so I would
agree with you on that. However, when I travel the world,
Las held in high esteem, I thought, yeah, we are
in because I'm from Florida, and I'll tell you the
butt of every joke ever. But I relish in that.
(27:09):
So it's funny that you're defensive of LA to me,
because when people make fun of Florida, it just gives
me more and more power. I'm like, yeah, because I
grew up hating it. I grew up in these suburbs
is filled with elderly people on death's door, which is fine,
but it just was like not a place for a
kid or a mixed kid that was like full of
energy and creativity. I resented it. So now everybody hating
(27:32):
on Florida and all these Florida man memes, I finally
feel so validated and vindicated and just I'm like, I
knew it, and I knew I got out as soon
as I turned eighteen. For a reason, I feel like
I relish in people's hatred of mine where I'm from.
Not only do I not defend it, I'm like high
five and motherfucker like, yeah, keep a porn gasoline. Yeah,
(27:55):
on the flames.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Florida is good at being yeah, being the worst of
the worst always, It's great.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I saw a meme it said America is the Florida
of the world. It's like America compared to other countries,
It's the Florida America. America is the world's Florida. That's
what I said. I was like, yes, but I love Miami.
I will say Miami is the exception because I Miami
was rough. I was born in Miami, and it was
(28:23):
very rough for a while, and then it was like
douchey house music for a while, like euro trash, douchey
club like like Mikonos fucked Las Vegas, and it just
made this like it was like that kind of culture
which was like vapid and whack. And then and then
all of a sudden, in the past ten fifteen years,
it's had this like renaissance and it's like all the
(28:45):
things awesome about it got more awesome and louder, and
now it's like one of my favorite cities in America.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Orlando outside of the tour stuff is cool too. Man,
there's a lot of great food in them.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Really.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Oh yeah, yeah, you got it.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You got only went to Disney World when I was
a little kid, and I haven't been there since.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
I heard Pensacolas though too. It's you know, it's it's rough,
but Pensicola. People out there that can't be Roy Jones, man,
besides Roy Jones, it's go out there.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
All right.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
With Aridre, with Aerdre.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Have you ever been two waisted at work? Has there
ever been a time where you got fucking trash and
you were like, ship, I did too much?
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Yeah, I've tried, you know, I'm I'm a celebrated stoner.
I love being you know, I love getting high.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
And uh, I thought it would be cool to cook stones,
but it's not. No, Yeah, it's like I thought it was,
you know, I thought it was like rock and roll,
but haven't. There's too much shit going on and so yeah,
it's just everything fell apart. I can't. And then and
then there are people relying on you.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I mean, did you smoke a blood? Did you do
an edible? Did you smoke a joint? Above? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Edible and smoke and just completely stone like fucking the
kid where you kind of got to hold the edge
of the table once in a while. And uh, but
you know, you think everything's cool, but like, you know,
like the difference of like maybe going up on stage
or even doing an act or whatever. Stone or the
thing about a kitchen is there are like thirty people
(30:36):
relying on you, right, you know, and then and then
things are coming at a pace that your mind is
not ready for. And then you're dealing with fire and
knives and and you got to remember shit. You can't
just like freestyle and ramble, So that that didn't go well.
I try. I always try, Like it's almost like a
seasonal thing. I try every year to get on the
(31:00):
line Stone to see if it to see if you
could hack it, see if I could hack it. And
I can't.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Edibles too, Yeah, edibles will knock you into yeah, and
so yeah, don't.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Yeah, I've tried to cook Stone. We at the Kogi
Truck one time made edibles. We made our cakes into
into an edible like trestle like chie cake, but we
didn't know how to measure the butter, so each cake
ended up having probably like an ounce of weed in it.
So we were like we ate it. So the team,
(31:34):
like five of us ate them. This was early Koch,
went out on the street and we couldn't.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
We couldn't function.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
We couldn't function. We had to leave the truck there
overnight because we couldn't drive it back and we couldn't
count the change. So we would just we just like
a like tricker like Halloween candy. We just dumped all
our change and our dollar bills like on the thing,
and we just told people just take the fucking money
or leave the fucking money, and then we would just
be making food. We didn't even follow the tickets. We
(32:01):
would just be making food. Whatever was in that burrito
was in that burrito. It didn't matter what order. But
that was a great day. Somebody somebody was there in
Venice on that Saturday. Somebody suited. Yeah, like what the
order was doing?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah, this is this in and now man.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Yeah, we were like a Madrid waiter.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Yeah, there's a restaurant in Japan where the servers are
elderly and they have dementia.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Yeah that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
You just get what you get.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
That's a dream restaurant.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Man, that's wild.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I love that ship.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
You would you would go.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I would make a restaurant like that. I've tried. I
tried to make a restaurant like that. Kogie was trying,
like you.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Try to hire people with dementia.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
No, I've tried to make a restaurant where nobody could
say or knew what they were getting. Oh, he was
that freestyle you just get what you get.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I love that. Yeah, it was like it's like it's
like you're the ship, You're the expert fucking hook it up. Yes,
I like that, but the dement jazz different, it's a
little different. That's that's like Russian roulette. That's fucking wild.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
But in Japan because they're so polite to each other,
so everyone is there and they just endure it, which.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Is yeah, have you gone to Japan?
Speaker 3 (33:20):
I have I worked in Japan?
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Really? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
I worked in Japan in Tokyo and Yokohama as a
cook back in the day. Oh, that was another time
I bombed in Japan.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
What what? What after New York?
Speaker 1 (33:32):
No?
Speaker 3 (33:33):
This is yeah after New York. This was two thousand
and three. I worked in the summer of two thousand
and three in Japan to just be better, you know,
like and uh so I was working in Iron chef
Michiba's kitchen. He was the original iron chef. And then
I worked in a hotel in Yokohama, and I thought
I did. I thought I fucking I thought I brought it.
