Charlie Rose talks with David Chang, chef/owner of Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ko and Momofuku Ssäm Bar in New York City.
Some choice bits excerpted below.
He describes what you don’t get at his restaurant:
We wanted to strip away all the nonsense. Do we really need a sommelier? Do we really need all the other accoutrements that you see at a 3 star or 4 star restaurant? Our goal was not to be a three star. Our goal was to serve the best food we can. Our goal was to try and make the best food in New York City regardless of anything else, regardless of the environment.
On how Henry David Thoreau has influenced him:
There’s a great line in Walden: “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.” And that’s always stuck with me. That basically means if you really try and you want to do something, then go for broke. At the restaurant, that’s something we go for.
On how he feels about vegetarians:
I respect them, just not in our restaurants…You don’t go to a BBQ restaurant and be like, “I want everything vegetarian.” You don’t go to a sushi restaurant and say, “Please remove the fish, I just want the rice.” Our restaurants are what we serve. And if you don’t like it you can go eat somewhere else.
On avoiding the fear of losing what you have:
I want to be sure we don’t lose that recklessness. And I think that was the catalyst for a lot of the things that happened when we first started. No one cared about us. When you have nothing to lose, you can be as reckless as possible.
Related
David Chang’s recipe for sustaining food/business mojo [SvN]
David Chang Is So Stressed Out [Serious Eats]
John
on 28 Jul 08Interestings tid-bits… I like how he cuts to the heart of his business philosophy.
Benjy
on 28 Jul 08The first quote sounds a lot like Schwa here in Chicago. The food taste and presentation is in a class with the elites of Chicago (Trotter, Achatz, Tramanto) but the rest of the operation is so entirely different. Their tiny restaurant is BYOB, located on a stretch of Ashland that houses taquerias and car repair shops, and they have no front-of-house staff. The same guys cooking the food also take the reservations (if you can catch them), seat you, serve you, etc. As somebody who loves to cook, it was an incredible treat to have the chef who created a course bring it out and be able to not only describe the dish and its ingredients but also the techniques and equipment used to prepare it.
Michael Daines
on 28 Jul 08So if Thoreau (famously a vegetarian) wanted to visit Chang’s restaurant, what would he serve?
Jack Cheng
on 28 Jul 08If Thoreau visited Momofuku Ko, Thoreau would no longer be a vegetarian.
Nirav Sanghani
on 28 Jul 08As a vegetarian, I was mildly offended at first but then realized that his strategy is sound. I love Indian food, but some people can’t stand it; if I was running an Indian restaurant, it wouldn’t be my responsibility to cater to those who don’t like the kind of food I serve.
Ricky Irvine
on 28 Jul 08This interview is so fantastic. Thanks for sharing it.
Lee
on 28 Jul 08I feel kind of awkward about the vegetarian statement. Rarely do I (a vegetarian) go to a restaurant by myself. It’s usually a group thing, and therefore a group decision (compromise) as to where we eat. Different people like different things. This is why there are menus to begin with, isn’t it?
rick james
on 28 Jul 08RE: vegetarians… Momofuku does serve a “ginger scallion” noodle bowl. I’m a recovering carnivore, but I make an exception for his ramen noodles in winter.
Lyndon
on 28 Jul 08Interesting post. Totally respect the fact that he wants to serve the best food possible. Too many restaurants get caught up in the whole atmosphere, ambient crap and forget all about the quality of food.
Tiago Claus
on 29 Jul 08I do not believe that making “the best food in New York City regardless of anything else” is “the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor”.
He completed misplaced Thoreau philosophy.
Serving meat (and not caring about animals, environment or his customers health) is not a “conscious endeavor” (unless you are mean) and certainly does not elevate your life.
Jake
on 29 Jul 08The “conscious endeavor” is his action to serve the best “tasting” food.
Not the healthiest food, not the most socially-conscious food, etc.
And the best tasting food (at least for most people) requires tasty animals.
James Harris
on 29 Jul 08Thanks for sharing.
I saw the interview via TiVO and loved every second of it. As an internet entrepreneur of 15+ years I struggle with similar vision and management issues. I lust for the days the early Internet and for “Wild New Frontiers” – that said I feel that the iPhone / mobile Internet might be one.
David’s interview has inspired me to take a long, hard look at where my companies are going and the products they offer.
All the best,
James Harris CEO and Chief Storyteller Elemental Interactive / ListenShare
Drew McLellan
on 29 Jul 08I find myself sharing the sentiments of Lee, above, regarding the vegetarian issue.
I don’t know what the situation is in New York, but here in the UK around 7% of people call themselves vegetarian. In any given group of diners therefore, the statistical likelihood of one or more being vegetarian is quite high. Consequently, you’re hard pushed to find a restaurant in the UK that doesn’t have vegetarian food on its menu (I can’t remember it seeing it – my step daughter is vegetarian.)
We also live in very much multi-faith and multi-cultural societies. Many people do eat meat, but require it to be prepared in specific ways, or are only happy eating meat that has been reared organically, locally or what have you. Vegetarian food is often a convenient choice in those circumstances.
