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

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

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, what's up? I'm Wilmer Valderrama.
0:06
Speaker 2: This is Freddy Rodriguez. I'm the Dos Amigos podcast for iHeartRadio.
0:11
Speaker 2: And today, we have the third amigo, my good friend,
0:17
Speaker 2: Roy Choi is in the house.
0:19
Speaker 3: Thank you for coming, brother.
0:21
Speaker 2: Indeed, indeed, man. I'm so personally thrilled that you're here
0:25
Speaker 2: because you're one of my good friends. And for those
0:28
Speaker 2: who don't know, Roy and I have a monthly... do dinner, right? Myself,
0:35
Speaker 2: Alex C., a wonderful showrunner, DJ King Tech from The
0:39
Speaker 2: Wake Up Show. And I'm just thrilled that you're here, man.
0:46
Speaker 2: And those dinners have been so important in my life
0:48
Speaker 2: just to get to sit down with you, get to
0:50
Speaker 2: sit down with us and get to break bread and
0:53
Speaker 2: for us to just chat as humans, as men, talk
0:57
Speaker 2: about life, talk about business and just to be surrounded
1:00
Speaker 2: by a really good people man and so it's our
1:03
Speaker 2: mobile man cave.
1:04
Speaker 3: It's the only safe space we have to talk about
1:09
Speaker 3: 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 this 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 bro you and i uh shared um share
1:27
Speaker 4: a moment together during some of the most vulnerable times
1:30
Speaker 4: in the history of the world, really. During COVID, you know,
1:35
Speaker 4: as Leo and I had started this little 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.
1:53
Speaker 1: For everything they did for us.
1:55
Speaker 4: And there was a lot of other unsung heroes along there.
1:59
Speaker 4: The truck drivers taking the food or bringing even the,
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.
2:14
Speaker 2: Yeah.
2:15
Speaker 4: When things started running out, when the farmers couldn't really
2:18
Speaker 4: be and the farmers turning in the food and then
2:21
Speaker 4: transportation starting getting tough to get food to all the
2:23
Speaker 4: grocery stores.
2:24
Speaker 1: Soon as the people started.
2:25
Speaker 4: Seeing the empty shelves, you know, people started really feeling
2:29
Speaker 4: that this is a post-apocalyptic moment, you know?
2:31
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:32
Speaker 4: But it was individuals like Roy, you know, that with
2:35
Speaker 4: his company, his vision and his healings. And the healing
2:39
Speaker 4: that he was providing with his food also showed up
2:41
Speaker 4: in a moment, well, not just vulnerability, but a moment
2:44
Speaker 4: that was also calling for us to be united and
2:47
Speaker 4: bring together. And he had food programs that were incredibly
2:51
Speaker 4: effective during that time. And he came on Essential Voices.
2:55
Speaker 4: And we had a really honest and deep and vulnerable
2:58
Speaker 4: conversation about what he had to do to kind of
3:00
Speaker 4: show up for his community and for everybody around him.
3:03
Speaker 4: me needless to say, his food, Roy, you know, Roy Choi's,
3:07
Speaker 4: and I'd love for you to talk a little bit
3:08
Speaker 4: about his business too, but I'd love for you to
3:10
Speaker 4: tell everybody who has not discovered yet, which I.
3:13
Speaker 1: Think will be very rare.
3:14
Speaker 4: Somebody doesn't know what this truck looks like and his
3:17
Speaker 4: business looks like.
3:18
Speaker 1: But really proud to have you here, man. Thank you
3:21
Speaker 1: again for real.
3:22
Speaker 3: Great to be here. Yeah, those times it was essential.
3:25
Speaker 3: It was toilet paper and food. Yeah, that was it. Yeah,
3:30
Speaker 3: but what made us kind of jump in to the
3:33
Speaker 3: fire on everything was that we had four wheels and
3:36
Speaker 3: being a mobile food vendor, being a street food vendor,
3:39
Speaker 3: you know, you're one, you're mobile, but you're also connected
3:42
Speaker 3: to whatever's happening on the ground, you know? And so
3:46
Speaker 3: when things fall and things break, and even in times
3:48
Speaker 3: in crisis, like now with the immigration situation, politics, you're
3:52
Speaker 3: able to mobilize and figure things out. And the fires
3:55
Speaker 3: most recently here in Los Angeles, you know, your business
3:59
Speaker 3: is threatened, but then what happens is a bigger purpose
4:01
Speaker 3: comes up. Sometimes when you're, kind of pushed to the
4:04
Speaker 3: edge and you have to confront the, I guess the
4:08
Speaker 3: capitalism and the commercialization of what you do. And there's,
4:12
Speaker 3: if there's nothing left, then you look at yourself and say, well,
4:15
Speaker 3: if there's no money, if there's nothing, no ROI to
4:18
Speaker 3: worry about, what is it that you can really do
4:20
Speaker 3: in life?
4:21
Speaker 1: Yeah.
4:21
Speaker 3: Uh, life is not over just because you can't make
4:24
Speaker 3: money at that moment.
