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Food & Wine Names KogiBBQ's Choi a 'Best New Chef'
Roy Choi inside the KogiBBQ truck (Tom Andrews/LAist)
Honorees named as Food & Wine mag's "Best New Chefs" of 2010 will be formally announced and celebrated tonight at a party in NYC, but news of who made the list broke a little earlier via F&W's iPhone app, according to GrubStreet. Los Angeles can boast one person on the list of ten, and it's someone who up until recently has been doing his cooking on the road: KogiBBQ's Roy Choi.
Choi, however, didn't start his career in a truck. Back when we first met Choi aboard the Kogi truck, we learned he "graduated at the top of his class at the Culinary Institute of America and has cooked at Le Bernardin in New York, in Iron Chef Michiba’s kitchen, at the Beverly Hilton and Rock Sugar Pan Asian Kitchen."
After the undeniable smash hit and trend-setting of the KogiBBQ truck enterprise, Choi celebrated his birthday a few weeks late last month with the opening of Chego, a brick-and-mortar restaurant on Overland, specializing in rice bowls.
With Choi the only L.A. chef on the list, it could be said that our food trucks are driving our reputation on the national culinary landscape.
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But the game has changed: Congress voted to eliminate funding for public media across the country. Here at LAist that means a loss of $1.7 million in our budget every year. We want to assure you that despite growing threats to free press and free speech, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust. Speaking frankly, the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news in our community.
We’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission.
Thank you for your generous support and belief in the value of independent news.
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