Latest / Dos Amigos / Roy Choi: The Godfather of the Food Truck Revolution

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Roy Choi: The Godfather of the Food Truck Revolution · Dos Amigos

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, what's up and women about drama. This is Freddie Rodriguez.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: I'm the Dusin Eagles podcast for iHeartRadio and today today
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: you have the third Amigo. My good friend Roy Choy
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: is in the house.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Forming.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Indeed, indeed, man, I'm so personally thrilled that you're here
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: because you're you're one of my good friends. And for
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: those who don't know, Roy and I have a have
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: a monthly dude dinner right myself alex Ey wonderful showrunner
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: h DJ King Tech from the wake Up Show, and uh,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: it's it's uh. I'm just I'm just thrilled that you're
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: here man, and and those dinners have been so important
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: in my life just to get to sit down with you,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: get to sit down with us and get the break bread,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: and for us to just chat as humans, as men,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: talk about life, talk about business and uh, and just
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: just to be surrounded by really good people man, and so.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Our mobile man cave, it's it's space. We have to
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: talk about old stuff, old stuff, right.
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we feel the same way. The way this podcast
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: started was the same way. We went to the one
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: dinner and this one dinner just turned into like, wow,
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: how much do we need this, you know, you kind
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: of really need this moment to kind of recharge and
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: and uh, you and I shared share a moment together
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: during some of the most vulnerable times in the history
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: of the world, really during COVID. I, you know, as
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: Lee and I had started this as a podcast called
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: Essential Voices, which was talking to individuals that nobody really
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: knew they were in the radar of essential you know,
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: because people were rightfully so giving all the flowers to
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: you know, to our doctors and to our nurses and
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: shout out to them again for everything they did for us.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: And there was a lot of other unsung heroes around it,
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: you know, the you know, the the truck drivers taking
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: the food, you know, or bringing even the you know,
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: when all the truck stops were shut down and then
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: all these incredible visionaries of food. Food was one of
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: the biggest stress points of the COVID when things started
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: running out when they're when the farmers couldn't really be
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: and the farmers turning and the food and then transportations
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: started getting tough to get food.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: To all the grocery stores.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: As soon as the people started seeing the empty shells,
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: you know, people started really feeling that this is a
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: post apocalyptic moment, you know, But it was individuals like Roy.
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: You know that with his company, his vision and his
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: healing and the healing that he was providing with his
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: food also showed up in a moment well not just vulnerability,
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: but a moment where that that was also calling for
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: us to be united and bringing together. And he had
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: food programs that were incredibly effective during that time, and
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: he came on essential voices and we had a really
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: honest and deep and vulnerable conversation about what he had
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: had to do to kind of show up for his
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: community and for everybody around him. He needless to say,
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: his food, right Roy, You know, Roy toy Is And
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: I love for you to talk a little bit about
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: his business too, But I love for you to tell
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: everybody who has not discovered yet, which I think would
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: be very rare, somebody doesn't know what this truck looks
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: like and his business looks like.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: But really, proud have.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: You here, man, Thank you great to be here. Yeah,
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: those times it was essential. It was toilet paper and
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: food that was yeah. But what made us kind of
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: jump in to the fire on everything was that we
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: had four wheels and being a mobile food vendor, being
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: a street food vendor, you know you're one, you're mobile,
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: but you're also connected to whatever is happening on the ground,
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: you know, And so when things fall and things break,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: and even in times and crisis like now with the
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: immigration situation of the politics, you're able to mobilize and
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: figure things out. And the fires most recently in Los Angeles,
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: you know your business is threatened. But then what happens
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: is a bigger purpose comes up sometimes when you're kind
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: of pushed to the eggs and you have to confront
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: the I guess the capitalism and the commercialization of what
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: you do, and there's if there's nothing left, then you
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: look at yourself and say, well, if there's no money,
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: if there's nothing, no ROI to worry about, what is
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: it that you can really do in life? Life is
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: not over just because you can't make money at that moment.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: And so then we turn that into well, you know,
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: we still can get food, we can get donations, we
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: can do crowdfunding. We can not make profit, but we
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: can go out and feed. And that's happened in COVID
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: and happened in the fire. So we learn every day.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: But I think the biggest thing is being able to
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: go to where the crisis is.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Roy, One of the things I always
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: admired about you is that not only are you a
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: celebrity chef per se, right, but like philanthropy and activism
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: has always been such a big part of your history.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: It is part of the DNA or who you are. Yeah, yeah,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: what why is that? Why?
