David Chang, head of the Momofuku empire

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, Society & Culture, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.5 • 11.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2016

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

David Chang has driven many of the most important food trends of the last decade. His Momofuku empire has put pork belly on your plate, ramen on your corner, and bagel bombs in your local coffee shop. He's received four James Beard awards, been named a GQ Man of the Year, and appeared on Time's 100 most influential people list.He's also just a smart, funny, thoughtful and profane guy. In this episode, Ezra and David cover a lot of ground, including:- Whether restauranteurs should be able to patent recipes- Why two weeks more in one of New York's best restaurants could have killed Chang's career- The first recipe Chang ever truly invented- Why his R&D lab is entirely vegan- Whether eating animals is ethical- Whether big farms can be humane- The joys of Buddhist temple cuisine- How Chang hired Momofuku's first employees, and what he looks for when hiring today- How nuns made the best potato chips Chang has ever had- The one recipe Chang thinks everyone should knowThis episode is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus. Visit TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/EZRA to stream Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries and hundreds of other courses for free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is one of those things that comes along very rarely.
0:03.9	It's going to just completely revolutionize the world.
0:07.2	Over the last decade, Tesla has reset the future of cars.
0:10.7	The entire American auto industry was totally convinced electric cars were impossible.
0:15.8	Now with the rest of the industry racing to go electric, will Tesla continue to lead the
0:19.4	charge or run out of juice?
0:21.8	The Tesla shock wave hits Wednesday, July 26.
0:25.1	Follow Land of the Giants wherever you listen.
0:27.4	New episodes out every Wednesday.
0:30.0	Hello, I'm Ezra Klein and I'm really excited.
0:36.6	I got to talk this week to David Chang, the head of the Momofuku Empire.
0:43.2	We got into a lot about how do you manage a massive restaurant business.
0:48.0	What are the ways you're eating meat ethically, which is a topic I'm particularly interested
0:52.2	in?
0:53.2	Why you should definitely go to Korean monasteries if you're in Korea.
0:56.8	Why his R&D labs are vegan despite the fact that his restaurants are heavily meat-centric.
1:02.9	And Chang is just a fascinating, funny, smart, thoughtful, inquisitive guy.
1:08.1	It was a real pleasure to get to talk to him.
1:10.2	He spent a lot of time with me.
1:11.8	As always, I hope you enjoyed this interview as much as I did.
1:15.8	But before we get into the interview, I have my one request for you, which is that if you
1:19.3	are enjoying this podcast, if you enjoy this interview, please go share it with your friends.
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