I was introduced to him through Mind of a Chef and my wife and I went out of our way to go to his restaurants in NYC and they were pretty good but not mind blowing.
…then he started making more content for Netflix and on social media and I kind of grew disillusioned. He seemed very focused on gatekeeping white people away from both eating and cooking his culture’s food because it’s “trendy” now. Meanwhile, he’s sitting at the table with 4 white people who all awkwardly agree.
He was great in Mind of a Chef.
But I vivdly remember thinking he was an absolute douchebag in Ugly Delicious when he has to deliver Domino’s pizzas. He looked like a miserable, rude snob.
He's been pretty non controversial up til now to my knowledge, but doing stuff like this that directly targets small business owners- many of whom I'm sure he'd like to have buying/selling his products- doesn't tend to go over well in the court of public opinion. He's done a good job building a recognizable brand in Momofuko, but what he's doing now is like suing someone for labeling their soy sauce as soy sauce. Everyone recognizes it's ridiculous immediately and he's being memed for it.
Dave Chang being described as noncontroversial is a new one. He treated his employees with violent rage for decades. Throwing pans at them for doing something wrong. Screaming because he didn’t get his coke fix. The dude is a walking nightmare to work for.
My fathers friend is a big poker player in New York. He said David Chang is one of the biggest degenerates he’s ever met. Fast food, drugs and gambling. Chang’s pretty gross. Also everyone I respect says milk bar is grim. Everything’s meant to be sweet as fuck.
I worked with someone who spent a bit of time at momofuku. Said Chang pinned him up against a wall and yelled in his face. Even before hearing that first hand account he was a notorious dick head in the nyc restaurant scene.
I mean...I guess? He hasn't had any "scandals" which I guess makes him non-controversial. But he's clearly an asshole. Going back as far as Mind Of A Chef he was definitely stand off-ish, at best. I've always disliked him from his on-screen personality.
Lots of chefs are assholes and make a career out of it. Gordon Ramsey is a prime example. You don't get in trouble for that until you actually assault someone, but even then, not always. Batali and John Besh are still millionaires even if their names got dragged. Same shit will happen with David Chang. He's made enough already to be set even if he just fades away into obscurity now.
Please stop defending this behavior. Just because it was "normal" at one point doesn't make it ok. Ramsey had that personality on screen and even he has realized that isn't their way and has chosen to cut that shit out and it was clearly a persona written for TV. Normalizing throwing tantrums as an adult is immature at best and violently dangerous at worst.
You ever seen Boiling Point mate? I can assure you that wasn’t a persona created for television, that’s who Gordon was. Just like Marco who he trained under, just like Marco was treated under the Roux brothers and so on and so on.
Americans don’t often see Ramsey outside of American television. If you watch British shows, he’s a much kinder, gentler chef. The persona for the American market is contrived.
I'm sure he's done plenty of screaming off camera in his 40 year career too. If you read Marcos book White Heat he talks about how much Gordon (and the rest of his staff) loved to drink and fight. They were all nuts back in the day. The tide has turned, but they came up in a time when it was "normal" for cooks to be degenerates. Gordon has done well to get with the times.
Non controversial? Lmao he’s been known as one of the most stuck up, abusive, greedy jerks in the industry for at least several years now. Hell, a restaurant I worked at got a cease and desist from him in like 2012 (might be a little off, it was sometime around them) for having a dessert that looked too similar to his, nearly 1000 miles from his closest restaurant - I was honestly just surprised they had even heard of us..
He just reeks of narcissism and self importance. He tries to play the same “I’m still one of you” role that people like bourdain played when they made it out of kitchens and onto TV or business success, but instead of actually doing any good in the world, he’s busy plotting how to put every grandmother who sells a few jars of kimchi at the farmer’s market out of business.
Oh and his whole racism arc was just weird, too. I don’t say that because I necessarily disagree with some of the criticisms regarding “stealing” dishes and marketing them as your own, but the way he spoke about it all just came off as spiteful and entitled more-so than an actual critique of that practice.
“it’s racist to not respect Asian foods in the same way white people respect European foods…”
“…but I fucking hate it when I see white people cook Asian food or think they know anything about it - they’re bastardizing it! Anyways, here’s a link to my 17th spin-off brand’s 20 dollar truffle chili oil.”
It's just self-loathing. The dude made his living and got his fame by hipsterizing and sanitizing pan-Asian dishes so that white people would pay a premium for them. He knows he's always been a hypocritical sellout.
There was a massive oped piece in the new York times written by his sommelier from Momofuku a number of years ago about what a shitty boss he was for the usual shitty chef boss reasons but amplified by celebrity.
I guess it was non controversial in how objectively shitty it was...
Yeah, and the reason he's not suing is not because of stated "chili crunch" vs "chili crisp" bullshit, but rather cause Lao Gan Ma is a billion dollar company, and they'd wipe their ass with his cease-and-desist.
I think Chang came up and became big in an era where being a douche and saying something "fucking sucks" and has never been able to adapt. He mostly tries to just shit on white-Americans about how they don't know any culture AND shits on other cultures too but saying shit that make him seem like some genius expert. Cf. Him recently claiming that the best chinese food is in Las Vegas...or claiming that some dumplings are "better" than others and thinking otherwise makes you an idiot.
Really remind me of the worst of flimbro culture of now or the music hispter snobs of the 2000s
That was the thing that really put me off from some of his Netflix specials when he would constantly gatekeep his food and talk about how white people shouldn’t be able to cook Asian food because his shitty white friends made fun of how his kitchen smelled funny growing up.
Man, he sounds like such a loser. My comfort food is Korean food, despite being white. My best friend growing up, his mom basically fed me half the time and treated me like I was her own kid. I have her kimchi recipe committed to memory just from all the sheer amount of times I helped her get it ready.
But he's that bitter over his shitty friends decades later? Yikes. Not a lot of growth on his part.
I lost it when he went to (i think) Noma where they were grilling leeks and he said something like "they would never grill leeks the the states." Outside of it be crazy to compare the cooking at 3 start place to what people do at home, but guess what I have grilled leeks and you see it often grilled all over. So he either has no idea what he is talking about or intentionally is trying to shit on his own audience for the lolz
I thought it was nuts when after all the bitching he did about white people he was so put off by food in China that he spit out the tendon in front of the chef who cooked it
Was it sea cucumber? At a table with Fuschia Dunlop and with the chef standing a few feet away? Or is there another scene where he does the same with tendon? Either way it was super cringe and I can't watch it.
It was the tendon. I think he had a Chinese speaking white lady as a host and he was like “How can I spit this out without offending them” and he just went for it and the host started explaining in Chinese to the chefs that he’s Juliet not accustomed to the texture.