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Why why aren't you just the dude driving a Lamborghini
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: and like on every cooking show and like, uh, you know,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: I I came to know that Roy, Right, Yeah, I
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: knew I knew the other celebrity Roy, but I came
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: to know that Roy based on the conversations, the countless
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: conversations we've had about stuff like that, Like why why
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: is that such a big part of who you are?
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: I think it's because I don't make that much money,
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: you know, the Laborghini.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: This episode has been brought to you.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Available everywhere.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: You know. The food business, you know, it's really a
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: day to day business, so you have to no matter
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: how successful you are, you have it really you can
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: never really get ahead. There's no big payday in the
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: food business. So then what happens is it pushes you
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: to really confront why are you here? Why do you
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: wake up every day and climb up this mountain? And
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: for some people, like immigrant families, like ourselves, sometimes it's
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: the only thing you can do.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 3: You don't speak the language of this country, you're not educated.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: Sometimes you left your country before you even finished a
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: certain level of education. You're not getting hired, so the
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: only thing you can do to provide for your family
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: is open a small donut shop or open a restaurant.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: So there's that thing. But then becoming a chef is
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: another thing. And I think it's for me personally, is
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: that you know I come from you know, the ground up.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: I know what the struggles like, and I know I
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: had been through a lot of struggle and then I
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: had hit rock bottom a few times in life and
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: it was food that saved me. So on the final
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: time I hit rock bottom and food saving me, I
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: kind of made like it was like a movie. I
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: kind of made like this silent promise, you know, whatever
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: happens from here, I'm going to make sure that whatever
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: I take, I give back tenfold, you know. And it
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: was just a personal agreement, you know, It wasn't like
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: some soapbox or anything like that. It's just I believe
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: in loyalty, and loyalty I think goes to your own
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: promises too, right, and and they don't have to again
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: be on stage or anything like that, but you have
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: to be true to them and those That was just
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: one thing that I was true to it, and I
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: think because I've stayed true to it, I believe that
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: it it feels and feeds me as well. You know,
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: I think if I, as I got maybe I guess
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: more famous or bigger or whatever, if I started to
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: veer away from that, then you know, I would have
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: to confront personally me breaking that promise. And so anyways,
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: like because of that, everything I do has a balance.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: It has It's almost like it's almost like you know,
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: a green red switch, right, So it has If I'm
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: doing this job for this much, or if I'm doing
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: this this kind of like endorsement thing, or I'm doing
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: this TV show, then I'm going to balance that with
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: something you know, for charity or for purpose or for
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: you know, for I guess you know, meaning and retrospect.
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: What you get in return with that is also you're
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: building community, You're showing up to the places where emotionally
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: they see, you know, the loyalty you have with the people,
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: and yeah, it turns back into hey, man, if I
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: had a choice between that truck and this truck, I'm
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: going to this one.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: And in retrospect is that you're building a our community.
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: But talking you said something that really you know, that
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: that really hit me in the heart. Just you know,
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: for us immigrants, it's not about the soapbox. You know,
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: we don't have the luxury of a soapbox, right. We
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: gotta you know, we gotta put some dirt on it
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: and get back in the back in the saddle, because
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: that's just the way the American dream goes.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: The more you keep digging at it, the faster you're
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: going and going back little bit of your of your
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: of your beginnings. I you know, I relate so much
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: in the last time we talked to, you know, in
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: the podcast, and also you're reading so much more about
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: you know that realized that we have a very similar
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: you know, growth, how we grew up in the structure
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: of that. Ultimately, you know, you know, we came to America,
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: we went back, you know, then came back you know,
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: and you might tell us a little bit about that.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: You know, how how your family and your influences and
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: you know when when you returned back to your family's
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: country and then you came back and because you were
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: born and.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't go, but my parents went came and
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: went back. So and then I was born in Korea.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: So my my both my parents met here in l A. Yeah,
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: they met here in l A. While they were both
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: like graduate students or my mom was I always say,
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: quote unquote at art school, but you know art schools,
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: Like I don't know what that means.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Where'd you go? Where'd you go?
