October 2, 2025 • 34 mins
In part two of their inspiring conversation with chef Roy Choi, Wilmer and Freddy get into the deeper layers of Roy’s mission, exploring how his Emmy-winning series Broken Bread and his work with LocoL aim to spark real change through food. Roy reflects on the intersection of culture, community, and cooking, and how collaborating with Jon Favreau on The Chef Show blurred the lines between storytelling and soul food. Plus, things heat up in the studio when producers Sophie and Leo serve up a homemade dish from Roy’s new cookbook The Choi of Cooking.
“Dos Amigos” is a comedic and insightful podcast hosted by two friends who’ve journeyed through Hollywood and life together. Wilmer Valderrama and Freddy Rodriguez push through the noise of everyday life and ruminate on a bevy of topics through fun and daring, and occasionally a third amigo joins the mix!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome back to those amigos. This is part two of
this incredible conversation with our brother over here. And we're
talking his book, we're talking heritage, we're talking the struggle
in the climb up and uh, Freddie, I know that
you you.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Have some thoughts on the matter, and you were going
to ask something.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Absolutely, I'm just I'm just so happy and grateful to
have my boy Roy here.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
But that after after you you put out, especially.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
With all the intention and the media that we got,
because then the media gets involved, right, and then the
media wants to understand the craze, right, the craze. They
want you to put it in some poetic one liner
right right. And for me, in those early days, you know,
I was just speaking, spitting my truth, you know, kind
of like the hip hop that we love, right Like
(00:51):
I was, I was speaking like early Queen's Bridge, you know,
I was describing where I'm from, you know whatever, uh
and uh. For us, it was like I was just saying, like,
this is our food, this is the way we talk,
this is our slang. This is if you eat this taco,
it tastes like this block, you know, it tastes like
Vermont and eighth Street, you know, and then those things
(01:12):
were written by Australian journalists, English, you know, people from
around the world. And then then then what happened was
instead of la being this huge thing, it started to
get very regional micro right, and then they would say, oh,
because of this flavor and this chili and this block
that these flavors come out.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So that's so interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I mean, it's such a I think, like the street
food is now being celebrated worldwide in a way that's
just like, I mean, I I was shooting in Europe
or like a year and a half ago, and uh,
you know, you go to Rome somewhere and there's a
corner with a bunch of food tructions, Like, whoa, what's.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Going on here?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I mean, everyone's like really getting inspired. What what do
you think to you what do you think change in
the view? What what do you think this brought to
people that it became such a worldwide phenomen You know.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
We were we were right there in the middle of
it all. And again, why was it an Asian fusion Mexican,
Korean Korea town tackle truck that ended up being the
focus of all this? But you know, I can't speak
for that. All I know is to tell you the truth.
And we were there, you know, and the time that
(02:22):
we started cooking on the streets, there was a lot
of racism around street food.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
You know, and perception.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
You know, they were called roach coaches. You know, the
lonchettas and trucks were called roach coaches. The whole negativity
and racism around the way that Western culture looked at Latinos.
You know, the water in Tijuana diarrhea, If you eat
the food, it's dirty, it's roach coaches. These are words
(02:52):
that like people were using to describe culture, you know,
to describe life. And what happened was we just went
out there with this truck. I think it was the
technology and the social media and then the craze of
everyone being able to access it. A lot of racism
comes from ignorance and fear right and so finally people
(03:13):
that didn't have access to food trucks or street food
or vendors, they were finally able to access things in
their life because it was this new kind of hip
thing and they realized it wasn't what they were led
to believe, you know what I mean, It wasn't dirty,
it wasn't it wasn't gross, It wasn't a roach coach,
(03:35):
you know, and it was actually delicious. And we're all
human and these are this is culture, and so that
all led to things moving from roach coach to gourmet
and then all of a sudden, you know, and that
shows how powerful language is, right, you go from calling
something a roach coach to calling it a gourmet food truck. Right,
(03:56):
then all of a sudden, that same person that was
saying those things is now hiring that same truck for
their kids' birthday party. And that's all within one It's
a circle of life. And then that leads to the
next thing. Then all of a sudden, corporations and economy
gets behind it, and the industry gets behind it. So
(04:18):
all these things start to change. We see it in
your guys, this world with like storytelling, right and you know,
you know, different projects being funded now, and then people
like yourselves becoming producers and you know, and investors and
you know, bringing in stories that were not brought in before.
All of that stuff changes.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
It really does change until your point.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
It takes individuals like you to say that fusion is
not only allowed, right, I mean we always talk about this,
you know, they always try to make us you're either
Korean or you're American, or you're either Latino or you're American,
you know, And we always talk over here about the
two hundred percent, Like why can't be two hundred percent?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, I mean to one hundred percent of that one
hundred percent of this and that makes it really special.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
I think that the idea that these these collaborations with
flavors and culture that happened in the streets now have
a moment.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
In pop culture worldwide.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
You know, these are restaurant ideas that were never allowed
to be because they weren't allowed to play nice with
each other. You know, they weren't they weren't seen as mainstream.
They weren't seen as as crowd pleasers or you know.
And so that's what I think, Like what Kogie did
in such a you know, in such an iconic way,
is that it allowed it for it to be like
(05:36):
why not all these fusions were happening in the streets,
but they were never allowed to be a real business.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I'm a strong believer in like the cream rises to
the top, right, Like like good is good, right, Like
I have family members in Chicago and Wisconsin who don't
know anything about acting, nothing about movies or TV. But
they can sit there and they can tell you if
an actor is good or not or I or if
the thing that they're watching is good or not, because
(06:03):
they have this sort of instinct this this this visceral
reaction to it. And I just think that part of
what made you successful was that you were telling your truth.
This is your truth, right, this food was your truth
and good is good. You know, people got over this
sort of like, oh, how could you merge sort of
Korean and Mexican, And then once they took a bite,
(06:23):
they were like, damn, this thing is good.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Yeah, you know, and that truth goes back, It goes
back deeper than just the beginning of the truck. You know,
like I grew up around Latinos my whole life.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
That's why I really want to do this podcast. It
just like it feels comfortable to me. It feels it
feels very familiar to me. It's you know, I was
low riding when I was sixteen.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
It's part of who you are too, who I am.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
I was Wittier boulevard. You know, you could you could
you could check the receipts, you know, like you know,
I was on with your boulevard cruising Pico Rivera back
in the day. I was. I was spitting game at
you know, you know, trying. I was at the dances.
