Cookbook Live with Roy Choi
- The Crawford, 474 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena
Cookbooks don’t just provide instructions for recipes; they connect food with storytelling, both visual and narrative, and are your kitchen guides to help create delicious memories with family and friends. Cookbook LIVE takes these stories from the page to the stage. Hosted by LAist’s food and culture writer, Gab Chabrán, each event will feature live demos of recipes, in-depth conversations, and tasty bites for everyone to try. Cookbooks will be available for purchase from an onsite pop-up bookshop from our friends at Now Serving, with chefs available to sign copies. Join LAist and the James Beard Foundation for three nights of culinary connection and exploration.
Closing out our Cookbook Live series is L.A. icon Roy Choi. His new cookbook, “The Choi of Cooking,” is his first book in over a decade. In it, he reframes and adapts go-to favorite recipes to be healthier, with less meat and more veggies. With recipes ranging from The Feel Good Sandwich to a Kimchi Philly Cheesesteak, he’s aiming to meet readers where they are. Join us as he walks you through a recipe from the book and chats with LAist food and culture writer Gab Chabrán. Plus, we’ll have something delicious for everyone to try before and after!
This series is presented in partnership with The James Beard Foundation
ABOUT ROY CHOI
Roy Choi was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Los Angeles, California. Choi is known as one of the architects of the modern food truck movement through Kogi BBQ by merging food and social media with community and honoring the street food culture that laid the path before him, and for his civic minded TV show ‘Broken Bread’ on KCET/Tastemade, which in 2020 won him a James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Host in a television series. On a global scale, Roy is co-host in the full blown Netflix cooking series ‘The Chef Show’ with Jon Favreau. He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. In 2010, Food and Wine magazine named him Best New Chef. His cookbook/memoir L.A. Son was a NY Times Bestseller in 2013. In 2016 he was named TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World. And in 2017, LocoL in Watts, received the first ever LA Times Restaurant of the Year award. Roy resides in Los Angeles where he is a voice and advocate for street food culture past, present, and future, and the co-owner, co-founder, and chef of Kogi BBQ, Chego!, Best Friend at Park MGM Las Vegas, and LocoL.
ABOUT GAB CHABRÁN
Gab Chabrán is a lifelong resident of Southern California. He grew up in Whittier, where he attended Whittier College. He began his journalism career writing for the local music rag L.A. Record where he wrote album and live music reviews. He became a regular contributor at L.A. Taco, where he was part of the James Beard Award-winning team. His monthly music column "Taco de Sonido", profiled up-and-coming artists from the Latinx community. He's been a regular contributor to LAist, Eater LA, Thrillist, Los Angeleno, KCET Artbound, and The New York Times.
My approach to coverage is to discover how food connects us to the ever-so-layered social fabric of Southern California and how food tells the region's story. Every dish has its historical significance. A taco is not just a taco; it's a window to the Mexican Revolution. Pizza is not just pizza; it's the vehicle for immigrants to enter the restaurant game. Noodles aren't just noodles; it's the personification of generational conflict and perseverance. My framework for writing and assigning stories aims to highlight the rich cultural histories of the L.A. region and broaden the LAist platform further to include, but not exclusive to, previously overlooked populations that exist beyond the confines of the city-area proper yet remain vital to its existence.
This event is sponsored by Angel City Brewery, craft beer by design, including seasonal exclusives and year-rounds like the Angel City IPA and Little Tokyo Super Dry.
Thank you to our partner bookstore.
ACCOMMODATIONS
LAist is committed to providing access and accommodation for individuals with disabilities at our events. To request accommodations, please email events@laist.com or call us at (626) 583-5222 at least 7 days in advance of the event.