I thought I represented for the US of A.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, you were like gang.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Gang Gang Gang. I was dream Team. I was like
yeah at Johnson, I thought I And at the end
they gave me my my report card or my analysis,
and the only thing the Japanese could say about me
was that I was a good eater.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah I was.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
It was why, why, why you could have fucked up
that bad?
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Like what?
Speaker 1 (34:20):
What?
Speaker 2 (34:20):
What was that about?
Speaker 3 (34:21):
I've been, I've been. There was a period in my
life where I just I got by because of effort.
And that was for a long period, probably up until
probably up until about two thousand and five, It wasn't
that long ago. And then something kicked in, you know,
later on with and then with Kogie. But uh yeah,
(34:42):
I tried my best, and I just couldn't keep up
with these cooks. They're so good in Japan. They're so
fucking good. They're so precise, that's brutal. Yeah, and they
they're just everything is perfect. The cuts are perfect, and
I was just all thumbs and I was getting through it,
but I was like I was, I was like a
guy sweating bullets, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Like.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Everything.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
And they were supposed to make these comments on like
how my aptitude was and all these things, and the
only thing they wrote was that he was a great.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Oh that's a kick in the fucking crotch, but that's
a bomb.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
But it's great, you know.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Don't you think that all those failures and trials and
tribulations is what has made you so successful?
Speaker 3 (35:23):
I think, not only just me, but it helps I
think it's what helps me relate to a lot of
others because a lot of you know, we all fuck up, man,
we all bomb, you know, and that's what your podcast
is about. It's just we're not in a society where
we can share those things a lot or admit to
those things, because we're judged on those things. But I
think it would be better if we're able to express
them more, because then we can like all like laugh
(35:45):
about them and then like analyze them and then use
them as a part of like our own kind of identity,
you know, because without that then we're all just trying
to be kind of the same model of things. But
but yeah, I you know, I just hope that we
can talk about them more because, yeah, I think that's
what helps me relate, because you know, I feed people
(36:06):
on the streets all day every day, and I think
it's just the way that we express ourselves the way
our food taste. They can taste, you know, like mistakes
and failures and speed bumps in our food, you know,
as far as like when you eat it and it
just doesn't feel like fully put together, you know, it
feels like there There have been a lot of you know,
things that got that to that point. And I think
(36:28):
that's what it makes Kogie relate to so many people,
ye know, Yeah, yeah, because they're going they might be
going through right now. They might have fucked up at
their job and they come and eat at Kogie and
they're like, oh shit, really fucked up too.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
It makes it human human, Yeah, it.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Makes it human. Wow, it's fucking fascinating.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Wait.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
I had one other Oh, has there any ever been
like a robbery or like some fucking crazy ass customer
going fucking nuts, or like a meltdowns or anything at
any of your restaurants? Somebody coming in but naked and
taking a ship on the wall, any of that kind
of fucking crazy shit.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Oh man, I'm sure there are plenty of chefs that
have gone through that we have been lucky we haven't.
But early in the Kogi days, I was the fucking
train wreck because I would take food out of people's
hands because when I went, what happened was when they
were yes, really yes. When what happened was when we
(37:21):
started Kogi. We were all out of a job, and
it was our freedom, like it was like truly like
our ability to just do whatever the hell we wanted.
And so for me it was like finally my chance
to be just like this is what I serve and
that's what you get, you know, like just like no substitutions,
no sauce on the side, no nothing. And so it
(37:42):
was sushi bar style, Almocasti style in my mind. And
so when people would start to ask for things, instead
of getting mad, I would get so mad, but instead
of like getting violent or anything like that, I would
just walk out of the truck. I would take their
food out of their hand midpipe, place it with a
crumpled out bill, and then we would close the doors
(38:04):
and take off. So that was. That was kind of
the Kobe style and I kind.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Of wait, if they asked for a substitute, would.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Yeah, yeah, God forbid they asked for a sauce on
the side.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Were you like hot tempered in those days? Was it
like hot like hot blooded? No, it was frustrated.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
It was earnest. I'm kind of actually proud of it
at the time.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Man.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yeah, it was very earnest. You know, it was very earnest.
There was there's a famous sushi bar chef here called
uh Nozawa that his family now runs sugar Fish and
we do the same. He was, you know, if you
asked him for a California rollly kick you out, you know.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
So it was kind of dreams of sushi meets like
the soup Nazi from Seinfeld. Yeah, no soup for you.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Yeah, except on the streets, yeah, that you know. But
it was all out of love and that eventually evolved
into a deeper love where we took care people. But
I think Kogi's and everything that we do has been
lucky in the sense that you know, people relate, you know,
people feel like we're part of them. So you know,
like we can't go anywhere, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(39:14):
but no one's coming naked. I take a ship.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Maybe I'll do it tonight.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Yeah, you would have to.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
They tried to stop us, and we can't be stopped.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Can't be stopped, man, Roy CHOI.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Thank you so much, Thank you with Eric Andre. Bombing
with Eric Andre is brought to you by Will Ferrell's
Big Money Players Network and iHeart Podcasts. Executive produced by
Hans Sani and Olivia Aguilar, Edited and sound designed by
Andy Harris. Our art is by Dylan Vanderberg. And if
(39:47):
you want to confess to your own bombing moments or
give us a shout out, go rate us five stars
and drop a review on your podcast app of choice
right about your own stories of bombing at life. If
you're on Apple Podcasts, you can also subscribe to Big
Money Players Diamond to get exclusive bonus content with every
episode and listen to all my episodes ad free.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Bye
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