I had the pompador, you know, you know, I was
listening to freestyle. I was out there, you know, and
(07:08):
I was in kitchens. I was, you know, at the
side of teas and moms and you know, helping them
cook and watch. And I was a good eater. You know,
growing up, I was real chubby kids. So like the
moms used to love me. Man, you know, like all
my friends, I go to the houses and again, like
I told you, I was alone a lot. So I
just rolled to my friends houses and I was a
little chubby can they loved me.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, I had to.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I couldn't leave the table whole they would clean.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
And so I think once I started cooking, and once
I especially when I went out there to the streets,
it just felt natural and people could feel that I
wasn't a poser or or my you know, they felt
something familiar as well, from from us, I want to believe,
you know, and even from the early early nights, we
(07:59):
would come back because the just so you all know
the trucks here in Los Angeles. We we're like our
own subculture. We're like, we're like the kind of like
the gangs of the movie The Warriors. Yeah, like we
go back to our own little kind of like compounds
at night. So at night we all chuck back to these.
(08:20):
There's three three or four big compounds here in Los Angeles,
one up here in the valley, there's one on Slawson,
and one in downtown LA, and then one in Huntington Park.
And basically all the trucks you see out there on
the streets, we all go back to one of these
four compounds. And in these four compounds are surrounded by
these big cinder block walls, and it's like it's like
(08:40):
a big prison yard but in the in the but
if a prison yard was like a musical.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
You know, it's like colorful truck colorful trucks and a
bunch of like uh like ladies teas that are really bossy,
really bossy, but in charge and amazing, and they've been
working all day.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
And then there's so much gossip, street gossip, as.
Speaker 6 (09:04):
You all know, like it's the best got each other
and everything, everything so much that thing's awfully does so
much gossip and then so you think they're not the
ladies got egoized. Man, you think they're not gonna notice
like a bunch of Asian guys coming in on a truck,
you know.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
So they spotted us right away. But we were accepted
right away and loved and they tasted our food and
they're like.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yeah, what y'all was gonna ask you that? Have you
ever had like a straight up like Mexican dia, like
taste your food, taste your burritos, taste.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
From the early days, they knew, they knew too, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
What did they What was their reaction or something like that?
Speaker 4 (09:41):
They I got my nickname. They call me Poppychulo from
they one they want they want get that level of
difficulty eleven eleven, that's it. From day one, they christened me.
They christened me like at first they were just like who,
you know, who are they? Everyone was on water again,
like a prison yard. Everyone truck, So our truck we
(10:04):
pulled in, Everyone's you know, whistling, Everyone's like who is this?
You know, they knew everything, They knew everything about us
from day one, you know, and then they tasted the food.
Then I'll tell you exactly exactly, but they I fed
everybody the food. I walked It was almost like I
(10:26):
walked out of this pile and I had like lipstick
marks all over that I've seriously, it was like a movie.
That's what happened on day one, and we haven't looked
back since.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
You know, you know this is this.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
I am so happy that we were able to do
this episode of Euroy because what we've been trying to do,
and I'm going to use this word that's like so
terrible for everybody, but we've been trying to preach for
so long, is that we all share the same passions.
We our cultures are co existing together for decades and
decades and hundreds of years in this country.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
And then that allowed us to actually.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Acknowledge that we're not only in the same room together,
but we're all winning and losing together, you know. And
I think the idea that we can bring all of
our cultures in one room, and whether it's an industry,
whether it's a project, whether it's a movie, whether it's
a business, whatever it is, you know, you have an
opportunity to tell everyone, hey, we're not like we've.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Never been different.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
We all want the same thing, right, especially when we're
in America.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Man, I love what you're saying, because it's going to
be even more difficult as we move forward with the
algorithms and technology and AI and all.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
That they're gonna make us categories.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Everything is so categorized, everything is so binary. It's either
your this or that. I think that's why it's even
more important for us that are still are the the
last legs of these legacies to continue to speak our truth,
share our truth, and try to shape culture moving forward.
You know, we can't stop it, but we can at
(11:56):
least continue to water the garden because there was a
very special time. I mean the times that we talk
about at dinner. You know, I come we come from
an era of hip hop where it didn't really matter race.
You were a part of cruise, right, Like if you could,
if you could be boy, it didn't matter what color
res you were. You're nice. You just had to be nice.
(12:18):
And there's something about that that I want to translate
in the right words, in the right expression for for
the future. You know, I want to still make it.
I want to make it relatable and use the language
that you know, the algorithm can pick up on or whatever.
But there's something about that that I want to continue
(12:38):
and you're just talking about that, is that you know,
we're all here together. You know, we spend so much
energy separating each other. What if we spent that energy
like really, you know, investing in each other. Like, imagine
where we could be.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I mean, you did, right.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Nobody everybody really frown on cross pollinating. Right, They're like, Okay,
you know, you stay your lane. You're living this block,
they live in that block. But look at what happened
when you cross polanated. Look at what happened when you
took what you knew when you grew up with and
embraced the culture.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
That you were being raised around.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Right, all of a sudden magic happened, and you are
not only feeding that community, we're feeding others and welcoming
other communities to discover the fusion and the gift of
two cultures coming together in one.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Truck picking up on that and we're just food. We're
like the lowest not the lowest thing, but we're like.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
But it's the most powerful cultures.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Have fusion happened in politics, in storytelling, in business, in
the wealth gap, you know, in education, in access to
UH to opportunities. You know, you know you asked me
earlier about why do I do these things? You know
the reason I do them because I'm still out there
(13:57):
on the streets every day feeding. And when you're out there,
you're still plugged in and connected. And no matter how
much we want to believe that the world has changed,
it hasn't. We could go right now, I could take
you block by block, city by city for miles and
miles neighborhoods and schools that don't have Wi Fi, you know,
(14:17):
that don't have access to nutritional food or fruits or vegetables.
They can't they can't even get a job, you know,
because there's no industry around where they're living. You know,
that don't even have like sports programs or arts program
that they can funnel their energy into because all those
things are cut, you know what I mean. And so
(14:38):
like we got we got to start investing in each
other in some way, because, as you say, look at
the magic that happens when we strip away like all
of the barriers and we just let who we naturally
are grow and we we have no idea like how
much magic there is out there in the world, And
I hate to be so passionate about you guys, but like,
(15:00):
you know, like we don't even know the potential of
where we could be as humans.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
You know, are people ever surprised that that you're you're
still that plugged in, that you're still in the trucks,
that you're still I'm sure the perception is like, well,
why are you still on these trucks, Like why aren't
you and like why haven't you started your gigantic restaurant chain?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Why aren't you there? Why aren't you?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
But like every time I see you, I've been with
you on your you know, I've seen You've gotten me
burritos from your truck before, and I found that really like.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Oh yeah, you saw me when I did the pop
up last day, right Tacos Vida you saw it was
just like oh.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, that one man.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
You should have seen him.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
He was like out there, you were, you were in it.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
But like like why, like like for the people who
wonder like why, and I know you just sort of
answered it, But like I find that incredibly humbling that
you're still that you're still like in the trenches where
where you you clearly could be somewhere else doing other stuff.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Thank you. I I don't know. I think on one end,
I don't know if people are too surprised, because I
think once they meet me, they know like, yeah, you know,
like I haven't gone anywhere. But I think a part
of it is, you know, it's what I love to do.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
You know.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
It's like and I feel tapping into your two hundred
percent idea. I feel like I can do two hundred
percent of things, Like I can still use my brain
for things and think think about you know, other things,
or you know, manage projects or be a CEO of something.
But I could still do that one hundred percent. But
(16:45):
I could still be on the ground one hundred percent.
You know, this doesn't take away from that, so that
that's partly probably why.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
But that's authenticity.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, you know, that's authenticity speaking at the loudest form.
H you know, in the speaking of authenticity, I wanted
to pay it because.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
It's so important. It's very hard.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
To publish a book, Yes, it's very hard. And you
have absolutely immortalized, you know, your legacy in this cookbook, right,
and you have a lot of really great dishes here
and I wanted to give you. I don't know if
you knew this, but our two producers Leo and and
(17:25):
and Social Death Sophie, they took up on themselves to
pay a little tribute to you, and they took this
and they cooked something or they made something from this cookbook. Leo,
do you mind? Do you want to explain what you
guys did here?
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Good? Yeah, that's a great recipe. Let's see if Leo, yes,
let's see if my recipes work.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Before we do the test.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Looking forward to the test, tell us a little bit
about this book and how this came about.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
So it's called The Choy of Cooking. It's a play
on the joy of cooking. If any of you had
ever grown up with that book, I was made my
name rhymes Roy Troy, so as a kid, you can
imagine all the shit I had to deal with. But
I finally took that and put power into it. And
the first cookbook that entered my family life was The
(18:27):
Joy of Cooking. And as I was, as me and
my team were writing this book trying to find the title,
like I did a deep dive into who I am
and what legacy I want to leave on this planet,
Like I don't think it's the end of my physical life,
right now. But I thought of, like, what if this
(18:47):
book was still around one hundred years from now, two
hundred years from now, and someone found it, like at
the Pasadena flea market or something, and they found it
digging in a bin, Like I want to have this
like long life, and it could mark like a timestamp
of who this person was.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Impression.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Yeah, and I think that person who I am is
I just want to bring joy to people's lives. Man.
You know, I've I've been around on this planet enough
to where I've lived through so many different life cycles.
You know, I had my you know, I was you know,
I've been angry. You know I've been mad, I've been uh,
down and out. You know, I've been a piece of shit.
(19:32):
You know, I've been all the things that you go
through in life. And and I think where I finally
have landed is uh you know, I just want to
bring happiness.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
That's that's like where I want to do. And that's
what this book's about. Man. It's this books about like
recipes and stories that bring happiness to someone's life, you know.
And yeah, you know, cookbooks hard to write, because any
books hard to write, because like there there's editors, man,
those editors, you.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Know, Construgress like this word better.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, I like freestyle man.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
So but I'll tell you this though. You what you
did in the cover. I mean I see, I see
all the influences that we just talked about here, yeah
you so all the little pictures here, who's this right here?
Speaker 4 (20:22):
That's me?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
That's it's me, So that's you.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
And then uh and then I see the palm trees
and is that is that an impollo?
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Is that actually your Paula?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
It wasn't mine, but you know, my friends have all
had one.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
I had a Chevy Blazer that was Chevy.
Speaker 7 (20:38):
Yeah, twelves in the back, speakers in the bag, I
have fifteen fifteen yeah, Alpine pulled out which yeah, I
had a pioneer, Yeah, I had I was a pioneer, sir,
and vega.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
And in the back inkis rooms lowered all the way
to you.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
You have you have children?
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Oh yeah, one want children.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Think about what you're leaving to your kids, right, I
mean your kid is gonna look at this. Yeah, it's
gonna pass it on. It's gonna pass it on. And
this is now two versions of your family going down
down the road. You know, eventually this is who Grandpa was,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (21:17):
And books still books still a big deal. It's not
as a big deal is maybe it used to be,
you know, like growing up in America, like there used
to be a dream for all creatives of like if
I could just write a book. Right, it's not the
same anymore, but still it's still pretty important.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
No, but you're more immortalizing your legacy, motalizing your heritage.
And you know, you're letting them know that while you.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Were here you did something.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Man.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yeah, and that and that's beautiful. So congratulations.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Make you think about it that way.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
We're we're trying to are gonna try.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
We're gonna we're gonna either leave on a high or
leave on a low.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
We're eating with peed chips.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, I mean it's is I guess it's speaking of
two hundred percent?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Is this too? You should.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Mm hmm?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah? Oh, Leo, it was good?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Great?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Did you you worked on this as well? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (22:15):
How was the recipe pretty easy to follow? I was
very easy to just stick everything in a blender. Yeah, right,
all the herbs were it was very interesting and you
mentioned the.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Smell there.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Oh yeah, yeah, I smelled it.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And in Venezuela there is a similar sauce like that
cold and please don't judge in their name. It's it
comes from indigenous sounds or whatever, but it's called Guasa
Kaka's CoA.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Did you ever hear of us of an isueling kind
of sauce.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
It's a dipping sauce, could be addressing, could be anything
that you can put it on steak and chickens, or you.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Can put it on yuka and you can dip the yuka.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
That yeah, especially with the ya. Yes, it's just this consistency.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Exactly right, exactly. My mom makes it, and uh, you know, I'm.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Obsessed with with food I launched multiple restaurants in my
life too, so I you know, I went in La.
We had adults, we had Getesha House, we had the lotch,
we had all kinds of different stuff in La. So
I was really obsessed with food. My mom was a
great cook too. So there was a cuta. So as
soon as I saw that, I was like, oh, that
looks like what's a cutga? And it smell and actually
has an interesting same consistency. This has a little bit
(23:25):
of a sweet finish.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Rights a little.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Sweet from the rice vinegar, I believe.
Speaker 8 (23:30):
And then yeah, and then the man, yeah, great job,
and you yeah, you got the emotion correct.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
So so Roy you we have these recipes, you have
the book, like you have the trucks, you have all that,
but you're you're also expanding. I mean, you know, we
obviously saw you in Chef, which was awesome.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
Yeah. I try to do what you all do.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Man, let's go.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
The only problem is I can't remember shit, you know
when I'm the worst at auditions too. I'm great at
playing myself, but every time they asked me to play
someone else, Oh no.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
No, How did it finally start to transition into into
movies into television? Was was Chef the first sort of
foray into into uh into movies and just the.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
First big one. But I think you know, on one level,
like as creatives, it's really easy when you see another
creative or when you connect you know, across the table,
doesn't matter whether it's music or food or or acting
or whatever. Like you you share something and you can
like get to shorthand right away. Right. So there's that
(24:48):
one thing. But the true bridge was that kogie from
the from the early days after the whole kind of
first initial phenomenon took off. We started really getting hired
a lot to feed film sets because the creatives picked
up on it first, and so within our first year
(25:09):
at the end of us so the first year was
really just pounding the pavement, being on the streets, going
neighborhood and the neighborhood blocked the box. But then as
as that year started to come to an end, then
people started to understand like who we really were, and
then we got our shit together a little bit and
we had we put up an email. We had no
(25:30):
email like that email like, you know, to contact us.