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: Uh? Think she went to the Pasadena Arts Center, I believe.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: And then my dad was a graduate student here at UCLA.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: So they met through their own circles back then. I
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: think it was like the mid sixties, late sixties. Back then,
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: Asians weren't that much many out here in there, you know,
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: like there was a there was an exclusion act that
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: was lifted in nineteen sixty five. So like not to
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: get into too much history, but like you know, Asians
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: were clowned upon in this country for many, many years.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: I mean, you go back to World War two, you
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: go back to the Chinese railroad occupation. So you go
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: back to you know, the internment camps and the concentration
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: camps of the Japanese because of World War Two, and basically,
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: you know, and the way Hollywood treated Asians, you know,
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: with Charlie Chan and all that stuff, and basically Asians
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: were just like clowned on and pushed to the corner
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: and we weren't even allowed in this country, like we
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: were like not even you know, you couldn't even get in.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: And then in nineteen sixty five, because there was that
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: actually a law that forbid Asians to come in. So
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: then so in sixty five it lifted and people started coming.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: And then so where this all leads is like by
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: that time, my parents like I think men in sixty
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: eight or something like that. You know, the Asians were
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: just starting to come in. So there were no neighborhoods. Really,
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: there were some old China towns. There was no creative town,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: there was no Little Saigon, there was no Tie Town.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: There's none of that. And so anyways, the circles of
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Asian people were really small. So if you saw someone
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: yeah yo.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Yo, let's look up, it's like a podcast. Yeah.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: So that's how all our parents went and uh. But anyways,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: they they met, they had a blast. I've seen some
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: old pictures of the man. They were living it up man,
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: you know, you know, especially can you imagine, like they
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: come from these kind of small countries they come to America.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: Back then it was the wayfarer, sunglasses, cigarets, you know,
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: old old like impalas and stuff like that. But they
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: weren't old. They were the year of time, but a
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: beautiful you know, like big bucket seat, you know, you
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: got your arm around driving, and so it must have
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: been amazing for them. And then they had to move
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: back as the risas ended. And I always think that
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: I haven't I talked to them about it, but they
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: never really tell me too much. But I put the
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: pieces together. I think they went back and all they
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: did was plot for like three years to figure out
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: how the fuck they get out of Korea and how
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: to get how to come back, and so in that
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: time I was born. And then they came back. But
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: the thing is, the weird thing is they went back
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: to their country with like a higher education, and they
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: could have lived a life, but they were willing to
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: give all that up to come back here and start
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: at the bottom again, you know, so they came back
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: here and started at the bottom. You know, graveyard shifts,
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: janitorial shifts. Well that's where it all started again. You know.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: He was studying to become like a political ambassador, you know,
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: like he was. I mean, if everything had gone the
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: way it was supposed to go, he was probably going
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: to be like like working for the embassy or a
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: political ambassador or some sort of high governmental position. But
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: he came back here and it doesn't matter as as
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: especially as Asians during that time. That's why you see
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: a lot of Asians from that period, from the early
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: seventies to the early eighties, that ten year period, the
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: reason why so many own again like liquor store, strike cleaners,
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: donut shops, you know, small restaurants, noodle shops, hamburger shops,
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: all that stuff, because you couldn't get a job. Nobody
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: would hire an Asian person. You know, we were completely
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: like foreign to the American Even with him with a
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: degree from it don't matter. Yeah, it didn't matter unless
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: you had like a science degree or something. So that
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: took a lot of humble pie I think for that
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: that group of Asians where no matter how educated they were,
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: they had to go down and get some dirt on them,
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: like you say, and take whatever job is available. You know.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: My parents basically worked from I would say eight nine
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: am to about eight nine pm every single day.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Did they have a What did they do? What do
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: your folks do during that time?
