I liked seeing the underdog narrative and how he really had to grind to get to where he is today - this makes me want to read a fictional chef drama now to continue rooting for the passionate underdog! What keeps me at a 3 star rating is that the book straddles the line between being a how-to guide for chefs vs being a personal memoir without fully committing to either. As someone with zero knowledge of the restaurant industry and chef celebrity culture, I was surprisingly interested in what he revealed about the field, the difficulties that come with it, and even the politics and drama.

I admire Chang’s passion for cooking and can relate to his workaholic tendencies as a way to find meaning in his life. Deeply personal, honest and humble, Chang's story is one of passion and tenacity, against the odds. In Eat a Peach, Chang opens up about his feelings of paranoia, self-confidence and pulls back the curtain on his struggles, failures and learned lessons. He shied away from praise and begged not to be given awards. Over the course of his career, the chef struggled with suicidal thoughts, depression and anxiety. By 2012, he had become a restaurant mogul with the opening of the Momofuku building in Toronto, encompassing three restaurants and a bar.Ĭhang's love of food and cooking remained a constant in his life, despite the adversities he had to overcome. In 2009, his Ko restaurant received two Michelin stars and Chang went on to open Milk Bar, Momofuku's bakery. Momofuku's popularity continued to grow with Chang opening new locations across the U.S.

Momofuku's unpretentious air and great-tasting simple staples - ramen bowls and pork buns - earned it rave reviews, culinary awards and before long, Chang had a cult following.

After failing to find a job after graduating, he convinced his father to loan him money to open a restaurant. Growing up in Virginia, the son of Korean immigrant parents, Chang struggled with feelings of abandonment, isolation and loneliness throughout his childhood. In this inspiring, honest and heartfelt memoir, Chang shares the extraordinary story of his culinary coming-of-age. In 2018, he was the owner and chef of his own restaurant empire, with 15 locations from New York to Australia, the star of his own hit Netflix show and podcast, was named one of the most influential people of the 21st century and had a following of over 1.2 million. In 2004, David Chang opened a noodle restaurant named Momofuku in Manhattan's East Village, not expecting the business to survive its first year.

Eat a peach a memoir book review