4:25
Speaker 2: Right.
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.
4:46
Speaker 2: You know, Roy, one of the things I always admired
4:48
Speaker 2: about you is that not only are you a celebrity
4:51
Speaker 2: chef per se, right? But like philanthropy and activism has
4:55
Speaker 2: always been such a big part of your history.
4:59
Speaker 1: It is part of the DNA of who you are. Yeah, yeah.
5:02
Speaker 1: Why is that? Why, why, why? why aren't you just
5:04
Speaker 1: a dude.
5:05
Speaker 2: Driving a Lamborghini and like on every cooking show?
5:08
Speaker 1: And like, you know, I came to know that Roy, right?
5:13
Speaker 2: I knew the other celebrity Roy, but I came to
5:15
Speaker 2: know that Roy. based on the conversations, the countless conversations
5:20
Speaker 2: we had about stuff like that.
5:21
Speaker 1: Like, why is that such a big part of who
5:23
Speaker 1: you are?
5:24
Speaker 3: I think it's because I don't make that much money,
5:26
Speaker 3: you know? That's why the Lamborghini ain't in the line.
5:31
Speaker 3: Perfect time to.
5:32
Speaker 2: That's why there's no Bentley in the garage.
5:34
Speaker 4: This episode has been brought to you by Roy Choi.
5:39
Speaker 1: Available everywhere that you get your books.
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
6:06
Speaker 3: the only thing you can do, right? You don't speak
6:09
Speaker 3: the language of this country. You're not educated. Sometimes you
6:13
Speaker 3: left your country before you even finished a certain level
6:15
Speaker 3: of education. You're not getting hired. So the only thing
6:18
Speaker 3: you can do to provide for your family is open
6:21
Speaker 3: a small donut shop or open a restaurant. So there's
6:24
Speaker 3: that thing. But then becoming a chef is another thing.
6:27
Speaker 3: And I think it's, for me personally, is that, you know,
6:33
Speaker 3: I come from, you know, the ground up. I know
6:36
Speaker 3: what the struggle's like. And I know I had been
6:39
Speaker 3: through a lot of struggle. And then I had hit
6:42
Speaker 3: rock bottom a few times in life. And it was
6:45
Speaker 3: food that saved me. So on the final time I
6:48
Speaker 3: hit rock bottom and food saving me, I kind of
6:50
Speaker 3: made like, it was like a movie. I kind of
6:52
Speaker 3: made like this silent promise, you know, whatever happens from here,
6:57
Speaker 3: I'm going to make sure that whatever I take, I
7:00
Speaker 3: give back tenfold, you know, and it was just a
7:02
Speaker 3: personal agreement, you know, it wasn't like some soap box
7:07
Speaker 3: or anything like that. It's just, um, I believe in
7:10
Speaker 3: loyalty and loyalty, I think goes to your own promises too.
7:14
Speaker 2: Right.
7:15
Speaker 3: And, um, and they don't have to again, be on
7:18
Speaker 3: stage or anything like that. Um, but you have to
7:21
Speaker 3: be true to them. And those, that was just one
7:23
Speaker 3: thing that I was true to. And I think because
7:26
Speaker 3: I've stayed true to it, I believe. that, um, it, it,
7:31
Speaker 3: it fuels and feeds me as well. You know, I
7:34
Speaker 3: think if I, as I got maybe, I guess more
7:37
Speaker 3: famous or bigger or whatever, if I started to veer
7:40
Speaker 3: away from that, then, you know, I would have to
7:43
Speaker 3: confront personally me breaking that promise. And, um, so anyways, like,
7:49
Speaker 3: because of that, um, everything I do has a balance.
7:53
Speaker 3: It has, it's almost like a, 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 this,
8:04
Speaker 3: this kind of like endorsement thing or I'm doing this
8:07
Speaker 3: TV show, then I'm going to balance that with something different.
8:11
Speaker 3: you know, for charity or for purpose or for, you know, for,
8:17
Speaker 3: I guess, you know, meaning.
8:20
Speaker 4: And in retrospect, what you get in return with that
8:23
Speaker 4: is also you're building community. You're showing up to the
8:25
Speaker 4: places where emotionally they see, you know, the loyalty you
8:29
Speaker 4: have with the people. And it turns back into, hey, man,
8:33
Speaker 4: if I had a choice between that truck and this truck,
8:35
Speaker 4: I'm going to this one, you know. And in retrospect,
8:38
Speaker 4: it's that you're building a lot of community. But talking,
8:39
Speaker 4: you said something that really you know, that really hit
8:42
Speaker 4: me in the heart. You know, for us immigrants, it's
8:45
Speaker 4: not about the soapbox. You know, we don't have the
8:48
Speaker 4: luxury of a soapbox, right? We got to, you know,
8:51
Speaker 4: we got to put some dirt on it and get
8:53
Speaker 4: back in the saddle because that's just the way the
8:56
Speaker 4: American dream.
8:56
Speaker 2: Goes, right?
8:57
Speaker 1: The more you keep digging at it, the faster you go.