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: Again? Run liquor store, run liquor stores, work at gas stations,
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: the janitorial graveyard, door to door sales, amway, all that, restaurants,
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: small restaurants, I think, all that kind of all that
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: kind of stuff. And but they'd be gone the whole time,
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: and that kind of shaped me into who I am
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: because with them being gone, and then it's, you know,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: like life is all about those timing and I'm sure
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: people growing up right now, kids growing up, it's they're
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: going to have their own timing points. But for me
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: growing up in the seventies, it was the timing of
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: them having to figure things out, being the first wave
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: of Asian immigrants, the seventies being a time where there
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: weren't that many rules in place yet, you know, and
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: so they basically just say peace out at like eight
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: nine am, and they wouldn't Like I was five years old, bro,
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: I was fucking five years old and they would say
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: peace and then they would be gone, the whole whole
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: damn day.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Who would watch you nobody?
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: I watched myself to watch it.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love Lucy.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: I used to get on the bus over here. It's
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: called it used to be called RTD here La Rapid
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: Transit this year and I guess on the bus at
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: five years ago. So so in the bus driver, Yeah,
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: and then you just get on the bus and nobody cares.
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: So we talked about a little bit about that moment
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: in time because my family had a pretty similar you know,
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: my parents met in Miami, you know, during the early seventies,
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: you know, and my dad and my mom you young,
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: got married and all the stuff in Miami, and they
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: had it all same thing, you know, the fifth Will Continental,
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: you know, the whole thing. And then and then my
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: dad moved back to Venezuela.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: You know, very similar, and that we.
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: We were raised in Venezuela, was about fourteen years old, right,
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: and then we came back to the United States around
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: that time, learned how to speak englishrom scratch and the
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: whole thing, you know, what really call my attention in
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: your story so much was that at five years old,
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: it goes and I want to say that, I want
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: to say this in capital letters.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: They don't make it like that anymore.
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: They don't make them like that anymore, you know what
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: I mean, like a five year old kid to be
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: able to like handle his stuff, understanding the gravity that
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: her that his parents are out there doing what they
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: gotta do.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: And then you got to find your own way too
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: at five, five, seven years old. Yeah, it's like you
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: have to.
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: You have to.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think about think about parents and their kids.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Now there's I mean, obviously technology helps, but in most
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: cases they know where their kid is at every single
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: second of the day. You probably know where your kids
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: are every single second of the day iPhone.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well back then, man, they didn't even know.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: By the time they go home, you could be in
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: New York.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: You could be in New York home alone, you know,
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: you know, ten hours, twelve hours, definitely, you could.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Be in Italy. Did you have siblings you had to
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: watch over?
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but we're uh, six seven years apart, so by
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: the time and then in early infant days, they would
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: strap her on their backs and go and used to
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: go door or door and go do the work she
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: used to sell, like she would she would do a
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: lot of I mean you see it now today in
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: La a lot. She would do a lot of what
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: you see on the corners where you see the mom
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: selling manudo or posole on the weekends, or their tomates
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: or anything like that. You know, we were just the
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: Asian version of that, you know, Like my mom would
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: make kim chi and what's called pun chan, which is
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: basically marinated vegetables and then marinated meats, and she would
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: pack all that up and she would wrap it up
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: in these cloths, put it in our backpack and put
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: the kid on the side, and basically go door to
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: door wow. Or she would show up at like my
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: mom was very smart, Like she would show up at
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: places where she knew people would gather, you know, like
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: back then bowling was really popular and pool like billiards
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: and all those.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Things, and everybody wants to eat when everyone.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: Wants to eat, and she would just show up there
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: and then like if everyone a little taste, and then yeah,
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: it's very smart. Again, very very similar to I think
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: those probably where it's not maybe a direct line, but
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: it's definitely it's definitely a crooked line to where a
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: lot of my instincts for street fe.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to ask you about that.
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: Where did where did all the inspiration and how did
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: it all come full circle for you?
