Eat a Peach summary

Chang felt way behind. He was 22 and most of his peers had been cooking since they were 16. To catch up, he got a job working full-time at Mercer Kitchen, and on the weekends he answered phones at Craft, Tom Colicchio’s restaurant. Colicchio helped define modern American culinary sensibilities – which Chang preferred to needlessly complicated, Eurocentric fine dining.

Eventually, he convinced the cooks at Craft to let him work in the kitchen for free. He had no idea what he was doing and embarrassed himself often, but he kept showing up and working hard. Chang appreciated the fact that in the kitchen, every day was a new opportunity, a fresh start. After six months, they offered him a paid job.

Between his stints at Craft and Cafe Boulud, Chang returned to Japan to cook and learn Japanese. He slept on a tatami mat in his dad’s friend’s ministry office and got a job working at the izakaya – an informal Japanese tavern – on the first floor. Later, his old bosses at Craft helped him get a job at the New York Grill on top of the Hyatt Hotel.

But the most eye-opening part of his time in Japan was that, despite being broke all the time, he was still able to eat like a king. Blue-collar workers and billionaires sat side by side in restaurants that were welcoming and relaxed without sacrificing the quality of the food.

At first, Momofuku Noodle Bar didn’t know what it wanted to be. The first iteration of the menu was a random assortment of snacks and soups; it totally lacked a point of view. But Chang and Quino were alone – they didn’t even have servers. They were so busy that they barely had time to look up and assess what they were doing, or why it wasn’t working.

Right before they ran out of money, they realized that trying to fit in was what had been holding them back. Like when they put dumplings on the menu, assuming that’s what people wanted. But people weren’t ordering them and Chang didn’t want to make them. In fact, nobody was expecting anything; most Americans weren’t even familiar with the concept of a noodle bar at the time.

With Momofuku Noodle Bar’s success, it made sense for Chang to open another location. But he had another concept he wanted to try: Asian Chipotle.

So, Chang opened Ssäm Bar. Ssäm means “wrap” in Korean. His aim was to provide a higher-end fast food experience. On the original menu, a customer chose a wrap, like bibb lettuce, flour pancakes, or toasted nori. Next, they selected fillings like Berkshire pork, red kimchi puree, and whipped tofu.

The spotlight was now shining directly on 35-year-old David Chang. Momofuku Ssäm was named number 31 of the best 50 restaurants in the world. But more and more staff members were leaving, and Chang was increasingly depressed, paranoid, and angry – viewing each departure as a betrayal. So he left New York to open the first Momofuku outpost outside of Manhattan – 10,000 miles away, in Sydney, Australia.

Momofuku Seiōbo was in an unexpected location: a 20-year-old hotel-casino that was undergoing a revitalization. He chose an awkward venue within the complex, far away from the gaming floor. He liked the idea of giving the public something cool where they’d least expect it. It was another success.

For Chang, therapy had previously just been a place to release his pent up anxieties. But after the death of his mentee, his sessions with Dr. Eliot had become mortally necessary. He finally started dismantling the toxic parts of his belief system in therapy.

First, they discussed his mentee’s death. Dr. Eliot helped Chang understand that blaming himself was an egotistical way of looking at things. It suggested that, if he had the power to kill him, he also had the power to save him. But, of course, his mentee’s life was much more than merely his relationship with Chang.

Chang was experiencing the mania side of bipolar disorder when he decided to take another crack at the fast food market. One night, he was eating at Chick-fil-A – or the "chicken bigots", as he called the company whose leaders had publicly opposed same-sex marriage. The sandwiches were so good that he begrudgingly gave them his business – and then he was struck with inspiration. He decided he’d put his own spin on a fried chicken sandwich, and in the process, he’d do the opposite of spreading intolerance. He’d confront the public with their racism toward Asian Americans.

The name of the restaurant came easy: Fuku. It was a riff on Momofuku and a purposeful “fuck you” to anyone who mocked Asian culture or took it for granted. At their first location, he put up posters of offensive, stereotypical Asian villains that had somehow gone unchecked in American pop culture – like Oddjob from Goldfinger and Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill. The packaging was patterned with the misspelled word “Dericious!” to make white people feel awkward – and recognize how they were upholding cultural oppression.