#roychoi

Gwyneth Paltrow,, Roy Choi and Jon Favreau in  new clip | The Chef Show!! 

( 07/06/2019)

Spaghetti was probably one of the first things you ate as a baby. Spaghetti and sauce, cut up into tiny pieces and served in your highchair. About 5% ended up in your belly, while the other 95% ended up smeared over every surface within reach. How do you take traditional spaghetti and elevate it to a restaurant quality? Chef Roy Choi brings spaghetti to life with his recipe in his cookbook L.A. Son. His recipe highlights a $4 spaghetti that tastes as good as a $24 Spaghetti Junction recipe. Serves 4-6 people Cooking Time 4.5 hours Ingredients - Sauce 1/4 pound button mushroom, whole 3/4 cup garlic cloves, peeled 1 cup olive oil, extra virgin 2 28-ounce cans of whole peeled tomatoes, San Marzano Salt & pepper

Ingredients - Continued... Spaghetti Fresh basil, torn Parmigiano Step 1: After a quick brushing off of any dirt, put the mushrooms in a large pot and cover them with about 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Strain the mushroom stock after about an hour and a half and reserve.  Step 2:  Meanwhile, combine the garlic and olive oil in a small saucepan and cook over the lowest flame possible, low and slow, for about 2 hours, stirring periodically until the garlic is a dark golden brown. 

Last year, I attended a screening of Chef Roy Choi’s ( Los Angeles native and acclaimed Chef behind Kogi Food Trucks) PBS Docu Series “Broken Bread”. The series showcases examples of Food and Beverage professionals that use their restaurants as a vehicle for social justice. They employ marginalized members of society such as those struggling with a criminal record, drugs and homelessness. 

As someone who grew up in the restaurant industry and a former employee of a multinational marketer of packaged goods, I left with a lot of new questions and an overwhelming sense that there was something very wrong with the way our society values food and the people who work in the industry. I had a nagging feeling that this topic would confront me again, and that somehow, the status quo was going to cave in, and I was right. Eight months later, restaurants and their workers are in the midst of a crisis. There is an up swell of people calling to support local eateries, and most, are in agreement that our nation’s restaurants need help right now, and I of course, agree. 

But when the dust settles, and when the Stay Home Mandates end (whenever that may be), are we actually going to start asking the really tough questions about what drove my beloved industry into this state in the first place? Yes, restaurants had to close for a few weeks, but how could that (relatively) short span permanently cripple so many places, even those that are established and considered to be “successful” by any measure. As I hear more news of restaurants across the country, and as I look to the state of my own family’s restaurants, it seems that the dirty secret of the restaurant world has finally come to light; financial health for independent restaurant owners has all become but a pipe dream. While so many other industries and companies are making a claim to provide more work-life balance and promote health (physical, emotional, mental, financial), why is it that the restaurant world has been quietly passed over for these same things?

Any restaurant operator or even an investor in a restaurant will tell you, that over the years, margins have dwindled down to almost non-existent. 5-7% is considered “rock star” status; 2-3% is the new norm in larger metropolitan cities. The business of making food has become glorified through celebrity chef icons and anecdotes of success through scaling, franchising and branding.  The reality is that, for the ones who are bold (or crazy enough) to try, in reality, you are about to embark on a journey that forces you to make a lot of unpleasant compromises. 

For the restaurant operator, all of our costs are always rising. Rent, wages, insurance, produce,  and then there are the additional costs of keeping up with labor law legislation- sick pay, health insurance, accommodations for new parents, etc. These are the things that every worker (including restaurant workers) should have. Successful operators should be able to provide all of these things while paying a fair, living wage, and they should make enough money to be rewarded for the financial risk and the grueling hours that they work, but most operators will have to choose between these things. Operators are squeezed so tight and margins have dwindled so low that we are complicit in the things we know are wrong, but have essentially become an industry standard. Kitchens at even the most established places will take advantage of free labor by line cooks who start work early without clocking in to “develop themselves”, and so many of those employees demand their pay under the table because the wages they receive after taxes do not cover their basic living expenses.  Why is this happening? 

Yes, yes. Some of it is the competitive climate, and yes, landlords are tough. The restaurant world is brutal, thankless and litigious. It punishes those who do not have their head in the game, but all that aside, the real reason it is so hard for restaurant owners to survive though is... the customer. Because, we can only charge what you are willing to pay, and many customers simply do not understand the value of what a restaurant actually does. 

Today’s consumer has a seemingly insatiable set of demands when it comes to eating out. They are conscientious so they want their meals prepared from farm fresh ingredients, wrapped in eco-friendly packaging. They want the food quick but still at the perfect temperature. It would be nice if the meal was Instagrammable, and if the service is anything less than delightful, you will probably ask for a discount, and even if it was delightful, it should still be half off between the hours of 4PM-6PM. 

The demands continue to grow and grow while the downward pressure on prices drives margins lower and lower. In 1991, when my father opened a (a very successful) Udon shop in Hillsboro, Oregon, he charged $9.75 for a Bento Box- Chicken Teriyaki, Tempura, a California roll with a side of white rice, green salad and miso soup. Today, almost 30 years later, we make that same Bento Box and we charge $12 even though all of our other costs have increased tenfold and then some.  This isn’t relevant to just us. 

I regularly eat out in Garden Grove, California (the mecca of Southeast Asian food) where a bowl of noodle soup where the broth has been simmering for over 24 hours, is sold for EIGHT DOLLARS. Then there is always that wise ass guy that thinks he is a food expert because he eats out a lot and goes on Yelp and writes some asinine review about how the service was bad. Yes, the service was bad because the place is probably family-run and the employees are working for free. That is why your noodles were $8.

I cannot for the life of me understand why our society chooses to commoditize the meals prepared by people who work SO HARD to prepare, cook and serve them? Don’t get me wrong, the restaurant industry does employ a lot of assholes and misfits, but I can say pretty confidently that a vast majority of them work very very hard. Whether it be a line cook, or bartender or owner-operator, our job requires so much of us to deliver the quality that today’s consumer demands. So for those of you who are supporting your local business by ordering take out and buying gift cards, please continue to support our industry long after this is all over. Please do not complain about tipping or that your meal went up $.75. Please be willing to pay more at the restaurants who treat their employees well, and please, for the love of God, keep your negative Yelp opinions to yourself.