David Chang

• 1. Introduction

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  David Chang, born on the 5th of August 1977, built a restaurant group whose most exclusive room had just twelve seats. That room was Momofuku Ko in New York. Diners could book only online, ten days in advance, and the seats went to whoever clicked first. In 2009 the restaurant earned two Michelin stars. Chang is an American chef, restaurateur, author, podcaster and television personality, and he founded the Momofuku restaurant group. How did he get to that tiny, hard-to-book room? What else did he build along the way? And why did a cook so widely celebrated keep drawing both applause and anger?

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• 2. Before Momofuku

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  David Chang was born in Arlington, Virginia, to a mother named Woo Chung Hi, who went by Sherri and was born in Kaesong. His father, Chang Jin Pil, later known as Joseph P. Chang, was born in Pyongyang. Both parents emigrated from Korea as adults in the 1960s. Chang's Korean name is written 장석호, which romanizes as Chang Seok-ho.

  Vienna, Virginia, is where Chang grew up, alongside two older brothers and one sister. As a child he was a competitive golfer and entered a number of junior tournaments. He went on to Georgetown Preparatory School and then to Trinity College, where he majored in religious studies.

  After Trinity, Chang tried a string of jobs. He taught English in Japan, bussed tables and held finance positions in New York City. In 2000 he started classes at the French Culinary Institute in New York, a school now called the International Culinary Center. While studying, he worked part-time at Mercer Kitchen in Manhattan. He also took a job answering phones at Craft, the restaurant of Tom Colicchio.

  After two years at Craft, Chang moved to Japan again, first to a small soba shop and then to a restaurant in Tokyo's Park Hyatt Hotel. Back in the United States, he worked at Café Boulud, where his idol Alex Lee had once cooked. Chang soon felt "completely dissatisfied with the whole fine dining scene." The next step was a restaurant of his own.

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• 3. The Momofuku Years

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  In 2004, Chang opened Momofuku Noodle Bar in the East Village, his first restaurant. His website says the word momofuku means "lucky peach." The name also echoes Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant noodles.

  In August 2006, a second restaurant, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, opened a few blocks away. The review site The Infatuation gave it 8.4 out of 10 and called the menu "inventive, exciting, and different." Momofuku Ko followed in March 2008.

  Later in 2008, Chang expanded Ssäm Bar into the adjacent space with Christina Tosi, whom he had hired to run the pastry program. They called the new room Momofuku Milk Bar. It served soft serve, cookies, pies and cakes, many inspired by foods Tosi ate as a child.

  By May 2009, reports said that Milk Bar's Crack Pie, Cereal Milk and Compost Cookies were being trademarked. In October 2009, Chang and Peter Meehan, a former New York Times food writer, published a highly anticipated cookbook called Momofuku. It held detailed recipes from Chang's restaurants. In May 2010 he opened Má Pêche in midtown Manhattan. Before that year ended, he announced a restaurant outside the United States.

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• 4. Spreading Out

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  In November 2010, Chang announced his first restaurant abroad, to be built in Sydney, Australia. Momofuku Seiōbo opened in October 2011 at the redeveloped Star City Casino in Pyrmont, New South Wales. Chang told the Sydney Morning Herald, "I've just fallen in love with Australia. I'm just fascinated by the food scene in Sydney and Melbourne. People are excited about food in Australia. It's fresh and it's energetic." In its first year the restaurant won three hats from the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide and was named Best New Restaurant.

  In March 2011, Chang said he would bring Momofuku to Toronto, and it opened in late 2012. The restaurants sat inside a three-story glass cube in the heart of downtown. The building held three restaurants, Noodle Bar, Daishō and Shōtō, plus a bar called Nikai. Daishō and Shōtō closed in late 2017. The space was refurbished, and a new restaurant, Kojin, opened there in 2018.

  June 2015 brought Fuku, a fast food chain built around fried chicken sandwiches. In 2016 Chang launched his first digital-only restaurant. It offered a delivery menu in Midtown East, with orders placed through an app named Ando. Later in 2016 he joined a project hosted by a Silicon Valley startup, Impossible Foods. Food he prepared for the partnership was added to the menu at Momofuku Nishi.

  In May 2017, Chang announced a new restaurant at the Hudson Yards development in New York. In July 2017 he announced his first West Coast restaurant, in Los Angeles. That restaurant, Majordomo, opened in January 2018. On the 30th of December 2019, he opened Majordomo Meat & Fish, a 250-seat restaurant in The Palazzo tower of The Venetian Las Vegas. Within months, a pandemic would force the group to shut its doors.

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• 5. On Screen

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  HBO's Treme gave Chang an early television moment in 2010. He appeared in its fifth episode alongside fellow chefs Tom Colicchio, Eric Ripert and Wylie Dufresne. In the second season, his role grew when a fictional New Orleans chef who had moved to New York took a job in his restaurant. Chang also served as a guest judge on Top Chef: All Stars, and in 2011 he judged on MasterChef Australia.

  The fall of 2012 brought the PBS series The Mind of a Chef, and Chang hosted its first season. Anthony Bourdain was its executive producer. In 2016 Chang played himself on the IFC series Documentary Now! in an episode called "Juan Likes Rice & Chicken," a parody of Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

  In 2018, Netflix released Ugly Delicious, which Chang created, produced and starred in. It ran for twelve episodes. He also appeared on The Chef Show, another Netflix series, produced by his friends Roy Choi and Jon Favreau. In 2019 he produced Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, whose guests included Seth Rogen and Kate McKinnon. In 2021 he hosted The Next Thing You Eat, a documentary film series with six episodes.

  On the 29th of November 2020, Chang became the first celebrity to win the $1,000,000 top prize on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The money went to his charity, the Southern Smoke Foundation, and he was the fourteenth overall million dollar winner. He later played a fictionalized version of himself in the Apple TV+ series Loot. In 2024 he began hosting Dinner Time Live with David Chang, a live late night talk show on Netflix. Its listing shows thirty-seven episodes.

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• 6. Ink and Paper

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  In summer 2011, Chang released the first issue of Lucky Peach, a quarterly food magazine created with Peter Meehan and published by McSweeney's. Issue 1 took ramen as its theme. Its contributors included Anthony Bourdain, Wylie Dufresne, Ruth Reichl and Harold McGee.

  Issue 2, titled The Sweet Spot, reached number 3 on the New York Times bestsellers list. Bourdain and McGee wrote for it again, joined by Christina Tosi of Milk Bar, Daniel Patterson and Russell Chatham. Issue 3, Chefs and Cooks, also made the New York Times bestseller list. Every issue after that kept to a single theme.

  Lucky Peach ended in 2017 after 25 issues. In 2020, a book titled Eat a Peach appeared under Chang's name and that of Gabe Ulla. It was published on the 8th of September 2020.

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• 7. Honors and Controversy

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  The James Beard Foundation named Chang its Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2007. In 2008 it called him Best Chef New York City for his work at Momofuku Ssäm Bar. In 2009 Momofuku Ko won Best New Restaurant. He received the Outstanding Chef award in 2013, and in 2014 the foundation listed him in its Who's Who in Food and Beverage in America. In 2010 he appeared on the Time 100 list of most influential people.

  Chang serves on the Food Council at City Harvest and the Culinary Council at Food Bank for New York City, both hunger-relief organizations. He is also on the board of trustees at MOFAD, the Museum of Food and Drink in New York City.

  Epicurious once described Chang as having a "bad-boy attitude," pointing to restaurant policies such as offering no vegetarian options. In 2009 he stirred controversy by dismissing California chefs. He told Anthony Bourdain, "They don't manipulate food, they just put figs on a plate."

  In 2024, Momofuku sent cease and desist notices over its "chili crunch" trademark and drew criticism. In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, the company said, "When we created our product, we wanted a name we could own and intentionally picked 'Chili Crunch' to further differentiate it from the broader chili crisp category." On the 12th of April 2024, Chang apologized on his podcast, The Dave Chang Show. He said the legal actions were not meant to upset anyone and that Momofuku would stop enforcing the trademark.

  Former employees have also accused Chang of violence and of fostering a toxic working environment at the height of his success. Chang has admitted to this behavior as well as being accused of it. Several of the restaurants behind his awards have since closed.

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• 8. Closing Doors

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  In March 2020, as COVID-19 spread, the Momofuku restaurant group decided to close all of its restaurants temporarily. Later that year it consolidated, permanently closing Momofuku Nishi in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood and Momofuku CCDC in Washington, D.C. Má Pêche had already closed in June 2018, after operating for 8 years. In 2021 the group closed Momofuku Seiōbo in Sydney.

  On the 6th of June 2022, Majordomo and Moon Palace closed at the Palazzo in Las Vegas. Momofuku Ssäm Bar closed on the 30th of September 2023. Momofuku Ko closed on the 4th of November 2023.

  Still open are Bāng Bar in New York and a location at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Fuku restaurants operate in stadiums and arenas, including Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Bar Kabawa is in the East Village, a Majordomo is in Los Angeles, and Momofuku Noodle Bars remain in the East Village, Uptown New York and the Cosmopolitan.

  Two future projects are listed: Peach Palace at John F. Kennedy International Airport and Super Peach in Century City in Los Angeles. Both carry the peach in their names.

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