Roy Choi, the man who launched the food truck frenzy in Los Angeles, has penned a brash, bold and exciting new memoir that transcends his self-made legend to expose the city's culinary marvels. L.A. Son is the story of countless immigrant families, from a first-generation son in a family living a hardscrabble life as they work to realize the American dream. Choi, though, was born with sohn-maash, a culinary magic touch honed by his exposure to the ethnic flavors and textures of Los Angeles's giant melting pot.
A latchkey kid in a Korean household ruled by excesses of booze and dysfunction, Choi learned the art of the hustle early, soaking in the disparate cultures of rich and poor as his parents struggled to hawk their wares first as jewelry middlemen, then as restaurateurs, in downtown Los Angeles and Orange County. His lust for food was as big as his appetite for vice--gambling and drinking occupied equal space as his ascendancy up the corporate ladder in the financial world, his first real job post-college. While Choi's parents pulled him back from the brink each time, ultimately the Culinary Institute of America in New York saved him by giving "a restless kid from L.A. who had morphed into a thug who had become a chef who had cooked his way up a ladder, only to fall into the arms of the streets" a second chance. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant