Quotes by Roy Choi - Page 2

I don't have a boss. I don't answer to anybody. I do everything that I want to do out of the purity of making people happy.
Roy Choi / Chef
Happy
Boss
Purity
Anybody
Making
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I kind of feel for the vegetable world - the vegetarian world. It's almost as if people look at them like aliens or foreigners.
Roy Choi / Chef
Foreigners
World Look People
Alien
Look World People
Vegetable
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Cooking is not a craft to get into for money. The money may come, or it may not. But you must get into it for the craft and the culture.
Roy Choi / Chef
Craft
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There is no typical day, not when there are so many people out there that I care about that can't access good food in their neighborhoods.
Roy Choi / Chef
Good Food
Typical
Neighborhoods
So Many People
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Even as a kid I wasn't, like, a natural entertainer, where I would gather everyone around me and then sing or something at family parties.
Roy Choi / Chef
Family Me Everyone
Gather
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It's so easy to produce food, throw it away, and watch people starve. It's so hard to produce food mindfully and to feed and to reduce waste.
Roy Choi / Chef
Produce
Waste
Feed
Reduce
Starve
Throw
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The things that make Korean food delicious are garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili powder, and chili paste. They make anything delicious.
Roy Choi / Chef
Chili
Delicious
Garlic
Ginger
Powder
Sauce
Soy
Paste
Sesame
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Chefs have always been leaders, but now, because of social media and the evolution of the chef identity, we have a voice that expands beyond cooking.
Roy Choi / Chef
Chef
Cooking
Evolution
Identity
Media
Social Media
Voice
Beyond
Chefs
Leaders
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With public television, they're making things that aren't driven by advertisers. They're one of the only platforms where we can really mine for truth.
Roy Choi / Chef
Driven
Platforms
Advertiser
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I'm in a place where I feel comfortable not being a chef anymore. That's taboo in our industry. 'Chef' is supposed to be the ultimate end of the road.
Roy Choi / Chef
Chef
Taboo
Ultimate
Anymore
Supposed
Ultimate End
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American barbecue is all slow and low, you know, or low and slow, as they say down in the South, in Texas. But Korean barbecue is thinner cuts of meat.
Roy Choi / Chef
Barbecue
Meat
Texas
Cuts
Low
Slow
They Say
Thinner
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When you have parents that come from a country that you weren't raised in, you feel this weird sense of familiarity, like you've returned to something.
Roy Choi / Chef
Familiarity
Returned
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What if every high-caliber chef told our investors that for every fancy restaurant we build, it would be a requirement to build one in the hood as well?
Roy Choi / Chef
Chef
Fancy
Hood
Investors
What If
Build
Requirement
Restaurant
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Why can I cook for tourists that come and visit L.A. and are so excited to see the Kogi truck? Because I cooked at country clubs and Embassy Suites hotels.
Roy Choi / Chef
Clubs
Embassy
Tourists
Truck
Cooked
Hotels
Visit
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Food trucks are an essential part of people's days. They are important to the fabric of feeding people, like hotel chefs cooking breakfasts or for weddings.
Roy Choi / Chef
Fabric
Feeding
Hotel
Chefs
Essential Part
Trucks
Weddings
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I have a tendency to trail off in conversations. I don't look up at people sometimes when I talk or cook, and those are all pretty bad no-no's being in front of the camera.
Roy Choi / Chef
Look People Bad
Conversations
Look Bad People
Tendency
Trail
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Public television is a very important thing for our human race, and it allows us the ability to discuss the elephants in the room and understand stories beyond the headlines.
Roy Choi / Chef
Elephants
Headlines
Human Race
Discuss
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I know a lot of artists and chefs don't talk about this, but sometimes you just don't get to the finish line. That honesty and tenderness is something we're kind of not supposed to express.
Roy Choi / Chef
Finish Line
Honesty
Tenderness
Chefs
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For me, I never abandoned the truck. Even though I’ve opened other things, the truck is still the lifeblood of who I am. That’s because I enjoy it. I believe in it. It’s everything that I am.
Roy Choi / Chef
Believe
Truck
Who I Am
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I grew up around so many different people in so many different neighborhoods, but the Latino heritage, the neighborhoods, and people have always been a part of my life, ever since I was a kid.
Roy Choi / Chef
Heritage
Latino
Life Always People
Different People
Life My Life People
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A lot of times in television, you don't get the opportunity to show real life because we're brainwashed to believe the propaganda that these things aren't marketable, that these things don't sell.
Roy Choi / Chef
Brainwashed
Propaganda
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I'm a little old-school in that I think there's some value in the classics and the steps of achieving a certain profession. If we start slanging the word 'chef' on anybody and everybody who cooks, it takes away a lot.
Roy Choi / Chef
Chef
Cooks
Profession
Steps
Achieving
Classics
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Go out one day and treat yourself. Go out and have the best sushi you can find, or go to the best barista in your city and have just a cup of cappuccino, and tell yourself that you deserve this. I think that is very empowering.
Roy Choi / Chef
Empowering
Sushi
Best Yourself Your
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I know what it's like to be a teenager in Orange County. I know what it's like to be a kid in L.A. I know what it's like to not have any money and have your lights turned off. I know what it's like to live in a house with five rooms.