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: Well, being a lot, I think it's all again. All
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: those pieces are like a shattered kind of glass that
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: come together one being alone at such an early age,
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: I was roaming the streets a lot, and so I
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: would see street vendors or I would smell the food.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: I was very familiar, you know, with the smells of
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: the streets and the foods of the streets from a
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: very early age, and being a kid. When you're walking
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: around as a kid, people don't really pay attention to
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: you in the same way they do maybe adults. Right,
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: So what I mean by that is like you can
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: slip in and out of things. You know, you can
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: kind of listen to conversations, you can like study things,
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: be exposed to things without anyone noticing you're there, especially
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: if you have the eye for it. And so for me,
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: that was something that I did a lot. I was
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: alone a lot. I would just walk around. I would
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: just witness things or absorb things, I guess studying, and
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: I kind of like what you guys do is actors,
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: you know, like I would study the movements, the asyncrasies,
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: the small little.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Nuances, sufficiency of business.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: The efficiency. I would see how people operate, how they
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: how they set set up. You know. These are and
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: these are all little things that were like my own
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: little kind of hobbies or interests. You know, most people
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: had hobbies of like building, uh you know, model airplanes,
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: or working on their motorcycles or things like our bikes
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: or things. For me, it was watching like how a
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: street vendor exchanges cash, you know, watching how they flip
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: flip their foods and things like that. But I didn't
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: know growing up that those things would ever turn into something.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: Those are just my own personal hobbies. Being around my
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: mom by her side, and the way she handled stuff
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: and the way she like knew how to pack things,
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: knew exactly how much she was going to pack and
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: why she was going to this place, and all those
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: things were I guess like by the time I got
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: into street food, they were already ingrained in me. You know.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: Jason Bourne, you know.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what was that magic that magic moment?
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: What was that moment when you say I'm going to
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: start this thing? See how it goes, like, what was
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: that moment?
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: How did that start?
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: For Kogie? It was I was out of a job,
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: so it was kind of like my hand was forced.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: What were you doing before? What were you doing?
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: I was a chef. I was a chef for fifteen
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: years before Kogie happened. Yes, but I was at the
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: Beverly Hilton. Oh yeah, So if you were at the
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: Golden Globes ten thousands, yeah.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: Slid so eight.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: I probably served you made those lighters.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: I love great triple triple fright fries.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I was. I was doing that whole thing.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: I was working in hotels.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Did you did you go to school to be a chef?
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: I went to school to be chef. I was on
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: the path to my goal, my dream because I didn't
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: know I was going to be an entrepreneur. So my
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: dream up until that point was to eventually maybe become
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: like an international chef. Like that was as far as
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: my vision could go. Was like, like my biggest mountaintop
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: was could I be like the executive chef or the
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: regional chef for like, you know, like a four season Singapore.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: That was my Mount Everest.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: That was my Mount Everest, you know, that was because.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: First of all, that's a really great that's a.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: Great job, man. You know, like you're working in in
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: you know, Singapore or Bangkok, or you know, even Puerto
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: Rico or you know wherever, and then you have this
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: great job. You're cooking amazing food, you have an amazing
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: clientele and guests, and then you know, you can stay
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: around the world wherever you want at a partner hotel.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: So that was that was a dream. I lost all
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: that and then in two thousand and eight, and and
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: then I was out of a job for about almost
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: six months.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Why can we, may we ask, Yeah.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: I think you know, the economy crashed. It was the
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: real estate crisis at that time. And then also what
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: happened was I think I had, for all that success
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: as a as an executive chef, in that time in life,
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: I was maybe a little overqualified for any jobs out there.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: You know, it was a time in the world where
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: everyone was downsizing. But I think it was also spiritual
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: in a sense that maybe that part of my chapter
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: of my life was over because I was interviewing. I
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: was out there interviewing, and I wasn't getting any jobs.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: I wasn't getting the jobs that I thought I should
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: get and.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Within the world, somehow the universe was telling you, Hey,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I think so there's another there's another world, there's another
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: street over there.
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. I don't thank you for asking
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: that woman, because I you know, it's hard to talk
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: about it, because like in the world when you talk
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: about mystical shit, you know, like nobody wants to really listen,
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: you know, and it's like, oh, it's hard.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: To put in your words.