8:59
Speaker 4: And going back a little bit of your beginnings, you know,
9:02
Speaker 4: I relate so much. In the last time we talked,
9:05
Speaker 4: you know, in the podcast and also reading so much
9:09
Speaker 4: more about you and all that, realized that we have
9:11
Speaker 4: a very similar growth, how we grew up in the
9:15
Speaker 4: structure of that. Ultimately, we came to America, we went back,
9:22
Speaker 4: then came back. You know, and you might tell us
9:26
Speaker 4: a little bit about that, you know, how your family
9:29
Speaker 4: and your influences and, you know, when you return back
9:31
Speaker 4: to your family's country and then you came back and
9:35
Speaker 4: because you were born in.
9:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't go back when my parents went, came
9:39
Speaker 3: and went back. So, yeah. And then I was born
9:42
Speaker 3: in Korea. So both my parents met here in L.A. Yeah,
9:47
Speaker 3: they met here in L.A. while they were both like
9:49
Speaker 3: graduate students. My mom was, I always say, quote unquote,
9:52
Speaker 3: at art school. But, you know, art school, means like
9:55
Speaker 3: i don't know what that means where'd she go where'd
9:57
Speaker 3: she go uh i think she went to the um
10:01
Speaker 3: pasadena art center i believe yeah and then my dad
10:04
Speaker 3: was a graduate student here at ucla so they met
10:07
Speaker 3: through their own circles back then uh i think it
10:10
Speaker 3: was like the mid 60s uh late 60s back then
10:14
Speaker 3: um asians weren't that much many out here in america
10:17
Speaker 3: you know like there was a there was an exclusion
10:20
Speaker 3: act that was lifted in 1965. So like, not to
10:23
Speaker 3: get into too much history, but like, you know, Asians were,
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 II, you
10:32
Speaker 3: go back to the Chinese railroad occupations, you go back to,
10:36
Speaker 3: you know, the internment camps and the concentration camps of
10:38
Speaker 3: the Japanese because of World War II. And basically, you know, and,
10:42
Speaker 3: and the way Hollywood treated Asians, you know, Charlie Chan,
10:46
Speaker 3: and all that stuff. And basically Asians were just like
10:49
Speaker 3: clowned on and pushed to the corner. And we weren't
10:51
Speaker 3: even allowed in this country. Like we were like not even,
10:55
Speaker 3: you know, you couldn't even get in. And then in 1965,
10:59
Speaker 3: cause there was actually a law that forbid Asians to
11:02
Speaker 3: come in. So then, so in 65, it lifted and
11:05
Speaker 3: the people started coming. And then, so where this all
11:09
Speaker 3: leads is like by that time, my parents, like I
11:12
Speaker 3: think men in 68 or something like that, um, you know,
11:15
Speaker 3: the Asians were just starting to come in. So there
11:17
Speaker 3: were no neighborhoods, really. There were some old Chinatowns.
11:20
Speaker 2: Right.
11:20
Speaker 3: There was no Koreatown. There was no little Saigon. There
11:23
Speaker 3: was no Thai town. There was none of that. And, um,
11:26
Speaker 3: so anyways, the circles of Asian people were really small.
11:29
Speaker 3: So if you saw someone, you're like, yo, let's hook up.
11:35
Speaker 1: It's like us over. It's like this podcast.
11:39
Speaker 2: Yeah.
11:41
Speaker 3: So that's how I bought parents. And, um, Uh, but anyways, they,
11:46
Speaker 3: they met, they had a blast. I seen some old
11:48
Speaker 3: pictures of them, 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
11:56
Speaker 3: America back then it was the Wayfarer sunglasses, cigarettes, you know, uh, old, uh, old,
12:03
Speaker 3: like Impala's and stuff like that, but they weren't old.
12:05
Speaker 3: They were the year of, but beautiful, you know, like
12:09
Speaker 3: big bucket seat, you know, you got your arm around
12:11
Speaker 3: you driving and. So it must have been amazing for them.
12:15
Speaker 3: And then they had to move back because their visas ended.
12:18
Speaker 3: And I always think that... I haven't... I talked to
12:21
Speaker 3: them about it, but they never really tell me too much.
12:24
Speaker 3: But I put the pieces together. I think they went back.
12:28
Speaker 3: And all they did was plot for like three years
12:30
Speaker 3: to figure out how the fuck to get out of
12:32
Speaker 3: Korea and come back.
12:33
Speaker 1: How to get back.
12:34
Speaker 3: How to come back. And so in that time, I
12:36
Speaker 3: was born. And then they came back. But the thing is...
12:41
Speaker 3: The weird thing is they... went back to their country
12:44
Speaker 3: with like a higher education and they could have like
12:47
Speaker 3: lived a life, but they were willing to give all
12:49
Speaker 3: that up to come back here and start at the
12:52
Speaker 3: bottom again.
12:53
Speaker 1: Yeah.
13:03
Speaker 3: Um, so they came back here and, uh, start at
13:06
Speaker 3: the bottom, you know, graveyard shifts, janitorial shifts, uh, door
13:10
Speaker 3: to door sales.