We were just out there, man, we didn't have no plan,
you know. And then finally we got an email up.
As soon as we put the email up, you know,
people from Radford Studios, from Paramount, from Warner Brothers, from
everywhere being like, oh dude, like, you know, can we
hire you for a rap party? Can we hire you
(25:52):
to feed our crew? You know, we wanted to do
a surprise, So we started showing up to film sets,
the movie sets really really early. And then there were
a lot of people within the industry that were really
early on Koge too, and one was Gwyneth Paltrow. So
Gwyneth hired us for Iron Man two's rap party. So
that was like the first one of the first big
(26:14):
ones that we did. So this is the story. So
what happened was this was one of our like this
is in the second year, early part of the second
year coche. We didn't know anything. We know our head
from our asshole. And then we went to the rap party.
But it was in Malibu, up on this hill, and
our truck is an old ass truck. And then we
went up this driveway but we got stuck there. So
(26:37):
we served the whole party and everyone loved it, licking
their fingers everything. But then as we said bye, you know,
and we were backing up, the truck didn't move. So
we're there all night. And then so we got to
know everybody and everything. Everyone remember Kogie. And then later
when John was in final kind of like pre production
for his film Chef, he remembered our truck, he remembered us,
(26:57):
and he found me. He reached out to my team
and found me and uh hired me to come in
to you know, see if I could just be a consultant.
So I was supposed to be initially kind of like
if you were doing a boxing movie. I was just
supposed to come in for like two weeks and just
teach him, you know, like just to.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Like as a tech.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
I was just a technical consultant. But from day one,
John and I just hit it off. Yeah, I mean, like,
you know, shout out to John, that's my brother. You know,
like we just we just hit it off from day one,
and then we forgot about just being like the dudes
that we are, Like, we just forgot about why the
hell we even were supposed to be together. We just
started spending every day together, you know, we were dose
(27:41):
of eagles, you know. And uh, and then that just
that just naturally moved into I brought him into because
he was studying to be a chef. So I was, yeah,
because the movie he was playing a chef he was.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
I know that, but I'm in real life he was
studying No.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
No, he was studying so the movie. So what I
did was, because we hit it off from day one,
I pulled him into my world. I just like started
bringing him to the inside inside world of being a
chef running a kitchen, and he brought me into his world.
And it just felt so natural for the both of us.
You know, like I had never been that close to
(28:18):
a camera before. I'd never.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
You know, you've never seeing the same thing and you know,
laid out twenty five times.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
But you know, your guys' world is very similar to
the cooking world in the sense that there is a
level of brigade, you know, to start from pa to crib,
you know, and you go up and you don't necessarily
you know, you have to pay your dues to get
all the way up to the camera, you know, or
get up to give direction to something. You know, same
thing in the kitchen you're starting peeling potatoes and cutting chives.
(28:47):
You're not saucing until you know, a few years in.
But John let me see every level of the of
the industry, and I felt very natural with every every
layer of it, and and that just led to you know,
then then it was like the people I would meet
along the way, you know, within your guys on set,
(29:07):
they're all like, yeah, you know your kogie, I have
kogi yesterday, this is that, and so everyone was very familiar.
So that world was very natural for me. And then
and then from that, you know, like people just asked
me to be in stuff, so then I got asked
to be in Gilmore Girls. Right, I did Gilmore Girls.
I got my SAG card because.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
They always.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Yeah, because of the Gilmore Girls, you got me as
an actor. Uh. And then uh I did some other
cameos here and there. You know, It's always been fun.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
But but but even but even on like behind it,
like like even this book right like that that that
obviously was sort of the the doorway for the more
commercial version of of Roy Troy right like and and
and you haven't you started like restaurants and do you
have other stuff?
Speaker 4 (29:56):
And yeah, I have a restaurant in Las Vegas. I
always try to bounce. I think we touched on it earlier.
It's like every time I get into an endeavor that
maybe feels bigger or mainstream or whatever, I always try
to balance it maybe with something that is like involved
(30:17):
in like the social justice of something. So like even
even in entertainment, I do the same. You know, if
I have a Netflix show, you know I've been involved.
I cooked on you know, uh, you know Megan the
Duchess of you know, where is she the Duchess of Sussex? Yeah?
Sorry man, but yeah, the you know, I'm on a
(30:41):
Netflix show. But then I do public television, you know,
and try to do a show based around, uh, the
inequities of access to food. So every time I'm doing
something maybe mainstream entertainment, I try to balance it with
underground you know. I just kind of you know, it's
like open mic. And then you know, doing like a
big comedy special. Like it's like, you know, comedians do
(31:02):
it all the time too, right, It's kind of like
how you stay sharp and connected, you know, like all
the comedians you see doing arenas are you know, popping
up at the comedy store late night on Thursday, you know,
And it's just like, I don't know, it's just the
way that I do things.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
So so, so tell us about the restaurants in Vegas. Uh.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Yeah, I have two restaurants in Vegas. One that's called
Best Friend, you know, and that restaurant is kind of
like it's kind of like me bringing Los Angeles to Vegas.
So it's like pulling people into like that specific part
of Korea Town and South Central and East LA that
(31:44):
we've been talking about, and we created kind of like
a world like in Vegas with that and you walk
through this portal and it takes you into Los Angeles
through the fields, the sounds, the music, the design, and
the food, and then the show and the movie. Chef
we built the truck, so that movie is built around
(32:07):
a food truck that serves kubanos. So you know we
turned that truck. Yeah, is the chef of that truck
and we turned that truck into a restaurant in Vegas.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
So cool.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Yeah, that's incredible, man. We look, we are so incredibly
grateful to you know, to call you an ally, to
call your friend, and it's incredibly inspiring for all of
us to continue to hear these Brazilian stories that you know,
define who we are, not only as immigrants, spread the
humanity that we actually experienced with one another. I know
that the whole season we'll be talking about you coming on,
(32:43):
so we we definitely you know, you've been in like
the top of the.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Superstars in this.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
But really, really he's another one who we.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Got to get John. Where are you at? Come on, John,
let's go we do a partner piece.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
But John John winsa a moment from being available, and
then all of a sudden, Christopher Nolan called him and
he's like.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Hey, you know, there's this little movie co.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah no, but but you know, John's heart is here.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
But that's the most important. But we're so excited. Thank you.
I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
And everybody get get his book and watch his movies
and and the Gilmore Girls spot too, because that's gonna
be a really.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
Great mom is crazy the fan base. I love you all, crazy, dude.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Hey, this is Freddie Rodriguez and I'm Wilmaldama and I
think you were watching or listening Amigos. Uh everywhere you
got your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's Michael through
That podcast Network. Hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And Wilma of Aaldorama, Amigos is produced by Aaron Burleson
and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Our executive producers are wilmri vald Rama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
and Leo Clem at WV Sound.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
This episode was shot and edited by Ryan Posts and
mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison
Devenport and Halo Boy.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
by Deny Holtz.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Clau and Thank you for being at third Amigo today.