Roy Choi / Chef
County
Orange
Orange County
Rooms
Teenager
Lights
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I translate Hawaii as a place where people make sure I'm having a great time, eating terrific food, without any expectation of anything in return. It's a place for people to be happy. It sounds corny, but in Hawaii, it's not; it's uncorny.
Roy Choi / Chef
Corny
Hawaii
Terrific
Time Food Great
Expectation
Great Time
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My parents and friends, they're Ph.D.s that worked as custodians, that owned their own businesses, that went bankrupt, that moved seven times, that sent their kid to Harvard, that don't have any money for retirement. Highs and lows of life.
Roy Choi / Chef
Harvard
Lows
Moved
Retirement
Seven
Life Money Parents
Businesses
Custodian
Highs
Owned
Sent
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I was a salary man for so many years. I never had to worry about the ins and outs of business or entrepreneurship or funding. I just had to show up and do my job. And then, all of a sudden, I was having to be responsible for my own business.
Roy Choi / Chef
Entrepreneurship
Funding
Salary
So Many Years
Sudden
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A lot of my friend's mothers and parents worked at Paramount Studios, so I would always go. I met the Fonz when I was really young, like four or five years old. I was always around people in entertainment all the time throughout my whole life.
Roy Choi / Chef
Paramount
Studios
Mothers
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There are certain foods that are somewhat sacred or you're not supposed to mess with. When you do mess with them, it touches a nerve where you have to compare it to the original, and then that thing you're creating has a loosing change right out of the gate.
Roy Choi / Chef
Compare
Mess
Sacred
Somewhat
Foods
Gate
Nerve
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I was watching TV and saw the 'Emeril' show, and it spoke to me. I went out and started researching the culinary world and chefs that I knew nothing about. Then I moved to New York and went to culinary school, and everything just fit like a glove. It's been on ever since.
Roy Choi / Chef
New York
Culinary
Culinary School
Moved
Watching Tv
Tv
World Me New
Chefs
Glove
Saw
Researching
Spoke
York
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A-Frame became an expression of creating a place where everyone would feel comfortable, even if you were made to feel uncomfortable in restaurants before. It's a place where I explored my own insecurities as far as being mistreated in restaurants or being given the worst table.
Roy Choi / Chef
Mistreated
Restaurants
Uncomfortable
Explored
Insecurities
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You have to believe in something, and you have to believe in the things that you feel and find value in those things, and not be swayed all the time. Maybe you're gonna get swayed 90% of the time, to keep those things submerged, but you can't distrust yourself 100% of the time.
Roy Choi / Chef
Distrust
Submerged
Time Believe Yourself
Swayed
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Straight up, Oreos, sodas, chips, salsa dips, egg white omelets, yogurts, breads, ketchups, mustards, barbecue sauce, frozen pizzas, hot pockets, ice cream, all these things that you eat in your normal life - I think if chefs got more involved in that, then it could be better. Because we're the ones that know flavor.
Roy Choi / Chef
Barbecue
Chips
Cream
Flavor
Frozen
Ice
Ice Cream
Involved
Normal
Normal Life
Pockets
Sauce
White
Life Your Better
Eat
Chefs
Life Better Your
Dips
Egg
Straight
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I realized why I can cook for different environments. Because of everything I've gone through growing up. Why can I cook for a Hollywood event without blinking an eye? Because I cooked at the Beverly Hilton and because I moved to Villa Park. Why can I cook for kids on Hollywood Boulevard at night? Because I went through it.
Roy Choi / Chef
Boulevard
Eye
Growing Up
Hollywood
Moved
Night
Villa
Beverly
Cook
Cooked
Environments
Event
Hilton
Park
Realized
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I don't really do that much office work. I just go to the office, and I'm like Steve Carell in 'The Office.' You know, like, I just go around and like - I don't know what I do in the office. I look at paperwork and act like I'm understanding what's going on there, and I shake my head and put my hand on my chin and like, 'Hmm.'
Roy Choi / Chef
Hmm
Office
Paperwork
Understanding
Act
Chin
Hand
Head
Shake
Steve
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I grew up around food and in a restaurant, so it never dawned on me that this was a thing to do; it just was. Then I found it as a profession in my mid-twenties after years of bad decisions and depression. The first step was going to the bookstore and learning about this craft. Then applying in kitchens and just getting to work.
Roy Choi / Chef
Profession
Craft
Dawned
First Step
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My parents worked and sold and hustled; they were gone from the morning, and I pretty much took care of myself. But in a Korean household, you're always eating with your family no matter what, and you're always cooking. And our food is not one you can just open a package and eat right away; a lot of our food takes time to develop.
Roy Choi / Chef
Household
Family Time Morning
Hustled
Package
Right Away
Sold
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This is the premiere food symposium in the world. To quote you guys: 'Intended to invoke a sense of courage and urgency...Enabling this year's symposium to become a venue where we can reflect on the stories and ideas that no one usually gets the opportunity to tell.' So I stand here with the guts to ask you, please, let's do something. Let's do something and feed those that we're not reaching collectively.
Roy Choi / Chef
Opportunity
Ideas
Years
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Roy Choi Quotes - Page 2

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