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: I hear you in that that's a really interesting thing
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: that you tap into it because we you know, we're
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: not shy to tap into the why us right, We're
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: not shy to tap into that into that aspect because I,
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: you know, I look at you, and I look at
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: the you know, nothing short of a really good will,
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: beautifully well built empire. You know that you have, and
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: you know, to reflect on this this moment, that the
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: moment where you were being compressed the most, you were
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: led to make a different type of diamond somewhere else,
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: you know, And I think that that was an interesting thing.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: We talked about it, like why us right, Like no in.
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: Our family, no in our family decided to go into
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: this thing.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: We're like, we decided to do.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: The hardest thing that we could possibly do, and somehow
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: we ended up a path where not only sustainability, but
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: we were to you know, hopefully do some positive things
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: that we can take with us in the graveyard. But
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: but I'd love to tap a little bit deeper into
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: that part because you know, in that moment, and we
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: always try to offer this to a lot of our
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: listeners and our viewers and everybody who watches us or
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: listening to us, is is that is the moment that
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: don't call it a test, It is those moments of
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: of of hardship and and turmoil are the manifestation of
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: where you know where like you did that that chapter
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: is closed. We got to tell you otherwise you're going
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: to keep going in and roll possively inhabities.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: But I'd love for you to dive it a little
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: deeper on that point.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, like if we if you do open
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: yourself up to the mystical communications, you know, and you
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: may not know it at that time, you know you
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: may feel it and you know it's it's weird because
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: in hindsight, I can completely diagram it all out for you.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: I can really pinpoint that if there was something happening
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: that there were these kind of mystical road signs that
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: led me to make a lessons to signals that turned
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: things and move them this way. You know, I couldn't
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: get a job I was. I completely lost my ability
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: to do things that were second nature to me. I
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: couldn't I had built a career for fifteen years doing
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: it would be like if you couldn't read pages anymore,
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: memorize anymore, like these things that were innate within you,
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: I couldn't even do anymore. And then there was these
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: these moments that happened where I would listen to different
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: signals at that time that allowed me to see that
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: there was a new path ahead of me. You know,
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: my friend calling me and saying, hey, let's start a
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: taco truck. Me normally saying probably would have said no,
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: but because I was out of work for soul long,
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: I was open to it, you know, me finally confronting
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: the food and the flavors that I that I was
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: kind of shying away from. I was always cooking like
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: European food, and then finally I started to but I
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: would be eating tacos, burritos and Korean food. And then
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: I never really cooked that food, and so then finally
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: I opened myself up to cook it. The night we
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: opened Kogie, you know, there was no press or fanfare
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: or anything. We opened at two am in front of
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: a club, and we parked there right at midnight. But
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: the day, the day we opened, was the same day
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: Twilight opened at the Arc Light at the Cinromadome, and
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: so it was just like I look back at that
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: moment and then there was all it was. It was
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: like midnight on a foggy November night with all of
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: these vampires like dressed up doing cosplay, doing cosplay, waiting
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: in line for and we noticed that.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: At first screen.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for the screening, and we're just like, there's something
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: going on right now, you know. And then and just
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: all those things as I look at it together, and
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: then the moment people ate the taco and the burrito,
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: like everything just stopped. Time stopped, and so I think
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: all those things, uh, you know, they were all meant
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: to be.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: And that was a very pop culture moment.
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, and your point, you're pointing out the
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: release of Twilight, you're pointing out that the time of
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: the night in which.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: Time, but there's also two other things. One is social
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: media just happened. Twitter just came out, and then the
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: iPhone just came out. So it was all these things
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: happening at one time that allowed us to kind of
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: plug into that that energy. And did we know everything
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: at that time, No, but we trusted it and we
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: listened to it and we followed it. And I think
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: if you're looking for something right now or wherever you
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: are in life, I don't know it's easy to look
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: back on it, but if you're in the moment, I
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: think if you can open yourself up to information that's
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: not just in your brain like other information, you know,
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: and you know a lot of native indigenous cultures do
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: it all the time, right right, and you know, tap
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: back in, tap, tap back in.