I appreciate you guys always listening to those amigos.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
More podcasts from My Heart, visit the R Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
See you next week.
Welcome back to those amigos. This is part two of
this incredible conversation with our brother over here. And we're
talking his book, we're talking heritage, we're talking the struggle
in the climb up and uh, Freddie, I know that
you you.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Have some thoughts on the matter, and you were going
to ask something.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Absolutely, I'm just I'm just so happy and grateful to
have my boy Roy here.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
But that after after you you put out, especially.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
With all the intention and the media that we got,
because then the media gets involved, right, and then the
media wants to understand the craze, right, the craze. They
want you to put it in some poetic one liner
right right. And for me, in those early days, you know,
I was just speaking, spitting my truth, you know, kind
of like the hip hop that we love, right Like
(00:51):
I was, I was speaking like early Queen's Bridge, you know,
I was describing where I'm from, you know whatever, uh
and uh. For us, it was like I was just saying, like,
this is our food, this is the way we talk,
this is our slang. This is if you eat this taco,
it tastes like this block, you know, it tastes like
Vermont and eighth Street, you know, and then those things
(01:12):
were written by Australian journalists, English, you know, people from
around the world. And then then then what happened was
instead of la being this huge thing, it started to
get very regional micro right, and then they would say, oh,
because of this flavor and this chili and this block
that these flavors come out.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So that's so interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I mean, it's such a I think, like the street
food is now being celebrated worldwide in a way that's
just like, I mean, I I was shooting in Europe
or like a year and a half ago, and uh,
you know, you go to Rome somewhere and there's a
corner with a bunch of food tructions, Like, whoa, what's.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Going on here?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I mean, everyone's like really getting inspired. What what do
you think to you what do you think change in
the view? What what do you think this brought to
people that it became such a worldwide phenomen You know.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
We were we were right there in the middle of
it all. And again, why was it an Asian fusion Mexican,
Korean Korea town tackle truck that ended up being the
focus of all this? But you know, I can't speak
for that. All I know is to tell you the truth.
And we were there, you know, and the time that
(02:22):
we started cooking on the streets, there was a lot
of racism around street food.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
You know, and perception.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
You know, they were called roach coaches. You know, the
lonchettas and trucks were called roach coaches. The whole negativity
and racism around the way that Western culture looked at Latinos.
You know, the water in Tijuana diarrhea, If you eat
the food, it's dirty, it's roach coaches. These are words
(02:52):
that like people were using to describe culture, you know,
to describe life. And what happened was we just went
out there with this truck. I think it was the
technology and the social media and then the craze of
everyone being able to access it. A lot of racism
comes from ignorance and fear right and so finally people
(03:13):
that didn't have access to food trucks or street food
or vendors, they were finally able to access things in
their life because it was this new kind of hip
thing and they realized it wasn't what they were led
to believe, you know what I mean, It wasn't dirty,
it wasn't it wasn't gross, It wasn't a roach coach,
(03:35):
you know, and it was actually delicious. And we're all
human and these are this is culture, and so that
all led to things moving from roach coach to gourmet
and then all of a sudden, you know, and that
shows how powerful language is, right, you go from calling
something a roach coach to calling it a gourmet food truck. Right,
(03:56):
then all of a sudden, that same person that was
saying those things is now hiring that same truck for
their kids' birthday party. And that's all within one It's
a circle of life. And then that leads to the
next thing. Then all of a sudden, corporations and economy
gets behind it, and the industry gets behind it. So
(04:18):
all these things start to change. We see it in
your guys, this world with like storytelling, right and you know,
you know, different projects being funded now, and then people
like yourselves becoming producers and you know, and investors and
you know, bringing in stories that were not brought in before.
All of that stuff changes.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
It really does change until your point.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
It takes individuals like you to say that fusion is
not only allowed, right, I mean we always talk about this,
you know, they always try to make us you're either
Korean or you're American, or you're either Latino or you're American,
you know, And we always talk over here about the
two hundred percent, Like why can't be two hundred percent?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, I mean to one hundred percent of that one
hundred percent of this and that makes it really special.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
I think that the idea that these these collaborations with
flavors and culture that happened in the streets now have
a moment.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
In pop culture worldwide.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
You know, these are restaurant ideas that were never allowed
to be because they weren't allowed to play nice with
each other. You know, they weren't they weren't seen as mainstream.
They weren't seen as as crowd pleasers or you know.
And so that's what I think, Like what Kogie did
in such a you know, in such an iconic way,
is that it allowed it for it to be like
(05:36):
why not all these fusions were happening in the streets,
but they were never allowed to be a real business.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I'm a strong believer in like the cream rises to
the top, right, Like like good is good, right, Like
I have family members in Chicago and Wisconsin who don't
know anything about acting, nothing about movies or TV. But
they can sit there and they can tell you if
an actor is good or not or I or if
the thing that they're watching is good or not, because
(06:03):
they have this sort of instinct this this this visceral
reaction to it. And I just think that part of
what made you successful was that you were telling your truth.
This is your truth, right, this food was your truth
and good is good. You know, people got over this
sort of like, oh, how could you merge sort of
Korean and Mexican, And then once they took a bite,
(06:23):
they were like, damn, this thing is good.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Yeah, you know, and that truth goes back, It goes
back deeper than just the beginning of the truck. You know,
like I grew up around Latinos my whole life.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
That's why I really want to do this podcast. It
just like it feels comfortable to me. It feels it
feels very familiar to me. It's you know, I was
low riding when I was sixteen.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
It's part of who you are too, who I am.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
I was Wittier boulevard. You know, you could you could
you could check the receipts, you know, like you know,
I was on with your boulevard cruising Pico Rivera back
in the day. I was. I was spitting game at
you know, you know, trying. I was at the dances.
I had the pompador, you know, you know, I was
listening to freestyle. I was out there, you know, and
(07:08):
I was in kitchens. I was, you know, at the
side of teas and moms and you know, helping them
cook and watch. And I was a good eater. You know,
growing up, I was real chubby kids. So like the
moms used to love me. Man, you know, like all
my friends, I go to the houses and again, like
I told you, I was alone a lot. So I
just rolled to my friends houses and I was a
little chubby can they loved me.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, I had to.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I couldn't leave the table whole they would clean.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
And so I think once I started cooking, and once
I especially when I went out there to the streets,
it just felt natural and people could feel that I
wasn't a poser or or my you know, they felt
something familiar as well, from from us, I want to believe,
you know, and even from the early early nights, we
(07:59):
would come back because the just so you all know
the trucks here in Los Angeles. We we're like our
own subculture. We're like, we're like the kind of like
the gangs of the movie The Warriors. Yeah, like we
go back to our own little kind of like compounds
at night. So at night we all chuck back to these.