13:11
Speaker 1: What did your pop do for a living?
13:13
Speaker 3: Uh, 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, if everything had gone
13:23
Speaker 3: the way it was supposed to go, he was probably
13:26
Speaker 3: going to be like, like working for the embassy or
13:30
Speaker 3: a political ambassador or some sort of high governmental position. Um,
13:35
Speaker 3: but 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
13:41
Speaker 3: a lot of, Asians from that period, from the early
13:45
Speaker 3: 70s to the early 80s, that 10 year period, the
13:49
Speaker 3: reason why so many own, again, like liquor stores, dry cleaners,
13:53
Speaker 3: donut shops, you know, small restaurants, noodle shops, hamburger shops,
13:59
Speaker 3: all that stuff is because you couldn't get a job.
14:02
Speaker 3: Nobody would hire an Asian person. You know, we were
14:05
Speaker 3: completely like foreign immigrants. to to the american even with
14:10
Speaker 3: him with a degree from it don't matter yeah it
14:12
Speaker 3: didn't matter unless you had like a science degree or
14:14
Speaker 3: something yeah so that took a lot of humble pie
14:17
Speaker 3: i think for that that group of asians where no
14:21
Speaker 3: matter how educated they were they had to go down
14:25
Speaker 3: and get some dirt on them like you say and
14:27
Speaker 3: um take whatever job is available um you know my
14:31
Speaker 3: parents basically worked from I would say 8, 9 a.m.
14:35
Speaker 3: to about 8, 9 p.m.
14:37
Speaker 1: Every single day. Did they have a, what'd they do?
14:40
Speaker 1: What'd your folks do during that time?
14:43
Speaker 3: Again, run liquor store, run liquor stores, work at gas stations, janitorial, graveyard,
14:50
Speaker 3: door-to-door sales, Amway, all that, restaurants, small restaurants, um, uh,
14:57
Speaker 3: think all that kind of, all that kind of stuff. And, uh,
15:00
Speaker 3: but they'd be gone the whole time. And that, that,
15:03
Speaker 3: kind of shaped me into who i am because with
15:06
Speaker 3: them being gone and then it's you know like life
15:09
Speaker 3: is all about those timing and i'm sure people growing
15:12
Speaker 3: up right now kids growing up it's they're going to
15:15
Speaker 3: have their own timing points but for me growing up
15:18
Speaker 3: in the 70s it was the timing of them having
15:21
Speaker 3: to figure things out being the first wave of asian
15:24
Speaker 3: immigrants the 70s being a time where there weren't that
15:29
Speaker 3: many rules in place yet, you know? And so they
15:32
Speaker 3: basically just say peace out at like 8, 9 a.m.
15:35
Speaker 3: And they wouldn't, like, I was five years old, bro.
15:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, right. That crazy?
15:38
Speaker 3: I was fucking five years old and they would say peace?
15:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:41
Speaker 3: And then they would be gone. Right.
15:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
15:44
Speaker 3: The whole damn day.
15:46
Speaker 1: Who would watch you?
15:47
Speaker 2: Nobody.
15:50
Speaker 3: I watch myself, bro. I used to get on.
15:51
Speaker 1: I Love Lucy used to watch you. Yeah, I Love Lucy.
15:54
Speaker 3: I used to get on the bus over here. It
15:55
Speaker 3: used to be called RTD here in LA, Rapid Transit District.
15:59
Speaker 3: And I get on the bus at five years old. So,
16:02
Speaker 3: and the bus driver goes, and then you just get
16:05
Speaker 3: on the bus and nobody cares.
16:06
Speaker 1: Can we talk about a little bit about that moment
16:08
Speaker 1: in time?
16:08
Speaker 4: Because my family had a pretty similar, you know, my
16:13
Speaker 4: parents met in Miami, you know, during the early seventies,
16:16
Speaker 4: you know, and my dad and my mom were young,
16:20
Speaker 4: got married and all that stuff in Miami. And they
16:21
Speaker 4: had it all, same thing, you know, the fifth wheel Continental,
16:24
Speaker 4: you know, that whole thing.
16:25
Speaker 1: And then my dad moved back to Venezuela, you know.
16:29
Speaker 3: Very similar.
16:29
Speaker 4: And we were raised in Venezuela until I was about
16:32
Speaker 4: 14 years old, right? And then we came back to
16:34
Speaker 4: the United States around that time, learned how to speak
16:36
Speaker 4: English from scratch and the whole thing, you know. What
16:39
Speaker 4: really caught my attention in your story so much was
16:42
Speaker 4: that at five years old, and I want to say
16:47
Speaker 4: this in capital letters.
16:48
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
16:49
Speaker 4: They don't make it like that anymore they don't make
16:52
Speaker 4: them like that anymore yeah you know what i mean
16:54
Speaker 4: like a five-year-old kid to be able to like handle
16:56
Speaker 4: his stuff understanding the gravity that yeah that his parents
17:00
Speaker 4: are out there doing what they got to do and
17:01
Speaker 4: then you got to find your own way too at.
