Saturday, November 21, 2020

Eat a Peach by David Chang

 Eat a Peach by David Chang is a memoir from the chef and founder of Momfuku, now a series of restaurants on the east coast and in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Additionally, Chang wrote the cookbook Momofuku and has two Netflix series, Ugly Delicious, and Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner.

Eat a Peach is a very open and honest book and he starts with his Korean upbringing outside Washington D.C. and his relationship with his parents growing up. Later in the book he covers his battles with depression and experience with therapy and medication. He also notes that depression for him manifested as an addiction to work. He worked long hours and describes himself as someone who was a manic, difficult, and demanding person to work for. 

Chang details how he for a short period after college worked in a corporate job, and then went to culinary school after having worked in bars and restaurants while in college. Post-culinary school, he took a low-level restaurant job and worked hard for little money. He opened Momofuku Noodle Bar in a tiny space in New York in 2004 and hustled to keep it open. He next opened up Momofuku Ssam Bar and then Ko, a higher-end tasting menu restaurant. 

Later in the book there's mention of his friendships with Anthony Bourdain and Rene Redzepi, who has the restaurant Noma in Denmark, as well as Ferran and Albert Adria who ran elBulli in Spain. Eat a Peach is a solid read about someone who has been successful and has interesting life stories.