(08:20):
There's three three or four big compounds here in Los Angeles,
one up here in the valley, there's one on Slawson,
and one in downtown LA, and then one in Huntington Park.
And basically all the trucks you see out there on
the streets, we all go back to one of these
four compounds. And in these four compounds are surrounded by
these big cinder block walls, and it's like it's like
(08:40):
a big prison yard but in the in the but
if a prison yard was like a musical.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
You know, it's like colorful truck colorful trucks and a
bunch of like uh like ladies teas that are really bossy,
really bossy, but in charge and amazing, and they've been
working all day.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
And then there's so much gossip, street gossip, as.
Speaker 6 (09:04):
You all know, like it's the best got each other
and everything, everything so much that thing's awfully does so
much gossip and then so you think they're not the
ladies got egoized. Man, you think they're not gonna notice
like a bunch of Asian guys coming in on a truck,
you know.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
So they spotted us right away. But we were accepted
right away and loved and they tasted our food and
they're like.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yeah, what y'all was gonna ask you that? Have you
ever had like a straight up like Mexican dia, like
taste your food, taste your burritos, taste.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
From the early days, they knew, they knew too, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
What did they What was their reaction or something like that?
Speaker 4 (09:41):
They I got my nickname. They call me Poppychulo from
they one they want they want get that level of
difficulty eleven eleven, that's it. From day one, they christened me.
They christened me like at first they were just like who,
you know, who are they? Everyone was on water again,
like a prison yard. Everyone truck, So our truck we
(10:04):
pulled in, Everyone's you know, whistling, Everyone's like who is this?
You know, they knew everything, They knew everything about us
from day one, you know, and then they tasted the food.
Then I'll tell you exactly exactly, but they I fed
everybody the food. I walked It was almost like I
(10:26):
walked out of this pile and I had like lipstick
marks all over that I've seriously, it was like a movie.
That's what happened on day one, and we haven't looked
back since.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
You know, you know this is this.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
I am so happy that we were able to do
this episode of Euroy because what we've been trying to do,
and I'm going to use this word that's like so
terrible for everybody, but we've been trying to preach for
so long, is that we all share the same passions.
We our cultures are co existing together for decades and
decades and hundreds of years in this country.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
And then that allowed us to actually.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Acknowledge that we're not only in the same room together,
but we're all winning and losing together, you know. And
I think the idea that we can bring all of
our cultures in one room, and whether it's an industry,
whether it's a project, whether it's a movie, whether it's
a business, whatever it is, you know, you have an
opportunity to tell everyone, hey, we're not like we've.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Never been different.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
We all want the same thing, right, especially when we're
in America.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Man, I love what you're saying, because it's going to
be even more difficult as we move forward with the
algorithms and technology and AI and all.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
That they're gonna make us categories.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Everything is so categorized, everything is so binary. It's either
your this or that. I think that's why it's even
more important for us that are still are the the
last legs of these legacies to continue to speak our truth,
share our truth, and try to shape culture moving forward.
You know, we can't stop it, but we can at
(11:56):
least continue to water the garden because there was a
very special time. I mean the times that we talk
about at dinner. You know, I come we come from
an era of hip hop where it didn't really matter race.
You were a part of cruise, right, Like if you could,
if you could be boy, it didn't matter what color
res you were. You're nice. You just had to be nice.
(12:18):
And there's something about that that I want to translate
in the right words, in the right expression for for
the future. You know, I want to still make it.
I want to make it relatable and use the language
that you know, the algorithm can pick up on or whatever.
But there's something about that that I want to continue
(12:38):
and you're just talking about that, is that you know,
we're all here together. You know, we spend so much
energy separating each other. What if we spent that energy
like really, you know, investing in each other. Like, imagine
where we could be.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I mean, you did, right.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Nobody everybody really frown on cross pollinating. Right, They're like, Okay,
you know, you stay your lane. You're living this block,
they live in that block. But look at what happened
when you cross polanated. Look at what happened when you
took what you knew when you grew up with and
embraced the culture.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
That you were being raised around.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Right, all of a sudden magic happened, and you are
not only feeding that community, we're feeding others and welcoming
other communities to discover the fusion and the gift of
two cultures coming together in one.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Truck picking up on that and we're just food. We're
like the lowest not the lowest thing, but we're like.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
But it's the most powerful cultures.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Have fusion happened in politics, in storytelling, in business, in
the wealth gap, you know, in education, in access to
UH to opportunities. You know, you know you asked me
earlier about why do I do these things? You know
the reason I do them because I'm still out there
(13:57):
on the streets every day feeding. And when you're out there,
you're still plugged in and connected. And no matter how
much we want to believe that the world has changed,
it hasn't. We could go right now, I could take
you block by block, city by city for miles and
miles neighborhoods and schools that don't have Wi Fi, you know,
(14:17):
that don't have access to nutritional food or fruits or vegetables.
They can't they can't even get a job, you know,
because there's no industry around where they're living. You know,
that don't even have like sports programs or arts program
that they can funnel their energy into because all those
things are cut, you know what I mean. And so
(14:38):
like we got we got to start investing in each
other in some way, because, as you say, look at
the magic that happens when we strip away like all
of the barriers and we just let who we naturally
are grow and we we have no idea like how
much magic there is out there in the world, And
I hate to be so passionate about you guys, but like,
(15:00):
you know, like we don't even know the potential of
where we could be as humans.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
You know, are people ever surprised that that you're you're
still that plugged in, that you're still in the trucks,
that you're still I'm sure the perception is like, well,
why are you still on these trucks, Like why aren't
you and like why haven't you started your gigantic restaurant chain?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Why aren't you there? Why aren't you?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
But like every time I see you, I've been with
you on your you know, I've seen You've gotten me
burritos from your truck before, and I found that really like.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Oh yeah, you saw me when I did the pop
up last day, right Tacos Vida you saw it was
just like oh.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, that one man.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
You should have seen him.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
He was like out there, you were, you were in it.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
But like like why, like like for the people who
wonder like why, and I know you just sort of
answered it, But like I find that incredibly humbling that
you're still that you're still like in the trenches where
where you you clearly could be somewhere else doing other stuff.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Thank you. I I don't know. I think on one end,
I don't know if people are too surprised, because I
think once they meet me, they know like, yeah, you know,
like I haven't gone anywhere. But I think a part
of it is, you know, it's what I love to do.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
You know.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
It's like and I feel tapping into your two hundred
percent idea. I feel like I can do two hundred
percent of things, Like I can still use my brain
for things and think think about you know, other things,
or you know, manage projects or be a CEO of something.
But I could still do that one hundred percent. But
(16:45):
I could still be on the ground one hundred percent.
You know, this doesn't take away from that, so that
that's partly probably why.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
But that's authenticity.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, you know, that's authenticity speaking at the loudest form.
H you know, in the speaking of authenticity, I wanted
to pay it because.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
It's so important. It's very hard.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
To publish a book, Yes, it's very hard. And you
have absolutely immortalized, you know, your legacy in this cookbook, right,
and you have a lot of really great dishes here
and I wanted to give you. I don't know if
you knew this, but our two producers Leo and and
(17:25):
and Social Death Sophie, they took up on themselves to
pay a little tribute to you, and they took this
and they cooked something or they made something from this cookbook. Leo,
do you mind? Do you want to explain what you
guys did here?
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Good? Yeah, that's a great recipe. Let's see if Leo, yes,
let's see if my recipes work.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Before we do the test.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Looking forward to the test, tell us a little bit
about this book and how this came about.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
So it's called The Choy of Cooking. It's a play
on the joy of cooking. If any of you had
ever grown up with that book, I was made my
name rhymes Roy Troy, so as a kid, you can
imagine all the shit I had to deal with. But
I finally took that and put power into it. And
the first cookbook that entered my family life was The
(18:27):
Joy of Cooking. And as I was, as me and
my team were writing this book trying to find the title,
like I did a deep dive into who I am
and what legacy I want to leave on this planet,
Like I don't think it's the end of my physical life,
right now. But I thought of, like, what if this
(18:47):
book was still around one hundred years from now, two
hundred years from now, and someone found it, like at
the Pasadena flea market or something, and they found it
digging in a bin, Like I want to have this
like long life, and it could mark like a timestamp
of who this person was.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Impression.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Yeah, and I think that person who I am is
I just want to bring joy to people's lives. Man.
You know, I've I've been around on this planet enough
to where I've lived through so many different life cycles.
You know, I had my you know, I was you know,
I've been angry. You know I've been mad, I've been uh,
down and out. You know, I've been a piece of shit.
(19:32):
You know, I've been all the things that you go
through in life. And and I think where I finally
have landed is uh you know, I just want to
bring happiness.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
That's that's like where I want to do. And that's
what this book's about. Man. It's this books about like
recipes and stories that bring happiness to someone's life, you know.
And yeah, you know, cookbooks hard to write, because any
books hard to write, because like there there's editors, man,
those editors, you.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Know, Construgress like this word better.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, I like freestyle man.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
So but I'll tell you this though. You what you
did in the cover. I mean I see, I see
all the influences that we just talked about here, yeah
you so all the little pictures here, who's this right here?
Speaker 4 (20:22):
That's me?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
That's it's me, So that's you.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
And then uh and then I see the palm trees
and is that is that an impollo?
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Is that actually your Paula?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
It wasn't mine, but you know, my friends have all
had one.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
I had a Chevy Blazer that was Chevy.
Speaker 7 (20:38):
Yeah, twelves in the back, speakers in the bag, I
have fifteen fifteen yeah, Alpine pulled out which yeah, I
had a pioneer, Yeah, I had I was a pioneer, sir,
and vega.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
And in the back inkis rooms lowered all the way
to you.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
You have you have children?
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Oh yeah, one want children.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Think about what you're leaving to your kids, right, I
mean your kid is gonna look at this. Yeah, it's
gonna pass it on. It's gonna pass it on. And
this is now two versions of your family going down
down the road. You know, eventually this is who Grandpa was,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (21:17):
And books still books still a big deal. It's not
as a big deal is maybe it used to be,
you know, like growing up in America, like there used
to be a dream for all creatives of like if
I could just write a book. Right, it's not the
same anymore, but still it's still pretty important.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
No, but you're more immortalizing your legacy, motalizing your heritage.
And you know, you're letting them know that while you.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Were here you did something.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Man.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yeah, and that and that's beautiful. So congratulations.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Make you think about it that way.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
We're we're trying to are gonna try.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
We're gonna we're gonna either leave on a high or
leave on a low.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
We're eating with peed chips.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, I mean it's is I guess it's speaking of
two hundred percent?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Is this too? You should.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Mm hmm?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah? Oh, Leo, it was good?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Great?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Did you you worked on this as well? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (22:15):
How was the recipe pretty easy to follow? I was
very easy to just stick everything in a blender. Yeah, right,
all the herbs were it was very interesting and you
mentioned the.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Smell there.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Oh yeah, yeah, I smelled it.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And in Venezuela there is a similar sauce like that
cold and please don't judge in their name. It's it
comes from indigenous sounds or whatever, but it's called Guasa
Kaka's CoA.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Did you ever hear of us of an isueling kind
of sauce.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
It's a dipping sauce, could be addressing, could be anything
that you can put it on steak and chickens, or you.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Can put it on yuka and you can dip the yuka.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
That yeah, especially with the ya. Yes, it's just this consistency.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Exactly right, exactly. My mom makes it, and uh, you know, I'm.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Obsessed with with food I launched multiple restaurants in my
life too, so I you know, I went in La.
We had adults, we had Getesha House, we had the lotch,
we had all kinds of different stuff in La. So
I was really obsessed with food. My mom was a
great cook too. So there was a cuta. So as
soon as I saw that, I was like, oh, that
looks like what's a cutga? And it smell and actually
has an interesting same consistency. This has a little bit
(23:25):
of a sweet finish.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Rights a little.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Sweet from the rice vinegar, I believe.
Speaker 8 (23:30):
And then yeah, and then the man, yeah, great job,
and you yeah, you got the emotion correct.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
So so Roy you we have these recipes, you have
the book, like you have the trucks, you have all that,
but you're you're also expanding. I mean, you know, we
obviously saw you in Chef, which was awesome.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
Yeah. I try to do what you all do.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Man, let's go.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
The only problem is I can't remember shit, you know
when I'm the worst at auditions too. I'm great at
playing myself, but every time they asked me to play
someone else, Oh no.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
No, How did it finally start to transition into into
movies into television? Was was Chef the first sort of
foray into into uh into movies and just the.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
First big one. But I think you know, on one level,
like as creatives, it's really easy when you see another
creative or when you connect you know, across the table,
doesn't matter whether it's music or food or or acting
or whatever. Like you you share something and you can
like get to shorthand right away. Right. So there's that
(24:48):
one thing. But the true bridge was that kogie from
the from the early days after the whole kind of
first initial phenomenon took off. We started really getting hired
a lot to feed film sets because the creatives picked
up on it first, and so within our first year
(25:09):
at the end of us so the first year was
really just pounding the pavement, being on the streets, going
neighborhood and the neighborhood blocked the box. But then as
as that year started to come to an end, then
people started to understand like who we really were, and
then we got our shit together a little bit and
we had we put up an email. We had no
(25:30):
email like that email like, you know, to contact us.
We were just out there, man, we didn't have no plan,
you know. And then finally we got an email up.