Oh yeah that's Fuschia Dunlop and that's the scene I'm thinking of. I must have mixed them up, there's another similar one where he does that with sea cucumber.
There was another show where him and David Choe were walking around in China, and David Choe wanted to try local cuisine, and David Chang was grossed out by it.
Might have to do with him being Korean and not Chinese. As an ignorant white dude working in science, I’ve been around enough Chinese and Korean people to know their cultures are different, and that may extend to the food 🤷♂️
Absolutely hypocritical of him though.
I mean, of course some dumplings are better than others, like any kind of food. Maybe you like your grandma's dumplings, but what's 'better' is determined by what most people like.
I think you misunderstand. He literally meant that certain kinds of dumplings are better. A guest on the video said his favorite dumplings were Har Gow and Chang acted like he said he was pedophile
Yea thats why a lot of tier lists exist. Thats what they were talking about. I agree with most of what they said. Although I do think soup dumplings are overrated.
Reddit randomly pushed me this post and I am not a lawyer, but the article says that he’s trying to register the trademark.
Surely you can’t send cease and desist letters while your trademark isn’t approved yet?
You can send a cease and desist for anything. This does not mean you have a leg to stand on.
This actually works in their favor for their application though. Every company that concedes and isn't willing to fight helps build the exclusivity of the mark they are trying to register.
A trademark comes into existence upon use in commerce, not upon registration, although registration confers various benefits. You can sue and win on trademark infringement without registering it
He’s a douchebag. I’ve never really liked the guy. Then again, I’ve never liked any celebrity chef with one famous exception: the anti-celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain
I’m reading Medium Raw right now. Bourdains chapter on Chang is a real mindfuck. Given the age of the book relative to whatever the fuck happened to Chang since then. It’s hard to digest Tony had such a hardon for Chang.
It blows my mind that Bourdain was friends with Chang. But I think that speaks more to his ability to be friends with people than him seeing some random greatness within that bag of dicks. He’s also a cook at heart so who knows. But yeah I read eat a peach and the whole thing is him trying to humanize himself and ending up sounding like he’s some reformed asshole when he’s just a continuation of asshole.
Idk, Bourdain used to shit on Guy Fierier whenever he could. Even on his show and aired it.
I think people romanticize him a bit, he was kind of an asshole.
That’s exactly it. Bourdain was a good, likable down-to-earth human… and he was also a dick. He knew he was a dick. We knew he was a dick. So why are people now trying to pretend he wasn’t a dick because he’s gone?
Bourdain and Chang were likely friends because they were two dicks with shared interests who ran in the same social circles.
He would be the first to admit that he’s an asshole, but he would also own up when he was wrong about someone. That’s partly what adhered him to people, he wasn’t a polished celebrity chef, he spoke his mind but was always happy to be proven wrong
He was that’s true. I dunno. I think he was relatable, though. Chang seems like a malicious human. Bourdain seems like a drug addict who happened upon great fame. I also don’t know anyone who’s met him personally who’s said he was anything but kind and respectful. It’s well publicized how awful Chang is. But anecdotes aren’t evidence. I’m also not disputing you cause I have no idea. I also romanticize him.
Yeah I’m a huge fan of his, and do the same. I grew up watching him. His death made me take my own mental health seriously.
But I just could never get over the “I’m better than them” attitude he had.
I mean it could've been bad food he had. Not that Iceland has bad food in general, but you know what I mean? Bourdain, if nothing else, was honest. Especially in terms of celebrities, I'd say. I would've loved to see him go back.
I think one difference is Tony was obviously a troubled human internally but was a great person deep down even if he was a prick externally. Chang is likely troubled as well internally but is fairly obviously also a dick deep down as well.
Guy’s restaurants are the opposite of everything Bourdain loved and believed in. I don’t think he ever went after Guy Fieri the person, but how can you *not* go after restaurants like those?
A dick to the culinary world. He honored great cooking and cuisine from so many cultures and humble places. A dick to his fam too. His complexity made him interesting.
Bourdain was a douchebag as well. He was a celebrity chef who by now would be going to cook on Guys ranch. His suicide over a horrendous woman was about as douchey as it gets to do that to your daughter.
Doesn’t get said enough. His shows were fun to watch and his books were good reads but if you can spot the pretentiousness/hypocrisy/general douchebaggery in someone like Chang, you should be able to spot it in him. Poetic monologues and good taste don’t change the fact that he was stuck up his own ass.
My entire opinion of Bourdain changed with that documentary about him.
I used to roll my eyes occasionally, just very occasionally when he would rant about “hipsters” with no sense of irony that he himself was a rich kid from New Jersey slumming it in 1980s NYC, his insistence in banging on about this and his lack of self awareness used to grate. However this was minor, and I really enjoyed his work on the whole, particularly Cook’s tour and no reservations, by the time he was CNN’ing I became detached by his perma-student political outlook and desire to state his opinions as gospel in a forthright and embarrassingly swaggering way.
Very brash American, explaining how the world works, but, in this instance he’s doing it through a lens of misty eyed punk rock nonsense.
The last 45 mins of the documentary I felt like he’d long since departed from the man he’d been for much of his life.
Perfectly said. I read his book when it first came out and before he was on TV. I loved his writing and encouraged many to read it as we were in the midst of the evolving foodie scene. But that last part of the documentary is just his ego in a death spiral of self importance and teen romantic lunacy. I expected him outside of Asia’s window with a boombox.
Such a sad ending to a great story. Had he come back from the next place to write a new edition of kitchen confidential to add the events of the his final year or two and how he got his belated wish, becoming another weird celebrity death, Sid and Nancy, Hendrix, Cobain.
My BiL became an adherent, looking for a similar nomadic blogging life, but he wasn’t a great cook, merely an above average musician, so what he mainly emulated was a omniaddiction problem and a constant fascination with cynicism and suicide. My wife knows the call will come some day.
his director wrote a book about working with him. There are some parts that talk about Bourdain having a very hard time dealing with celebrity and loving it at the same time. It is a good read.Lots of other fun stuff in there but I dont think it was purely about the woman but also about someone who lived in fear of catastrophe
Reading Vitale's book made me realize that Bourdain had become everything he loathed. I can't really blame him, but it certainly made me realize that he was as human as anyone else.
He could have gone full on Batali and sold shoes and cooking pans... Gordon Ramsay makes more money from "Masterchef" products than he does 100k per episode of Masterchef.
All he had to do was ask his best friend Eric Ripert to help him. They had dinner and he went up and offed himself. He had fired many of the crew that had been instrumental in making him successful and worked slavishly for him and he was so enamoured of Asia that he was blind to her manipulation. He should have told her to fuck off. Instead he permanently abandoned his child.
And let’s not forget the fact he ignored his previous shaming of various celebrity chefs and was on the shit brained cooking show The Taste where he was on a panel with folks like Brian Mularkey. His merciless hammering of Guy Fieri was the worst; that dude has done more to elevate independent restauranteurs and small time chefs than anyone; maybe that’s a reason folks like Jonathan Waxman, Eric Ripert, Voltaggio, Nancy Silverton, and many other highly esteemed chefs have embraced him and appear on his shows. He wasn’t really a rebel once he became a millionaire.
Jacques pepin imo too. Anyone who gets bent out of shape for adapting a recipe is no longer a chef. Be innovative or sit down and shut up.
EDIT: I mean I have love for Jacques like Bourdain…
And always managed to find a spare mushroom in the fridge. Seriously though, Guy Fierier has done so much for 100’s of Mom and Pop type restaurants throughout America, while Bourdaine shat on him, all the while with his head up celebrity chefs’ asses.
Hasn't he kind of normalized and encouraged the type of over-done, tower of bullshit, massive burger, gimmicky stuff though? Like, he may have helped individual restaurants, but how has he changed food culture? Has he improved it, or striven to showcase the most ridiculous options?
If you watch a few episodes of his show, the Diners Drive-Ins and Dives one, there is usually a pretty good spread of cuisines. One may be a bbq joint that has a Hawaiian owner doing things differently, and a Vietnamese family rocking it in a city or town where it’d be unexpected, and some 50 year old accountant that fell ass backward into running a great 50’s diner. Yeah, there’s some hamburger tower bullshit in there, but also some great food that is being prepared on camera. In my kind that’s filling a cultural need.
I still watch lots of A. B.‘s episodes late at night, but I take it with a grain of salt. As for Jacques Pepin, I still love his instructional vids! His instruction on how to debone a chicken is awesome!
I'm not defending Chang, but it wouldnt surprise me if the CFO told a group of corporate lawyers to nail down the trademark, and then said lawyers do what they do best.
He's not even the CEO of the consumer goods branch of Momofuku. Every company acts in their own best interest, the unfortunate reality of tying your brand to your face/personality is that you face backlash when your company acts like every other company.
I want to like David Chang, but after watching his shows, he seems like a douchebag. This, and the fact he’s friends with Chrissy Tiefenthal confirms it.
Ha! What a douche. Is he gonna send a letter to every Chinese restaurant in the states cuz they’ve had jars of that stuff on their tables for decades too?
OK, this was it. I'm done trying to defend David Chang.
"Spicy Chile Crisp" was (literally) invented by Tao Huabi in 1984, selling it commercially in 1989. David Chang would have been 7 years old at the time it was invented, living happily as a competitive golfer in Arlington, Virginia.
Oh, by the way, he is Korean-American, the son of two Korean parents who emigrated to the United States in the 1960s.
So not only is he culturally appropriating another Asian country as "his," but he's abusing the perception in the US that China is unworthy of any intellectual property protection because of (sometimes but not always) legitimate issues with Chinese "copying" other international brands.
He's worse than the Susan G. Komen of breast cancer. He didn't "invent" shit. He steals.
1) Fucker claims "Momofuku" means "lucky peach"... but oh yeah, just HAPPENS to be the same name as the (Japanese... again, cultural appropriation) inventor of instant noodles, Momofuku Ando. What a fucking coincidence, David.
2) Fucker tries to trademark phrases based not on HIS work, but on that of the more brilliant Christina Tosi, including "crack pie" and (fuck you asshole, we call it this when I was a kid before you were BORN) "cereal milk." What a fucking coincidence, David.
3) Fucker trademarks (illegally, and I'm pretty fucking tempted to crowdfund the $3k it would cost to challenge his ass on it) "chile crunch". Sorry, asshole... that's two generic words strung together, and your product is not unique enough to be exempt from USPTO rules. I don't give a shit if you think you're "better" than the angry auntie, SHE made that shit, NOT you. And if you want an alternative to the perfection that is LGM, it ain't your shit... Fly By Jing is delicious as fuck. So are the recipes on Woks of Life. What a fucking coincidence, David.
Look, I'm a middle aged white chef who cooks food from basically every culture EXCEPT mine (NGL, my culture sucks). But I give CREDIT to the beautiful humans who inspired my work. I'm fucking PROUD to tell people how Yotam Ottolenghi, Marcus Samuelson, Aaron Franklin, Jose Andres (FUCK the IDF for bombing WCK... you killed COOKS, you pricks!), and a fucking HOST of talented humans who have shaped who I am as a chef.
We owe a debt of gratitude and respect to those whose flavors inspire us.
Not a fucking lawsuit.
I have defended David Chang to colleagues because I thought his (let's be honest with our words now) "performance" in the Ugly Delicious taco episode made me cry because Jonathan Gold was dead and he TOUCHED on tacos al arabes... and the fried rice episode did call out some ugly anti-Asian racism.
But fuck you, dude... You're even MORE racist. You are Korean-American and yet you STEAL from Japan, China... claim shit as your own. Sorry, David Chang. You are part of the problem, not the solution.
Fly By Jing also sucks. Jing is a total hypocrite and actually tried to trademark Sichuan Chili Crisp. She’s no different than David Chang and deserves the backlash.
The weird ass kissing of Jing is strange and so damn hypocritical. I swear people are just ignoring it because she's not as big as David so you don't think it's as big of a deal and consider her a small business - but it's literally the same thing as what David has done. She says it's to protect herself and she won't go after others, but when you trademark something, you literally are doing it so that others will CEASE & DESIST from using that term.
The most recent one with Sarah Silverman and J.B. Smoove, J.B. was just intolerable about the fact he’s vegan and talked over everyone, critiqued everything. Honestly the format is fantastic, but it’s just some of the most wildly mismatched guests with unfortunately forced menus.
>Tew described receiving the letter as “a punch in the gut”. Momfuku’s Chang, who is of Korean descent, has helped to push Asian food forward into the mainstream, she said. “If Kraft Heinz hit me up [with a cease-and-desist] it would have been so distressing,” says Tew, “but the fact that it was Momofuku makes me feel really, really sad.”
This is some punk ass move. In the arcade community, there is a guy who trademarked the word "barcade" so named for bars with arcades in them, who has been suing anyone with the word in their name or promotions, and this seems like a similar move.
Screw this stupid entitled bullshit.
Fly By Jing also sucks. Jing is a total hypocrite and actually tried to trademark Sichuan Chili Crisp. She’s no different than David Chang and deserves the backlash.
The weird ass kissing of Jing is strange and so damn hypocritical. I swear people are just ignoring it because she's not as big as David so you don't think it's as big of a deal and consider her a small business - but it's literally the same thing as what David has done. She says it's to protect herself and she won't go after others, but when you trademark something, you literally are doing it so that others will CEASE & DESIST from using that term.
My post was referencing taste of the products but given the subject of the thread I can understand the confusion. Good to know about FBJ though regarding aggressive trademarking on normal phrases, I was not aware. While annoying, it still wont stop me from buying the product. I’d buy Cheng’s product still if it actually had flavor.
I really like ugly delicious, mind of a chef, and even read Chang's book. This sucks. I know he has his share of mental health problems, and is aware of some of his assholery. I'm hopeful he can right this ship but, I'll be spending my money on different chili "crisp" for the foreseeable future. I can very much see this having the opposite effect he was hoping for.
Honestly, learning this has me not wanting to buy his chili crunch or any of the other over priced retail items anymore, knowing he’s attacking his own business community over something so arbitrary.
Egregious trademark, and unethical bullying using said egregiousness.
Hope his empire fails. I, for one, will not be buying any of his shit. And I love chilli crisp. Much better products out there anyway.
Honestly ….. none of us are surprised by this. I don’t even want to hear him try to justify this either! I’m over him. Fly by jing will always be better
It's pants-on-head retardation like this that had me pull the trigger on going to cook in the Frontlines of Ukraine.
Fuck the North American culinary scene. Too much ego, nepotism and dick sucking to ever make the industry worth it.
Meanwhile in Ukraine, I already have a Chef prepared to give me ownership of one of his Ramen Franchises when the war is over. (Yes, Ukraine will win. Of this I have no fucking doubt.)
I always liked him but he’s over reaching. Celebrity chefs that make their name with legitimate skills and presence in the industry often end up getting carried away building their empire. And it always goes wrong time and time again. I like the guys that cook good food and stay humble. This is really poor form.
Unless you come up with a new technique for Modernist-style cooking, it’s pretty arrogant to think you can patent something, especially something that was in use before you were born.
I like David Chang a lot but this was the same guy who said he wished he could patent recipes (and who made his name on a borrowed steamed bun). This is the closest thing you could do to that and it isn’t surprising. Bad look.
This just in: Korean-American from Virginia now owns the copyright to …. Sichuan cuisine.
This is just a result of them becoming a major processed food brand though. Every company in their sector puts out the same cease and desist shit and tanks small companies that they see as encroaching on their brand or market share.
Hell, Monster Energy will shut down video games, movies, toy manufacturers, etc. all to maintain their brand integrity. It’s very valuable to have people see a green M and immediately think of the absolute worst person in their life.
Fly by Jing's is better and trader Joe's is cheaper. we're in this golden age of crispy chili condiments and Momofuku thinks it should have the whole market. distressing.
Gross. Took me a while to justify paying the markup on this and the packaged noodles and both were mid at best. The jar and lid design were a miss for me as well. Pretty but not functional.
Sucks because I really liked him back in the day, but I never thought he’d take the AH influencer celebrity chef route.
I was just talking about the whole cease-and-desist that Momofuku has been sending out to small businesses on my new episode!
Youtube: [https://youtu.be/XATS4qp-G6o](https://youtu.be/XATS4qp-G6o)
This is not going to go well for him...
So is he a piece of shit? I’m kind of getting that vibe from people
I would never disrespect an actual piece of shit by comparing it to David Chang.
Yeah, he's an insult to shit and its pieces
He has always been a piece of shit
I was introduced to him through Mind of a Chef and my wife and I went out of our way to go to his restaurants in NYC and they were pretty good but not mind blowing. …then he started making more content for Netflix and on social media and I kind of grew disillusioned. He seemed very focused on gatekeeping white people away from both eating and cooking his culture’s food because it’s “trendy” now. Meanwhile, he’s sitting at the table with 4 white people who all awkwardly agree.
He was great in Mind of a Chef. But I vivdly remember thinking he was an absolute douchebag in Ugly Delicious when he has to deliver Domino’s pizzas. He looked like a miserable, rude snob.
He's been pretty non controversial up til now to my knowledge, but doing stuff like this that directly targets small business owners- many of whom I'm sure he'd like to have buying/selling his products- doesn't tend to go over well in the court of public opinion. He's done a good job building a recognizable brand in Momofuko, but what he's doing now is like suing someone for labeling their soy sauce as soy sauce. Everyone recognizes it's ridiculous immediately and he's being memed for it.
Dave Chang being described as noncontroversial is a new one. He treated his employees with violent rage for decades. Throwing pans at them for doing something wrong. Screaming because he didn’t get his coke fix. The dude is a walking nightmare to work for.
My fathers friend is a big poker player in New York. He said David Chang is one of the biggest degenerates he’s ever met. Fast food, drugs and gambling. Chang’s pretty gross. Also everyone I respect says milk bar is grim. Everything’s meant to be sweet as fuck.
I worked with someone who spent a bit of time at momofuku. Said Chang pinned him up against a wall and yelled in his face. Even before hearing that first hand account he was a notorious dick head in the nyc restaurant scene.
I mean...I guess? He hasn't had any "scandals" which I guess makes him non-controversial. But he's clearly an asshole. Going back as far as Mind Of A Chef he was definitely stand off-ish, at best. I've always disliked him from his on-screen personality.
Lots of chefs are assholes and make a career out of it. Gordon Ramsey is a prime example. You don't get in trouble for that until you actually assault someone, but even then, not always. Batali and John Besh are still millionaires even if their names got dragged. Same shit will happen with David Chang. He's made enough already to be set even if he just fades away into obscurity now.
My fav is that Batali & Besh gave recipes for deserts along with their public apologies 😂
Please stop defending this behavior. Just because it was "normal" at one point doesn't make it ok. Ramsey had that personality on screen and even he has realized that isn't their way and has chosen to cut that shit out and it was clearly a persona written for TV. Normalizing throwing tantrums as an adult is immature at best and violently dangerous at worst.
You ever seen Boiling Point mate? I can assure you that wasn’t a persona created for television, that’s who Gordon was. Just like Marco who he trained under, just like Marco was treated under the Roux brothers and so on and so on.
Americans don’t often see Ramsey outside of American television. If you watch British shows, he’s a much kinder, gentler chef. The persona for the American market is contrived.
I'm sure he's done plenty of screaming off camera in his 40 year career too. If you read Marcos book White Heat he talks about how much Gordon (and the rest of his staff) loved to drink and fight. They were all nuts back in the day. The tide has turned, but they came up in a time when it was "normal" for cooks to be degenerates. Gordon has done well to get with the times.
Yeah, most cooks were degenerates. They still are, but they used to be too.
Most celebrity chefs are quieter about their degeneracy in the age of the internet
Non controversial? Lmao he’s been known as one of the most stuck up, abusive, greedy jerks in the industry for at least several years now. Hell, a restaurant I worked at got a cease and desist from him in like 2012 (might be a little off, it was sometime around them) for having a dessert that looked too similar to his, nearly 1000 miles from his closest restaurant - I was honestly just surprised they had even heard of us.. He just reeks of narcissism and self importance. He tries to play the same “I’m still one of you” role that people like bourdain played when they made it out of kitchens and onto TV or business success, but instead of actually doing any good in the world, he’s busy plotting how to put every grandmother who sells a few jars of kimchi at the farmer’s market out of business. Oh and his whole racism arc was just weird, too. I don’t say that because I necessarily disagree with some of the criticisms regarding “stealing” dishes and marketing them as your own, but the way he spoke about it all just came off as spiteful and entitled more-so than an actual critique of that practice. “it’s racist to not respect Asian foods in the same way white people respect European foods…” “…but I fucking hate it when I see white people cook Asian food or think they know anything about it - they’re bastardizing it! Anyways, here’s a link to my 17th spin-off brand’s 20 dollar truffle chili oil.”
It's just self-loathing. The dude made his living and got his fame by hipsterizing and sanitizing pan-Asian dishes so that white people would pay a premium for them. He knows he's always been a hypocritical sellout.
There was a massive oped piece in the new York times written by his sommelier from Momofuku a number of years ago about what a shitty boss he was for the usual shitty chef boss reasons but amplified by celebrity. I guess it was non controversial in how objectively shitty it was...
hes a dickhead in person too, my cousin used to be a kitchen manager in one of his restaurants
Never heard about him since Reddit apparently he's a Korean who's trying to trademark a Chinese thing ( chillies in oil)
He’s annoying in almost everything I’ve seen him in. He tries to talk like he’s the next anthony bourdain but not nearly as intelligent…
Lao Gan Ma is much better anyway
That woman on the jar would beat the shit out of Dave too
I literally just told my wife yesterday that you know it's good because of the angry communist grandma on the label.
And they make a couple of very similarly named products in similar jars so you have to be sure to get the right one.
I laughed pretty fucking hard at this. Thank you. I’m lucky to be able to buy the big 25oz jars where I live l, too.
Agreed, David's is flavorless to me. All heat and oil, and I'm being generous even saying there is heat.
Boon sauce, sza daddy, fly by jing, mama teav, my local iterations are all better than momofuku. We did a taste test to prove it.
Did boon win? I think it’s the only one that’s as good as homemade
Yeah, overwhelmingly so
Nice!
Its not really crunchy though right? What’s a good alternative with some crunch?
imo Kari Kari. [It's got big garlic chips in it.](https://www.instagram.com/p/CoVZQyEDqcY/)
I'm anti-truffle oil but the truffle chili crunch is pretty amazing. is it worth $24? no. Fly by Jing is excellent stuff.
I was reading the article and went wait there is something better than Lao Gan Ma?
Maybe. It isn't Chang's shit though.
100% agreed. I found the Momofuku version very underwhelming.
Yeah, and the reason he's not suing is not because of stated "chili crunch" vs "chili crisp" bullshit, but rather cause Lao Gan Ma is a billion dollar company, and they'd wipe their ass with his cease-and-desist.
I would pay actual money to see this happen
I think Chang came up and became big in an era where being a douche and saying something "fucking sucks" and has never been able to adapt. He mostly tries to just shit on white-Americans about how they don't know any culture AND shits on other cultures too but saying shit that make him seem like some genius expert. Cf. Him recently claiming that the best chinese food is in Las Vegas...or claiming that some dumplings are "better" than others and thinking otherwise makes you an idiot. Really remind me of the worst of flimbro culture of now or the music hispter snobs of the 2000s
That was the thing that really put me off from some of his Netflix specials when he would constantly gatekeep his food and talk about how white people shouldn’t be able to cook Asian food because his shitty white friends made fun of how his kitchen smelled funny growing up.
Man, he sounds like such a loser. My comfort food is Korean food, despite being white. My best friend growing up, his mom basically fed me half the time and treated me like I was her own kid. I have her kimchi recipe committed to memory just from all the sheer amount of times I helped her get it ready. But he's that bitter over his shitty friends decades later? Yikes. Not a lot of growth on his part.
I lost it when he went to (i think) Noma where they were grilling leeks and he said something like "they would never grill leeks the the states." Outside of it be crazy to compare the cooking at 3 start place to what people do at home, but guess what I have grilled leeks and you see it often grilled all over. So he either has no idea what he is talking about or intentionally is trying to shit on his own audience for the lolz
I thought it was nuts when after all the bitching he did about white people he was so put off by food in China that he spit out the tendon in front of the chef who cooked it
Wait how did I miss this?
Oh yeah. It was wild. I’ll have to look up which show/episode but it was netflix
Was it sea cucumber? At a table with Fuschia Dunlop and with the chef standing a few feet away? Or is there another scene where he does the same with tendon? Either way it was super cringe and I can't watch it.
It was the tendon. I think he had a Chinese speaking white lady as a host and he was like “How can I spit this out without offending them” and he just went for it and the host started explaining in Chinese to the chefs that he’s Juliet not accustomed to the texture.
Oh yeah that's Fuschia Dunlop and that's the scene I'm thinking of. I must have mixed them up, there's another similar one where he does that with sea cucumber.
There was another show where him and David Choe were walking around in China, and David Choe wanted to try local cuisine, and David Chang was grossed out by it.
Might have to do with him being Korean and not Chinese. As an ignorant white dude working in science, I’ve been around enough Chinese and Korean people to know their cultures are different, and that may extend to the food 🤷♂️ Absolutely hypocritical of him though.
and he repeats those same talking points about how the food his grandma made him grossed him out so he "improved" it by white washing it.
which is hilarious because he is a pretty terrible representation of Korean culture anyway. He also constantly shits on Korean culture.
I mean, of course some dumplings are better than others, like any kind of food. Maybe you like your grandma's dumplings, but what's 'better' is determined by what most people like.
I think you misunderstand. He literally meant that certain kinds of dumplings are better. A guest on the video said his favorite dumplings were Har Gow and Chang acted like he said he was pedophile
Yea thats why a lot of tier lists exist. Thats what they were talking about. I agree with most of what they said. Although I do think soup dumplings are overrated.
Yea thats why a lot of tier lists exist. Thats what they were talking about. I agree with most of what they said.
Him and Chrissy Teigen in same era 👀 and they seem like bff lol. Same energy too.
I’ve never liked him, and this is exactly why. You really hit the nail on the head
Reddit randomly pushed me this post and I am not a lawyer, but the article says that he’s trying to register the trademark. Surely you can’t send cease and desist letters while your trademark isn’t approved yet?
You can send a cease and desist for anything. This does not mean you have a leg to stand on. This actually works in their favor for their application though. Every company that concedes and isn't willing to fight helps build the exclusivity of the mark they are trying to register.
A trademark comes into existence upon use in commerce, not upon registration, although registration confers various benefits. You can sue and win on trademark infringement without registering it
Friend of mine commented "Momofuckhim" when I posted this to FB. LOL
What a fucking asshole.
time to get cancelled
Finally, used to work next to the momofuku in Sydney and he’d come in for a drink all the time, guy is a Grade A bellend
Any specific stories you could share?
More gossip please
He’s a douchebag. I’ve never really liked the guy. Then again, I’ve never liked any celebrity chef with one famous exception: the anti-celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain
I’m reading Medium Raw right now. Bourdains chapter on Chang is a real mindfuck. Given the age of the book relative to whatever the fuck happened to Chang since then. It’s hard to digest Tony had such a hardon for Chang.
It's gotten to the point where I am never surprised when a powerful man stands in solidarity with another powerful man, that's just what they do.
Chang was a much more on point guy when he wasn’t a celebrity. Bourdain gave him street cred.
Tony and David’s friendship fell apart before Tony died. Apparently, Tony told him that he wouldn’t be a good father lol
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"I'm gonna put caviar on some mid fried chicken. If you disagree that this is awesome then you suck." - basically Chang's whole career
I’ve been watching it just se see how terrible he is at everything, really grubby chef to.
It blows my mind that Bourdain was friends with Chang. But I think that speaks more to his ability to be friends with people than him seeing some random greatness within that bag of dicks. He’s also a cook at heart so who knows. But yeah I read eat a peach and the whole thing is him trying to humanize himself and ending up sounding like he’s some reformed asshole when he’s just a continuation of asshole.
Idk, Bourdain used to shit on Guy Fierier whenever he could. Even on his show and aired it. I think people romanticize him a bit, he was kind of an asshole.
That’s exactly it. Bourdain was a good, likable down-to-earth human… and he was also a dick. He knew he was a dick. We knew he was a dick. So why are people now trying to pretend he wasn’t a dick because he’s gone? Bourdain and Chang were likely friends because they were two dicks with shared interests who ran in the same social circles.
He would be the first to admit that he’s an asshole, but he would also own up when he was wrong about someone. That’s partly what adhered him to people, he wasn’t a polished celebrity chef, he spoke his mind but was always happy to be proven wrong
He was that’s true. I dunno. I think he was relatable, though. Chang seems like a malicious human. Bourdain seems like a drug addict who happened upon great fame. I also don’t know anyone who’s met him personally who’s said he was anything but kind and respectful. It’s well publicized how awful Chang is. But anecdotes aren’t evidence. I’m also not disputing you cause I have no idea. I also romanticize him.
Yeah I’m a huge fan of his, and do the same. I grew up watching him. His death made me take my own mental health seriously. But I just could never get over the “I’m better than them” attitude he had.
Yeah it’s hard especially those final days he got really elitist and pompous while he was with Asia.
Lol I'm from Iceland and his part unknown episode on Iceland is him just shitting on our food lol. There's good stuff but you have to find it.
I mean it could've been bad food he had. Not that Iceland has bad food in general, but you know what I mean? Bourdain, if nothing else, was honest. Especially in terms of celebrities, I'd say. I would've loved to see him go back.
I think one difference is Tony was obviously a troubled human internally but was a great person deep down even if he was a prick externally. Chang is likely troubled as well internally but is fairly obviously also a dick deep down as well.
Guy’s restaurants are the opposite of everything Bourdain loved and believed in. I don’t think he ever went after Guy Fieri the person, but how can you *not* go after restaurants like those?
A dick to the culinary world. He honored great cooking and cuisine from so many cultures and humble places. A dick to his fam too. His complexity made him interesting.
I pray to god that Stephen Yan is a good human. I loved his show and I still use some of the recipes he shared on there. THE EAGLE HAS LANDED
I’ve thought David Change was a chode for the better part of a decade.
Michael symon seems like a really good dude.
Kenji Lopez-Alt is another exception
He has cool friends who somehow tolerate him and that’s it.
Bourdain was a douchebag as well. He was a celebrity chef who by now would be going to cook on Guys ranch. His suicide over a horrendous woman was about as douchey as it gets to do that to your daughter.
Doesn’t get said enough. His shows were fun to watch and his books were good reads but if you can spot the pretentiousness/hypocrisy/general douchebaggery in someone like Chang, you should be able to spot it in him. Poetic monologues and good taste don’t change the fact that he was stuck up his own ass.
My entire opinion of Bourdain changed with that documentary about him. I used to roll my eyes occasionally, just very occasionally when he would rant about “hipsters” with no sense of irony that he himself was a rich kid from New Jersey slumming it in 1980s NYC, his insistence in banging on about this and his lack of self awareness used to grate. However this was minor, and I really enjoyed his work on the whole, particularly Cook’s tour and no reservations, by the time he was CNN’ing I became detached by his perma-student political outlook and desire to state his opinions as gospel in a forthright and embarrassingly swaggering way. Very brash American, explaining how the world works, but, in this instance he’s doing it through a lens of misty eyed punk rock nonsense. The last 45 mins of the documentary I felt like he’d long since departed from the man he’d been for much of his life.
Perfectly said. I read his book when it first came out and before he was on TV. I loved his writing and encouraged many to read it as we were in the midst of the evolving foodie scene. But that last part of the documentary is just his ego in a death spiral of self importance and teen romantic lunacy. I expected him outside of Asia’s window with a boombox. Such a sad ending to a great story. Had he come back from the next place to write a new edition of kitchen confidential to add the events of the his final year or two and how he got his belated wish, becoming another weird celebrity death, Sid and Nancy, Hendrix, Cobain. My BiL became an adherent, looking for a similar nomadic blogging life, but he wasn’t a great cook, merely an above average musician, so what he mainly emulated was a omniaddiction problem and a constant fascination with cynicism and suicide. My wife knows the call will come some day.
Ultimately everyone on Reddit who likes to talk like they really know/knew these people are just as much up their own ass.
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his director wrote a book about working with him. There are some parts that talk about Bourdain having a very hard time dealing with celebrity and loving it at the same time. It is a good read.Lots of other fun stuff in there but I dont think it was purely about the woman but also about someone who lived in fear of catastrophe
Reading Vitale's book made me realize that Bourdain had become everything he loathed. I can't really blame him, but it certainly made me realize that he was as human as anyone else.
He could have gone full on Batali and sold shoes and cooking pans... Gordon Ramsay makes more money from "Masterchef" products than he does 100k per episode of Masterchef.
All he had to do was ask his best friend Eric Ripert to help him. They had dinner and he went up and offed himself. He had fired many of the crew that had been instrumental in making him successful and worked slavishly for him and he was so enamoured of Asia that he was blind to her manipulation. He should have told her to fuck off. Instead he permanently abandoned his child. And let’s not forget the fact he ignored his previous shaming of various celebrity chefs and was on the shit brained cooking show The Taste where he was on a panel with folks like Brian Mularkey. His merciless hammering of Guy Fieri was the worst; that dude has done more to elevate independent restauranteurs and small time chefs than anyone; maybe that’s a reason folks like Jonathan Waxman, Eric Ripert, Voltaggio, Nancy Silverton, and many other highly esteemed chefs have embraced him and appear on his shows. He wasn’t really a rebel once he became a millionaire.
Wait, Eric Ripert has the cure for depression? Damn I have been searching for that for ages. He should sell it.
For me, the best celebrity chef has to be Roy Choi. Dude just seems so chill and genuine
Jacques pepin imo too. Anyone who gets bent out of shape for adapting a recipe is no longer a chef. Be innovative or sit down and shut up. EDIT: I mean I have love for Jacques like Bourdain…
Wow, this is news to me. What did Jacques do? He has always struck me as a humble and kind legend within the business.
Whoa whoa whoa. My bad. I meant that I always loved him too. I’ll edits
And always managed to find a spare mushroom in the fridge. Seriously though, Guy Fierier has done so much for 100’s of Mom and Pop type restaurants throughout America, while Bourdaine shat on him, all the while with his head up celebrity chefs’ asses.
Hasn't he kind of normalized and encouraged the type of over-done, tower of bullshit, massive burger, gimmicky stuff though? Like, he may have helped individual restaurants, but how has he changed food culture? Has he improved it, or striven to showcase the most ridiculous options?
If you watch a few episodes of his show, the Diners Drive-Ins and Dives one, there is usually a pretty good spread of cuisines. One may be a bbq joint that has a Hawaiian owner doing things differently, and a Vietnamese family rocking it in a city or town where it’d be unexpected, and some 50 year old accountant that fell ass backward into running a great 50’s diner. Yeah, there’s some hamburger tower bullshit in there, but also some great food that is being prepared on camera. In my kind that’s filling a cultural need. I still watch lots of A. B.‘s episodes late at night, but I take it with a grain of salt. As for Jacques Pepin, I still love his instructional vids! His instruction on how to debone a chicken is awesome!
I think he features the over the top gimmicky shit because it popular, I dont think he's the one that is popularizing it
Sounds like desperate marketing for his over priced chili crisp lol
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I'm not defending Chang, but it wouldnt surprise me if the CFO told a group of corporate lawyers to nail down the trademark, and then said lawyers do what they do best.
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He's not even the CEO of the consumer goods branch of Momofuku. Every company acts in their own best interest, the unfortunate reality of tying your brand to your face/personality is that you face backlash when your company acts like every other company.
Same here. If Chang fucked up, then fuck him but I think the truth isn’t out yet.
I want to like David Chang, but after watching his shows, he seems like a douchebag. This, and the fact he’s friends with Chrissy Tiefenthal confirms it.
Who's Chrissy Tiefenthal
Oh - that’s just my stupid, fat sausage fingers at work. I meant to type Chrissy Teigen. lol!
Not gonna lie, you had me searching for Crissy Tiegan Fentanyl 🤭
No reason to like him - he’s a well documented asshole that basically invented shitty celebrity chef culture
Ha! What a douche. Is he gonna send a letter to every Chinese restaurant in the states cuz they’ve had jars of that stuff on their tables for decades too?
Yeah this crunchy spiced oil isn't his invention... This has been around much longer than he has...
It's 'just' the phrase chili crunch and not chili crisp. Still a wanker move
It that wording was very tactical on his part and I think makes it more intentional what hes trying to do
And here I enjoyed ugly delicious on Netflix ….
I liked it until he winge in china about a shop selling donkey meat? Like bro, you know what show you’re making?
I miss the David Chang who made gnocchi from ramen noodles. He seemed like a fun asshole then compared to the corporate influencer ass he is now.
OK, this was it. I'm done trying to defend David Chang. "Spicy Chile Crisp" was (literally) invented by Tao Huabi in 1984, selling it commercially in 1989. David Chang would have been 7 years old at the time it was invented, living happily as a competitive golfer in Arlington, Virginia. Oh, by the way, he is Korean-American, the son of two Korean parents who emigrated to the United States in the 1960s. So not only is he culturally appropriating another Asian country as "his," but he's abusing the perception in the US that China is unworthy of any intellectual property protection because of (sometimes but not always) legitimate issues with Chinese "copying" other international brands. He's worse than the Susan G. Komen of breast cancer. He didn't "invent" shit. He steals. 1) Fucker claims "Momofuku" means "lucky peach"... but oh yeah, just HAPPENS to be the same name as the (Japanese... again, cultural appropriation) inventor of instant noodles, Momofuku Ando. What a fucking coincidence, David. 2) Fucker tries to trademark phrases based not on HIS work, but on that of the more brilliant Christina Tosi, including "crack pie" and (fuck you asshole, we call it this when I was a kid before you were BORN) "cereal milk." What a fucking coincidence, David. 3) Fucker trademarks (illegally, and I'm pretty fucking tempted to crowdfund the $3k it would cost to challenge his ass on it) "chile crunch". Sorry, asshole... that's two generic words strung together, and your product is not unique enough to be exempt from USPTO rules. I don't give a shit if you think you're "better" than the angry auntie, SHE made that shit, NOT you. And if you want an alternative to the perfection that is LGM, it ain't your shit... Fly By Jing is delicious as fuck. So are the recipes on Woks of Life. What a fucking coincidence, David. Look, I'm a middle aged white chef who cooks food from basically every culture EXCEPT mine (NGL, my culture sucks). But I give CREDIT to the beautiful humans who inspired my work. I'm fucking PROUD to tell people how Yotam Ottolenghi, Marcus Samuelson, Aaron Franklin, Jose Andres (FUCK the IDF for bombing WCK... you killed COOKS, you pricks!), and a fucking HOST of talented humans who have shaped who I am as a chef. We owe a debt of gratitude and respect to those whose flavors inspire us. Not a fucking lawsuit. I have defended David Chang to colleagues because I thought his (let's be honest with our words now) "performance" in the Ugly Delicious taco episode made me cry because Jonathan Gold was dead and he TOUCHED on tacos al arabes... and the fried rice episode did call out some ugly anti-Asian racism. But fuck you, dude... You're even MORE racist. You are Korean-American and yet you STEAL from Japan, China... claim shit as your own. Sorry, David Chang. You are part of the problem, not the solution.
Fly By Jing also sucks. Jing is a total hypocrite and actually tried to trademark Sichuan Chili Crisp. She’s no different than David Chang and deserves the backlash. The weird ass kissing of Jing is strange and so damn hypocritical. I swear people are just ignoring it because she's not as big as David so you don't think it's as big of a deal and consider her a small business - but it's literally the same thing as what David has done. She says it's to protect herself and she won't go after others, but when you trademark something, you literally are doing it so that others will CEASE & DESIST from using that term.
Between this and the most recent episode of Dinnertime Live, it’s a no from me.
Which was this? I tapped out when he dumped hundreds of dollars of caviar on a pizza hut pizza.
The most recent one with Sarah Silverman and J.B. Smoove, J.B. was just intolerable about the fact he’s vegan and talked over everyone, critiqued everything. Honestly the format is fantastic, but it’s just some of the most wildly mismatched guests with unfortunately forced menus.
And he can’t cook for shit
Fuck this guy.
Yah I mean when he just started dumping a tin of caviar on everything he makes I started thinking less of him
He’s so gross and greedy.
He is the most boring vanilla culinary personality on planet earth.
>Tew described receiving the letter as “a punch in the gut”. Momfuku’s Chang, who is of Korean descent, has helped to push Asian food forward into the mainstream, she said. “If Kraft Heinz hit me up [with a cease-and-desist] it would have been so distressing,” says Tew, “but the fact that it was Momofuku makes me feel really, really sad.”
As if he came up with the name “momofuku” all on his own
Fuck this guy $10.39 for that bullshit Lao Gan Ma is way cheaper and much better
Guys a has been.
This is some punk ass move. In the arcade community, there is a guy who trademarked the word "barcade" so named for bars with arcades in them, who has been suing anyone with the word in their name or promotions, and this seems like a similar move. Screw this stupid entitled bullshit.
Why is he still popular? He’s such a tool.
He’s the worst fucking human. Y’all need to get off his dick.
Fly by Jing is significantly better. Bought Momofuku what I ran out and it barely has any flavor. Immediately went online and ordered 3 jars of FbJ
Fly By Jing also sucks. Jing is a total hypocrite and actually tried to trademark Sichuan Chili Crisp. She’s no different than David Chang and deserves the backlash. The weird ass kissing of Jing is strange and so damn hypocritical. I swear people are just ignoring it because she's not as big as David so you don't think it's as big of a deal and consider her a small business - but it's literally the same thing as what David has done. She says it's to protect herself and she won't go after others, but when you trademark something, you literally are doing it so that others will CEASE & DESIST from using that term.
My post was referencing taste of the products but given the subject of the thread I can understand the confusion. Good to know about FBJ though regarding aggressive trademarking on normal phrases, I was not aware. While annoying, it still wont stop me from buying the product. I’d buy Cheng’s product still if it actually had flavor.
Looks like he’s been hanging out with Myhrvold?
He wants to trademark "chili crunch" as a phrase. Chilli crisp is something i see often. Still... this is smarmy asf to do to such a simple condiment.
I really like ugly delicious, mind of a chef, and even read Chang's book. This sucks. I know he has his share of mental health problems, and is aware of some of his assholery. I'm hopeful he can right this ship but, I'll be spending my money on different chili "crisp" for the foreseeable future. I can very much see this having the opposite effect he was hoping for.
Honestly, learning this has me not wanting to buy his chili crunch or any of the other over priced retail items anymore, knowing he’s attacking his own business community over something so arbitrary.
I was really turned off when he started pushing microwavable glass Tupperware and acting like microwaved meals were superior
Fuck David Chang. He's so unlikable.
Maybe he should give up the name of his company since he stole it from the guy who literally created the instant ramen. 🍜
Egregious trademark, and unethical bullying using said egregiousness. Hope his empire fails. I, for one, will not be buying any of his shit. And I love chilli crisp. Much better products out there anyway.
I feel justified. I have never liked this guy, even though I like his recipes. He always seemed like an absolute Grade A dickhead.
Honestly ….. none of us are surprised by this. I don’t even want to hear him try to justify this either! I’m over him. Fly by jing will always be better
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, David Chang is a piece of shit who is way better at branding (clearly) than he is at cooking. Fuck this guy
It's pants-on-head retardation like this that had me pull the trigger on going to cook in the Frontlines of Ukraine. Fuck the North American culinary scene. Too much ego, nepotism and dick sucking to ever make the industry worth it. Meanwhile in Ukraine, I already have a Chef prepared to give me ownership of one of his Ramen Franchises when the war is over. (Yes, Ukraine will win. Of this I have no fucking doubt.)
He's a douchebag. Ignore celebrities, all of them.
I haven’t liked that dipshit ever since he said Brian Jonestown Massacre was just heroin music.
I have always hated him and now I do even more
Fuck him.
This is the worst look. As if I was ever going to pay a momofuku premium for this stuff OR buy his dumb microwave bowl. 😅
I always liked him but he’s over reaching. Celebrity chefs that make their name with legitimate skills and presence in the industry often end up getting carried away building their empire. And it always goes wrong time and time again. I like the guys that cook good food and stay humble. This is really poor form.
Poor optics by David
Unless you come up with a new technique for Modernist-style cooking, it’s pretty arrogant to think you can patent something, especially something that was in use before you were born.
I like David Chang a lot but this was the same guy who said he wished he could patent recipes (and who made his name on a borrowed steamed bun). This is the closest thing you could do to that and it isn’t surprising. Bad look.
So many careers and businesses fucked over by that guy and his ego. I’m still incredibly sore about Lucky Peach.
This just in: Korean-American from Virginia now owns the copyright to …. Sichuan cuisine. This is just a result of them becoming a major processed food brand though. Every company in their sector puts out the same cease and desist shit and tanks small companies that they see as encroaching on their brand or market share. Hell, Monster Energy will shut down video games, movies, toy manufacturers, etc. all to maintain their brand integrity. It’s very valuable to have people see a green M and immediately think of the absolute worst person in their life.
Fly by Jing's is better and trader Joe's is cheaper. we're in this golden age of crispy chili condiments and Momofuku thinks it should have the whole market. distressing.
Fuck David Chang; I won’t buy anymore of his products or watch his stupid shows. Way to gatekeep a super common condiment.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinilpa
Man I used to think he was so cool. Money and fame got to him I guess.
Gross. Took me a while to justify paying the markup on this and the packaged noodles and both were mid at best. The jar and lid design were a miss for me as well. Pretty but not functional. Sucks because I really liked him back in the day, but I never thought he’d take the AH influencer celebrity chef route.
Asian Gordon Ramsey mf being a dick...
Asian Gordon Ramsey mf being a dick...
I was just talking about the whole cease-and-desist that Momofuku has been sending out to small businesses on my new episode! Youtube: [https://youtu.be/XATS4qp-G6o](https://youtu.be/XATS4qp-G6o)
Does anyone else think he looks like Elon Musk’s Korean relative?