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: And I think that's that's the thing that's a really
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: interesting theme to kind of follow here as well, because
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: what you're describing is you saying, like, Okay, I achieved
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: the cuisine that was unlike my heritage culture to where
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: I came from, you know, the stuff that I saw
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: my mother make and all that, and then all of
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: a sudden you went back to your interest, to.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Your what you what you liked, what you work from it.
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: And when you can co sign on something I like
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: this tackle, somebody else probably will.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: That's the magic moment.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: And everybody felt it at that time. It wasn't just
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: me or my team. It was the reason why I
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: think that there was something happening is because everyone around
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: us felt it. Like there's if you write it on paper,
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: there's no reason that an Asian guy making tacos out
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: of a truck, you know, wouldn't make any sense. Right.
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: But as soon as we got out there, like everyone
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: was like, yeah, you know right, Why do you think
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: they didn't see race, They didn't see anything. They just
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: they saw the saw the truth in the future.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Why do you think that is right?
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: And and and you know what was super interesting about
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: this is before you and I even met, right, I
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: remember driving down what was that place on Washington where
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: you where you first had your your your tacos at
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: you know that place?
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Remember that place like on in Culver City, the bar,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: the bar Dalla By Room.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: I remember going like on a midnight taco run, Like
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: I keep hearing about these tacos, man, I gotta go
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: half so and I went there at midnight and I
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: thought it was one of the most amazing, amazing things
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: I had ever tasted. But what I found that was
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: so interesting was that you had the foresight to go,
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna murder you know, these Korean flavors with like
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Mexican delicacies.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, to talk to me about.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: Like what what I know that you were saying that
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: you came up eating tacos and burritos and all that.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: But what gave you sort of the vision to go,
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: I'm going to merge these two flavors, these two cultures together.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: Well, really, what it was it was an expression of
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: the area of Los Angeles we came from, yeah, you know.
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: And it was more than it being this like cerebral
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: idea of like, hey, we're gonna you know, we're gonna
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: do these things and make a new culture. It was like,
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: we're just going to cook and speak the way that
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: we are and where we're from, you know, and we're
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: from Koreatown, Los Angeles, right, And if you go to Koreatown,
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: Los Angeles between Vermont and Cranshaw and Beverly and Pico,
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: if you go in that square block, it's all mixed up,
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: you know, like it's Central American Wahawkan Mexican Korean, and
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: the Guatemalins are speaking Korean and the Koreans are speaking
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: Spanish slang, and you know, the kids look are dating
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: each other, you know, the young Latino girls are all
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: into k pop. You know, it's like all mixed up together,
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: and you can't really distinguish the line between the two.
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: You know, like you go to the high schools, you
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: go go to Koreatown at three pm, and in front
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: of like the junior high schools and high school you
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: come out. All the kids come out there, all in
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: the k pop, right, you know, And then go to
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: the markets and the restaurants. Everybody working in the markets,
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: in the restaurants all speaking Korean and not speak just
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: speaking like like school book Korean, but speaking like slanging
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: Korean r like arguing with the Korean like lady or
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: worker or whatever. And they're eating together the food of
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: each other. So they have a rice bowl with kinda
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: hot sauce, but kimchi and the cilantro and onion all
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: mixed together, you know, and it's all mixed up together.
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: Everything's mixed up together. And that mix up is kind
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: of what our food was. And so what we did
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: was we just got out of the way, you know,
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: And that's really what it was. Was like we were
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: able to like kind of like harness it, but we
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: got out of the way and let it speak for itself.
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: And I think what it did was it made our
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: area of town like worldwide, you know.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: All right, So let's low it down right there.
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: This has been part one of a two part conversation
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: with ROCHOI and we'll see you guys for a part two.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: Those Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: Michael through That Podcast Network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez,
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: and Wilmer Valdorama.
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabbos.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: and Leo Clem at WV Sound.
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: This episode was shot and edited by Ryan Posts and
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: Devenport and Halo Boy.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: by Deny Holtz.
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: Claw and thank you for being there third Amigo today.
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: I appreciate you guys. Always listening to those amiingos.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: More podcasts from my Heart, visit the ir heart Radio app,
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: See you next week.