As soon as we put the email up, you know,
people from Radford Studios, from Paramount, from Warner Brothers, from
everywhere being like, oh dude, like, you know, can we
hire you for a rap party? Can we hire you
(25:52):
to feed our crew? You know, we wanted to do
a surprise, So we started showing up to film sets,
the movie sets really really early. And then there were
a lot of people within the industry that were really
early on Koge too, and one was Gwyneth Paltrow. So
Gwyneth hired us for Iron Man two's rap party. So
that was like the first one of the first big
(26:14):
ones that we did. So this is the story. So
what happened was this was one of our like this
is in the second year, early part of the second
year coche. We didn't know anything. We know our head
from our asshole. And then we went to the rap party.
But it was in Malibu, up on this hill, and
our truck is an old ass truck. And then we
went up this driveway but we got stuck there. So
(26:37):
we served the whole party and everyone loved it, licking
their fingers everything. But then as we said bye, you know,
and we were backing up, the truck didn't move. So
we're there all night. And then so we got to
know everybody and everything. Everyone remember Kogie. And then later
when John was in final kind of like pre production
for his film Chef, he remembered our truck, he remembered us,
(26:57):
and he found me. He reached out to my team
and found me and uh hired me to come in
to you know, see if I could just be a consultant.
So I was supposed to be initially kind of like
if you were doing a boxing movie. I was just
supposed to come in for like two weeks and just
teach him, you know, like just to.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Like as a tech.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
I was just a technical consultant. But from day one,
John and I just hit it off. Yeah, I mean, like,
you know, shout out to John, that's my brother. You know,
like we just we just hit it off from day one,
and then we forgot about just being like the dudes
that we are, Like, we just forgot about why the
hell we even were supposed to be together. We just
started spending every day together, you know, we were dose
(27:41):
of eagles, you know. And uh, and then that just
that just naturally moved into I brought him into because
he was studying to be a chef. So I was, yeah,
because the movie he was playing a chef he was.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
I know that, but I'm in real life he was
studying No.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
No, he was studying so the movie. So what I
did was, because we hit it off from day one,
I pulled him into my world. I just like started
bringing him to the inside inside world of being a
chef running a kitchen, and he brought me into his world.
And it just felt so natural for the both of us.
You know, like I had never been that close to
(28:18):
a camera before. I'd never.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
You know, you've never seeing the same thing and you know,
laid out twenty five times.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
But you know, your guys' world is very similar to
the cooking world in the sense that there is a
level of brigade, you know, to start from pa to crib,
you know, and you go up and you don't necessarily
you know, you have to pay your dues to get
all the way up to the camera, you know, or
get up to give direction to something. You know, same
thing in the kitchen you're starting peeling potatoes and cutting chives.
(28:47):
You're not saucing until you know, a few years in.
But John let me see every level of the of
the industry, and I felt very natural with every every
layer of it, and and that just led to you know,
then then it was like the people I would meet
along the way, you know, within your guys on set,
(29:07):
they're all like, yeah, you know your kogie, I have
kogi yesterday, this is that, and so everyone was very familiar.
So that world was very natural for me. And then
and then from that, you know, like people just asked
me to be in stuff, so then I got asked
to be in Gilmore Girls. Right, I did Gilmore Girls.
I got my SAG card because.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
They always.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Yeah, because of the Gilmore Girls, you got me as
an actor. Uh. And then uh I did some other
cameos here and there. You know, It's always been fun.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
But but but even but even on like behind it,
like like even this book right like that that that
obviously was sort of the the doorway for the more
commercial version of of Roy Troy right like and and
and you haven't you started like restaurants and do you
have other stuff?
Speaker 4 (29:56):
And yeah, I have a restaurant in Las Vegas. I
always try to bounce. I think we touched on it earlier.
It's like every time I get into an endeavor that
maybe feels bigger or mainstream or whatever, I always try
to balance it maybe with something that is like involved
(30:17):
in like the social justice of something. So like even
even in entertainment, I do the same. You know, if
I have a Netflix show, you know I've been involved.
I cooked on you know, uh, you know Megan the
Duchess of you know, where is she the Duchess of Sussex? Yeah?
Sorry man, but yeah, the you know, I'm on a
(30:41):
Netflix show. But then I do public television, you know,
and try to do a show based around, uh, the
inequities of access to food. So every time I'm doing
something maybe mainstream entertainment, I try to balance it with
underground you know. I just kind of you know, it's
like open mic. And then you know, doing like a
big comedy special. Like it's like, you know, comedians do
(31:02):
it all the time too, right, It's kind of like
how you stay sharp and connected, you know, like all
the comedians you see doing arenas are you know, popping
up at the comedy store late night on Thursday, you know,
And it's just like, I don't know, it's just the
way that I do things.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
So so, so tell us about the restaurants in Vegas. Uh.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Yeah, I have two restaurants in Vegas. One that's called
Best Friend, you know, and that restaurant is kind of
like it's kind of like me bringing Los Angeles to Vegas.
So it's like pulling people into like that specific part
of Korea Town and South Central and East LA that
(31:44):
we've been talking about, and we created kind of like
a world like in Vegas with that and you walk
through this portal and it takes you into Los Angeles
through the fields, the sounds, the music, the design, and
the food, and then the show and the movie. Chef
we built the truck, so that movie is built around
(32:07):
a food truck that serves kubanos. So you know we
turned that truck. Yeah, is the chef of that truck
and we turned that truck into a restaurant in Vegas.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
So cool.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Yeah, that's incredible, man. We look, we are so incredibly
grateful to you know, to call you an ally, to
call your friend, and it's incredibly inspiring for all of
us to continue to hear these Brazilian stories that you know,
define who we are, not only as immigrants, spread the
humanity that we actually experienced with one another. I know
that the whole season we'll be talking about you coming on,
(32:43):
so we we definitely you know, you've been in like
the top of the.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Superstars in this.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
But really, really he's another one who we.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Got to get John. Where are you at? Come on, John,
let's go we do a partner piece.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
But John John winsa a moment from being available, and
then all of a sudden, Christopher Nolan called him and
he's like.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Hey, you know, there's this little movie co.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah no, but but you know, John's heart is here.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
But that's the most important. But we're so excited. Thank you.
I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
And everybody get get his book and watch his movies
and and the Gilmore Girls spot too, because that's gonna
be a really.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
Great mom is crazy the fan base. I love you all, crazy, dude.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Hey, this is Freddie Rodriguez and I'm Wilmaldama and I
think you were watching or listening Amigos. Uh everywhere you
got your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's Michael through
That podcast Network. Hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And Wilma of Aaldorama, Amigos is produced by Aaron Burleson
and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Our executive producers are wilmri vald Rama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
and Leo Clem at WV Sound.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
This episode was shot and edited by Ryan Posts and
mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison
Devenport and Halo Boy.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
by Deny Holtz.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Clau and Thank you for being at third Amigo today.
I appreciate you guys always listening to those amigos.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
More podcasts from My Heart, visit the R Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
See you next week.
Hosts And Creators
Wilmer Valderrama
Freddy Rodriguez
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