Chef Roy Choi’s Story

Every time I re-read this book, it makes me hap­pi­er. I’ve grown quite fond of the books being pub­lished by Read­ers to Eaters and I eager­ly antic­i­pate each new book.

Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix is anoth­er food arti­san biog­ra­phy from Jacque­line Brig­gs Mar­tin, this time co-writ­ten with June Jo Lee. Jack­ie writes the fla­vor­ful essence of the artist in an irre­sistible recipe of words. June Jo is a food ethno­g­ra­ph­er, “study­ing how Amer­i­ca eats,” and the co-founder of Read­ers to Eaters. As a kid-at-heart, I want a biog­ra­phy writ­ten about her next. Study­ing food?

But this book is about a boy born in South Korea who trav­els to Amer­i­ca at age two with his fam­i­ly and attends school in Cal­i­for­nia. His moth­er is a tal­ent­ed cook, spe­cial­iz­ing in kim­chee, a Kore­an food sta­ple. Her cook­ing is so good that she and her hus­band open a restau­rant. And Roy is fas­ci­nat­ed by what hap­pens there.

He becomes a chef. The authors relate his jour­ney in a way that every kid will under­stand. Even­tu­al­ly, Chef Roy Choi launch­es the Kogi BBQ Taco Truck with a mix­ture of Kore­an and Mex­i­can food. He pre­pares ingre­di­ents by hand, with love, to share with his com­mu­ni­ty. Healthy fast food is a rare thing in his neigh­bor­hood and Kogi is a hit.

One of the main ingre­di­ents for this LA-con­nect­ed book is street art turned into book art by Man One. Don’t miss the authors’ and illustrator’s notes in this book. They will have your stu­dents want­i­ng to know more about these tal­ent­ed book cre­ators. The art in this book (I’m para­phras­ing from his Note) start­ed with spray-paint­ing the back­grounds on large can­vas­es, pho­tograph­ing them, and then work­ing with them dig­i­tal­ly, adding pen­cil and Sharpie to cre­ate tru­ly unique pic­ture book art. He includes many scenes from his com­mu­ni­ty — you can sense the love imbu­ing these pages. His palette, the tex­tures … they’re yummy.

This is a book filled with so much respect for read­ers, eaters, and kids with aspi­ra­tions … it’s com­plete­ly satisfying.

Don’t miss this for your inspi­ra­tional school and class­room library!

Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix
writ­ten by Jacque­line Brig­gs Mar­tin and June Jo Lee
illus­trat­ed by Man One
Read­ers to Eaters, 2017.