17:03
Speaker 1: Five six seven years.
17:04
Speaker 4: Old the oldest show yeah it's like you have to you.
17:07
Speaker 3: Have i mean i think about think about parents and
17:10
Speaker 3: their kids now there's i mean obviously technology helps but
17:14
Speaker 3: In most cases, they know where their kid is at
17:16
Speaker 3: every single second of the day. You probably know where
17:18
Speaker 3: your kids are at every single second of the day.
17:21
Speaker 3: Find my iPhone. Yeah. Yeah. But back then, man, they
17:24
Speaker 3: didn't even know.
17:25
Speaker 1: Yeah. By the time they got home, you could be
17:27
Speaker 1: in New York.
17:27
Speaker 3: You could be in New York. Home alone, you know.
17:31
Speaker 1: You know, 10 hours, 12 hours. Definitely, you could be
17:34
Speaker 1: in Italy. You never know. It's your zone. Did you
17:37
Speaker 1: have siblings you had to watch over?
17:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, but we're six, seven years apart. So by the time,
17:42
Speaker 3: and then in early infant days, they would strap her
17:45
Speaker 3: on their backs and go. And my mom used to
17:48
Speaker 3: go door to door and go do the work. She
17:49
Speaker 3: used to sell, like she was, 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, uh, you see the
17:58
Speaker 3: mom selling, um, uh, menudo or pozole on the weekends
18:02
Speaker 3: or their tamales or anything like that. You know, um,
18:05
Speaker 3: we were just the Asian version of that, you know,
18:07
Speaker 3: like my mom would make kimchi and what's called which
18:10
Speaker 3: is basically marinated vegetables, um, and then marinated meats. And
18:14
Speaker 3: she would pack all that up and she was wrap
18:17
Speaker 3: it up in these cloths, put it in our backpack
18:19
Speaker 3: and put the kid on the side and basically go
18:22
Speaker 3: door to door. Or she would show up at like, uh,
18:25
Speaker 3: my mom was very smart. Like she would show up at, um,
18:29
Speaker 3: places where she knew people would gather, you know, like, uh,
18:32
Speaker 3: back then bowling was really popular and, um, pool like
18:36
Speaker 3: billiards and all those things.
18:37
Speaker 1: And everybody wants to eat.
18:38
Speaker 3: Everyone wants to eat.
18:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
18:40
Speaker 3: And she would just show up there and then like
18:42
Speaker 3: give everyone a little taste. And then, yeah, it was
18:44
Speaker 3: very smart. Again, very, very similar to, I think those
18:47
Speaker 3: probably where it's not maybe a direct line, but it's definitely,
18:52
Speaker 3: it's definitely a crooked line to where a lot of
18:54
Speaker 3: my instincts for street food. Yeah.
18:55
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you about that.
18:57
Speaker 4: Where did all the inspiration and how did it all
18:59
Speaker 4: come full circle for you?
19:01
Speaker 3: Well, being a law, 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,
19:41
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 uh,
19:49
Speaker 3: for me, that was something that I did a lot.
19:51
Speaker 3: I was alone a lot. I, I would just walk
19:54
Speaker 3: around and I would just witness things or absorb things. Um,
19:57
Speaker 3: I guess studying in a way, kind of like what
19:59
Speaker 3: you guys do as actors, you know, like I would
20:01
Speaker 3: study the movements, the idiosyncrasies, the small little nuances, Um.
20:07
Speaker 1: The efficiency of the business, the efficiency.
20:09
Speaker 3: I would see how people operate, how they, um, how
20:12
Speaker 3: they set, set up, you know, these are, and these
20:15
Speaker 3: are all little things that were like my own little
20:18
Speaker 3: kind of, uh, hobbies or interests, you know, um, most
20:22
Speaker 3: people had hobbies of like building, uh, you know, model
20:26
Speaker 3: airplanes or, um, working on their motorcycles or things like,
20:29
Speaker 3: or bikes or things for me, it was watching like
20:31
Speaker 3: how a street vendor. exchanges cash, you know, uh, watching
20:35
Speaker 3: how they flip, flip their foods and things like that. Um,
20:40
Speaker 3: but I didn't know growing up that those things would
20:43
Speaker 3: ever turn into something. Those are just my own personal hobbies. Um,
20:47
Speaker 3: being around my mom by her side and the way
20:49
Speaker 3: she handled stuff and the way she like knew how
20:53
Speaker 3: to pack things, um, knew exactly how much she was
20:59
Speaker 3: going to pack and why she was going to this place.
21:02
Speaker 3: And all those things were, I guess, like, by the
21:04
Speaker 3: time I got into street food, they were already ingrained
21:08
Speaker 3: in me, you know? Yeah, right. Jason Bourne, you know?
21:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was that magic moment? What was
21:14
Speaker 1: that moment when you said, I'm going to start this thing,
21:17
Speaker 1: see how it goes? Like, what was that moment? How
21:19
Speaker 1: did that start?