Whatever your ‘philosophy’, ultimately running a restaurant is about getting people through the door and selling them food. Seems unsound, and a little offensive, to turn away customers because they do not eat meat or fish.
It’s like turning away customers from a web service because they don’t have support for JavaScript – it’s both a weird business move and unethical.
Josh A.
on 30 Jul 08I’m vegetarian, and I too agree with Lee (and Drew). Take France for instance – there aren’t anywhere near as many vegetarians there as there are in the UK, so you don’t expect to find as much vegetarian food there.
But it’s really quite stupid in a society with a growing number of vegetarians (at least that’s what it’s like in the UK, and US too if I’m correct), that you would specifically make a point of saying that “vegetarians aren’t welcome here”.
A little while back Patrick Moore (the amateur astronomer who presents a popular UK astronomy show), complained that the BBC “was being ruined by women”. An unfair, harsh statement (not that’s he’s a nasty guy, but he’s obviously not caught up with the 21st century in all aspects). On a blog post—I think it was on the Guardian’s website or something, one strange person who for-some-strange-reason agreed with him, suggested segregating television into male and female channels.
Suggesting that there should be vegetarian and non-vegetarian restaurants is as stupid as that. It’s not hard to make many interesting, popular vegetarian dishes, which, like Drew said, are convenient to everyone, so why not? I don’t know, but they’ll be a huge bunch of people with no sympathy for Mr. Chang if his restaurant loses out due to this.
Juan Maiz Lulkin
on 30 Jul 08It’s not only UK and US. I’m from Brazil (in fact i’m from Rio Grande do Sul, the world’s BBQ capital) and over here the number of vegans and vegetarians is growing exponencially.
The question is that changing dishes may be bad for a restaurant, but he could just make some dishes that are already vegan or vegetarian, couldn’t he?
Tiago is completelly right. Thoreau’s phillosophy is completely misplaced here. If Thoreau was to open a restaurant i’m very sure it will be not “omnivore’s dilemma friendly” :D.
Andy
on 30 Jul 08How is not serving vegetarian food unethical? (I would really like to know why you think that not supporting non-javascript users is unethical—-you’d have to stretch to say not supporting vegetarians is unethical, but this is plain ludicrous)
Further, how is not catering to a small audience a strange business move? You can’t satisfy every market; see economics 101. If you don’t like his food, don’t eat there, that’s fine, just like you wouldn’t eat at a Sushi place if you don’t like sushi.
Jay
on 30 Jul 08I’m a creative director at a web design shop, but I’m also a part-time line cook in a prominent/exclusive local restaurant. We struggle with the vegetarian question all the time. To a degree, it’s a creative compromise for us to include vegan/vegetarian options, but we can’t risk alienating potential customers.
At David Chang’s level, we shouldn’t even be having the “I wouldn’t ask an Indian restaurant to cook Italian food” discussion. Instead, we should be having the “I wouldn’t ask Martin Scorsese to make an animated film” discussion. Let’s apply that analogue to the vegetarian population argument. In America, many adults have children, does that mean Scorsese is obligated to reduce the violence and language in his films to accommodate families with small children? No. Like Scorsese, Chang has reached a certain echelon as a creative individual where he doesn’t feel the need to compromise. He is adamant in his love for carnivorous eating (especially in his love of pork), so for him, introducing a vegetarian option would be a fundamental affront to his vision. Some chefs are like that, and frankly, I don’t blame them. Other Jedi-level chefs - Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz, etc. - will modify their offerings to accommodate eaters of various persuasions/choices/religions/allergies/etc. It’s a case-by-case basis.
Hannibal
on 30 Jul 08The “conscious endeavor” is his action to serve the best “tasting” food.
Not the healthiest food, not the most socially-conscious food, etc.
And the best tasting food (at least for most canibals) requires tasty humans.
mr p
on 31 Jul 08Not serving vegetarian food is hardly unethical, and I’m sure it’s economical for him.
If you start serving veggie meals, than the vegans will start complaining. And those with gluten allergies. The nice thing about being a business is that you can pick your niche and target that niche directly. Any other company is free to target whatever niches you ignore.
If he can make money doing it his way, more power to him. And I’m a left-handed, mac-using, raw vegan whacko, so I know full well what it’s like to be on the other end of someone’s decision that you’re not in their target demo. I take my business elsewhere, no harm, no foul.
In the particular situation, my current diet (it’s a temporary trial, I’m usually a run-of-the-mill vegetarian) rules out almost every menu item at most restaurants. I just eat a snack before heading out, or get a salad, or don’t go out to eat every day…
The real question though: who wants to open a nice raw restaurant? =)
Karthick
on 31 Jul 08He can lose out on Steve Jobs and a lot of India with that comment. But hey there are other places to eat as well…
Unless he’s playing the Be-Exclusive-by-being-arrogant card, that would sure get people to want to know what he’s got that’s so good in his restaurant.
Bo Jassett
on 01 Aug 08Not sure about a “conscious endeavor” that doesn’t respect vegetarians. As was posted below, people often eat out in large groups, with vegetarians hoping to find one or two reasonable choices on the menu. Even steak houses usually make some sort of effort.
This discussion is closed.