21:20
Speaker 3: For Kogi, 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?
21:28
Speaker 3: I was a chef. I was a chef for 15
21:30
Speaker 3: years before Kogi happened.
21:32
Speaker 1: Where were you?
21:33
Speaker 3: I was at the Beverly Hilton. Oh, wow. So if
21:36
Speaker 3: you were at the Golden Globes 2007, 2008, I probably
21:39
Speaker 3: served more.
21:39
Speaker 1: You made those lighters?
21:40
Speaker 2: Incredible.
21:45
Speaker 4: Great triple, triple fried fries.
21:52
Speaker 1: Yeah.
21:53
Speaker 3: So I was, I was doing that whole thing. I
21:55
Speaker 3: 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 a chef. Uh, I,
22:01
Speaker 3: I was on the path to my goal, my dream.
22:05
Speaker 3: Cause I didn't know I was going to be an entrepreneur.
22:07
Speaker 3: So my dream up until that point was to eventually, um,
22:13
Speaker 3: maybe become like an international chef like that was as
22:15
Speaker 3: far as my vision right could go was like like
22:19
Speaker 3: my biggest mountaintop was could i be like the executive
22:22
Speaker 3: chef or the regional chef for like you know like
22:25
Speaker 3: a four-season singapore that was my mount everest that was
22:28
Speaker 3: my mount everest you know that would because.
22:30
Speaker 1: First of all that's a really that's a great that's.
22:32
Speaker 3: A great job man you know like You're working in,
22:37
Speaker 3: you know, Singapore or Bangkok or, you know, even Puerto
22:41
Speaker 3: Rico or, you know, wherever.
22:43
Speaker 2: And then you have.
22:45
Speaker 3: This great job. You're cooking amazing food. You have 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 the partner hotel.
22:54
Speaker 3: So that was a dream. I lost all that in 2008.
22:57
Speaker 3: And then I was out of a job for about five,
23:03
Speaker 3: almost six months. Um, can we, may we ask? Yeah,
23:07
Speaker 3: I think, you know, the economy crashed. Um, it was
23:10
Speaker 3: the real estate crisis at that time. And then, uh,
23:14
Speaker 3: also what happened was, I think I had for all
23:17
Speaker 3: that success as a, as an executive chef in that
23:21
Speaker 3: time in life, I was, uh, maybe a little overqualified
23:24
Speaker 3: for any jobs out there. You know, it was a
23:26
Speaker 3: time in the world where everyone was downsizing. Um, but
23:30
Speaker 3: I think it was also spiritual in a sense that
23:33
Speaker 3: maybe that part of my chapter in my life was
23:35
Speaker 3: over because I was interviewing, I was out there interviewing
23:38
Speaker 3: and I wasn't getting any jobs. I wasn't getting the
23:50
Speaker 3: jobs that I thought I should get.
23:52
Speaker 4: And, um, you think the world somehow the universe was
23:55
Speaker 4: telling you, Hey, I think so. There's another, there's another road.
23:59
Speaker 4: There's another street over there.
24:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. I don't, Thank you for asking
24:03
Speaker 3: that one 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,
24:10
Speaker 3: you know, and it's like, it's hard to put.
24:12
Speaker 1: It into words. I hear you on that.
24:14
Speaker 4: That's a really interesting thing that you tap into it
24:16
Speaker 4: because we, you know, we're not shy to.
24:18
Speaker 1: Tap into the why us, right? We're not shy to.
24:22
Speaker 4: Tap into that, into that aspect because I, you know,
24:25
Speaker 4: I look at you and I look at the you
24:27
Speaker 4: know nothing short of a really goodwill beautifully well-built empire
24:32
Speaker 4: you know that you have and you know to reflect
24:37
Speaker 4: on this this moment that the moment where you were
24:40
Speaker 4: being compressed the most you were led to make a
24:44
Speaker 4: different type of diamond somewhere else you know absolutely and
24:47
Speaker 4: I think that that was an interesting thing we talk
24:49
Speaker 4: about it like Why us, right? Like no one in
24:51
Speaker 4: our family, no one in our family decided to go
24:53
Speaker 4: into this thing. We're like, we decided to do the
24:55
Speaker 4: hardest thing that we could possibly do. And somehow we
24:59
Speaker 4: ended up at 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
25:08
Speaker 4: I'd love to tap a little bit deeper into that
25:10
Speaker 4: part because, you know, in that moment, And we always
25:14
Speaker 4: try to offer this to a lot of our listeners
25:16
Speaker 4: and our viewers and everybody who watches us or listening to.
25:19
Speaker 1: Us is that is the moment that, don't call it
25:23
Speaker 1: a test.
25:24
Speaker 4: It is those moments of hardship and turmoil are the...
25:29
Speaker 4: the manifestation of where, you know, where like you did that,
25:33
Speaker 4: that chapter is closed. We got to tell you, otherwise
25:36
Speaker 4: you're going to keep going in a road of possibly unhappiness.
25:39
Speaker 1: But I'd love for you to dive a little deeper
25:40
Speaker 1: on that part.
25:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, like if you do open yourself up
25:44
Speaker 3: to the mystical communications, you know, and you may not
25:48
Speaker 3: know it at that time, you know, you may feel it. And,
25:52
Speaker 3: you know, it's weird because in hindsight, I can completely
25:56
Speaker 3: understand diagram it all out for you. I can, I
26:00
Speaker 3: can really pinpoint that if there was something happening, that
26:03
Speaker 3: there were these kind of mystical, uh, road signs that
26:08
Speaker 3: led me to make a lesson instead of signals that,
26:10
Speaker 3: that turn things and move them this way. You know,
26:14
Speaker 3: I couldn't get a job. I was, I completely lost
26:17
Speaker 3: my ability to do things that were second nature to me. Um, I,
26:24
Speaker 3: I couldn't, I had built a career for 15 years.
26:27
Speaker 3: It would be like if you couldn't read pages anymore.
26:31
Speaker 1: Memorize 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: moments that happened where I would listen to different signals
26:44
Speaker 3: at that time that allowed me to see that there
26:49
Speaker 3: was a new path ahead of me. My friend calling
26:52
Speaker 3: me and saying, hey, let's start a taco truck. Me
26:55
Speaker 3: normally saying, probably would have said no but because i
26:59
Speaker 3: was out of work for so long i was open
27:01
Speaker 3: to it um you know me finally confronting the food
27:05
Speaker 3: and the flavors that i that i was kind of
27:08
Speaker 3: shying away from i was always cooking like european food
27:11
Speaker 3: yeah and then finally i started to but i would
27:13
Speaker 3: be eating tacos burritos and korean food and then i
27:17
Speaker 3: never really cooked that food and so then finally i
27:20
Speaker 3: opened myself up to cook it uh the night we
27:23
Speaker 3: opened kogi you know um there was no press or
27:27
Speaker 3: fanfare or anything. We opened at 2 a.m. in front
27:29
Speaker 3: of a club and we parked there right at midnight.
27:32
Speaker 3: But the day we opened was the same day Twilight
27:36
Speaker 3: opened at the Arclight, at the Cinerama Dome. And so
27:40
Speaker 3: it was just like, I look back at that moment
27:42
Speaker 3: and then there was all, it was like midnight on
27:46
Speaker 3: a foggy November night with all of these vampires dressed
27:51
Speaker 3: up doing cosplay, doing cosplay, waiting in line. Yes, yes.
27:56
Speaker 3: And we noticed that.
27:57
Speaker 1: For the first screening, yeah.
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 just all those
28:04
Speaker 3: things as I look at it together. And then the
28:07
Speaker 3: moment people ate the taco and the burrito, like everything
28:12
Speaker 3: just stopped. Time stopped. And so I think all those things,
28:17
Speaker 3: you know, they were all meant to be.
28:19
Speaker 1: And that was a very pop culture moment.
28:22
Speaker 2: Yeah.
28:22
Speaker 4: You know, you're pointing out the release of Twilight. You're
28:27
Speaker 4: pointing out the time of the night.
28:29
Speaker 3: Time of the night, but there's also two other things.
28:31
Speaker 3: One is social media just happened. Twitter just came out.
28:35
Speaker 3: And then the iPhone just came out. So it was
28:37
Speaker 3: all these things happening at one time that allowed us
28:41
Speaker 3: to kind of plug into that energy. And did we
28:46
Speaker 3: know everything at that time? No. But we trusted it
28:50
Speaker 3: and we listened to it and we followed it. And
28:53
Speaker 3: I think if you're looking for something right now or
28:57
Speaker 3: wherever you are in life, I don't know. It's easy
29:02
Speaker 3: to look back on it. But if you're in the moment,
29:05
Speaker 3: I think if you can open yourself up to information
29:09
Speaker 3: that's not just in your brain, like other information, you know, and,
29:14
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of native cultures. indigenous cultures do
29:17
Speaker 3: it all the time right and you know.
29:18
Speaker 4: Tap back in tap back in and i think that's
29:21
Speaker 4: that's uh the thing that's a really interesting theme to
29:24
Speaker 4: kind of follow here as well because what you're describing
29:27
Speaker 4: is you're saying like okay i.
29:29
Speaker 1: Achieved the cuisine that.
29:31
Speaker 4: Was unlike my heritage culture to where i came from
29:35
Speaker 4: you know the stuff that i saw my mother make
29:37
Speaker 4: and all that and then all of a sudden you
29:40
Speaker 4: went back to your interest, to your, what you, what
29:43
Speaker 4: you liked, what you were familiar. And when you can
29:45
Speaker 4: co-sign on something, I like this taco, 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, um, is because everyone
29:59
Speaker 3: around us felt it. Like there's, if you write it
30:02
Speaker 3: on paper, there's no reason that an Asian guy making
30:06
Speaker 3: tacos out of a truck, you know, wouldn't make any sense.
30:11
Speaker 2: 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 truth in the future.
30:24
Speaker 2: Why do you think that is, right? And what was
30:27
Speaker 2: super interesting about, this is before you and I even met, right?
30:30
Speaker 2: I remember driving down, what was that place on Washington
30:34
Speaker 2: where you first had your tacos at?
30:37
Speaker 3: Do you know that place?
30:38
Speaker 1: Remember that place in Culver City?
30:39
Speaker 3: The bar?
30:40
Speaker 1: The bar, yeah.
30:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, Alibi Room.
30:42
Speaker 1: The Alibi Room.
30:43
Speaker 2: I remember going on a midnight taco run, like, yo,
30:46
Speaker 2: I keep hearing about these tacos, man.
30:48
Speaker 1: I got to go have some.
30:49
Speaker 2: And I went there at midnight and I thought it
30:51
Speaker 2: was one of the most amazing things I had ever tasted.
30:54
Speaker 1: But what I.
30:55
Speaker 2: Found that was so interesting was that you had the
30:58
Speaker 2: foresight to go, I'm going to merge, you know, these
31:01
Speaker 2: Korean flavors with like Mexican delicacies.
31:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's like, come on, man. Yeah, talk to me
31:07
Speaker 1: about like what, what.
31:09
Speaker 2: I know that you were saying that you came up
31:11
Speaker 2: eating tacos and burritos and all that, but what gave
31:14
Speaker 2: you sort of the, the, the vision to go, I'm
31:16
Speaker 2: 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, 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 going to, you know, we're
31:34
Speaker 3: going to do these things and make a new culture.
31:37
Speaker 3: It was like, We're just going to cook and speak
31:39
Speaker 3: the way that we are and where we're from, you know,
31:42
Speaker 3: and we're from Koreatown, Los Angeles.
31:44
Speaker 2: Right.
31:45
Speaker 3: And if you go to Koreatown, Los Angeles, between Vermont
31:48
Speaker 3: and Crenshaw and Beverly and Pico, if you go in
31:51
Speaker 3: that square block, it's all mixed up.
31:54
Speaker 1: Right.
31:54
Speaker 3: You know, like it's Central American, Oaxacan, Mexican, Korean, and
32:02
Speaker 3: the Guatemalans are speaking Korean and the Koreans are speaking Spanish.
32:06
Speaker 3: Spanish slang and, you know, the kids look, are dating
32:11
Speaker 3: each other, you know, the young Latina 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 go,
32:25
Speaker 3: go to Koreatown at 3 p.m. and in front of
32:28
Speaker 3: like the junior high schools and high school, you come out,
32:30
Speaker 3: all the kids come out, they're all into K-pop.
32:32
Speaker 2: Right. You know?
32:33
Speaker 1: Yeah.
32:34
Speaker 3: Um, and then go to the markets and the restaurants,
32:37
Speaker 3: everybody working in the markets and the restaurants all speaking
32:39
Speaker 3: Korean and not speak, just speaking like, like school book Korean,
32:44
Speaker 3: but speaking like slang Korean, like arguing with the Korean,
32:49
Speaker 3: like a lady or worker or whatever. And, and they're
32:54
Speaker 3: eating together the food of each other. So they have
32:58
Speaker 3: a rice bowl with carne asada and hot sauce, but kimchi.
33:02
Speaker 3: and a cilantro and onion all mixed together, you know,
33:04
Speaker 3: and it's all mixed up together. Everything's mixed up together.
33:08
Speaker 3: And that mix up is kind of what our, our
33:10
Speaker 3: food was. And so what we did was we just
33:13
Speaker 3: got out of the way, you know, and that's really
33:15
Speaker 3: what it was, was like, we were able to like,
33:18
Speaker 3: kind of like harness it, but we got out of
33:20
Speaker 3: the way and let it speak for itself. And I
33:23
Speaker 3: think what it did was it made our area of
33:26
Speaker 3: town like worldwide, you know.
33:28
Speaker 1: All right. So let's let's slow it down right there.
33:31
Speaker 4: This has been part one of a two part conversation
33:35
Speaker 4: with Rojo.
33:36
Speaker 1: And we'll see you guys for part two.
33:42
Speaker 2: Dos Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeart
33:46
Speaker 2: Media's My Cultura Podcast Network, hosted by me, Freddy Rodriguez,
33:50
Speaker 2: and Wilmer Valderrama.
33:52
Speaker 4: Dos Amigos is produced by Aaron Burleson and Sophie Spencer-Zavos.
33:56
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Wilmer Valderrama. Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burleson,
34:01
Speaker 2: and Leo Clem at WV Sound.
34:03
Speaker 4: This episode was shot and edited by Ryan Postes and
34:06
Speaker 4: mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison
34:09
Speaker 4: Davenport and Halo Boy.
34:10
Speaker 2: Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
34:14
Speaker 2: by Danai Holtzclaw.
34:15
Speaker 1: And thank you for being our third amigo today. Appreciate
34:18
Speaker 1: you guys always listening to Dos Amigos.
34:20
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
34:24
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
34:27
Speaker 1: See you next week.