First, let’s just get this out of the way: Roy Choi is a saint. This is the guy, after all, who admonished a crowd of Michelin-starred chefs at MAD3 with a bunch of open questions like, “Aren’t we just feeding the people who can afford it?” The Kogi BBQ and Chego! chef’s unlikely rise to food-world dominance via a menu of Korean tacos has been well covered, and now Choi himself gets down to business explaining the various missteps along his own course-corrected path in L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food, which came out this week. Published by Anthony Bourdain’s imprint at Ecco, the cookbook-memoir covers a lot of rocky territory: Before the food-truck tacos and Sriracha sauce, it turns out it was all “sawed-off shotguns, 9 mm Berettas, 357 revolvers, rifles, UZIs butterfly knives, numchucks, chains, bats, brass knuckles, police sticks, big hunting knives, little 22 pistols” for the chef. And then some. Here, for your convenience, are the criminal things Choi witnesses, describes, implies are taking place, or alludes to in his book’s pages.
Assault, 94, 99, 181, 182
Credit Card Theft, 154
Criminal Street-Gang Activity, 95
Drinking in Public, 129
Driving Under the Influence, 107
Illegal Drug Use (Crack), 129, 130, 131
Illegal Drug Use (Ecstasy), 217
Illegal Drug Use (LSD), 57, 99
Illegal Drug Use (Marijuana), 85, 99, 99, 101, 124
Illegal Drug Use (Psilocybin), 99
Illegal Gambling, 143, 144, 146-149, 153
Homicide, 157
Jaywalking, 52
Petty Larceny, 99, 103
Possession of Drugs With Intent to Sell, 96
Prostitution, 101
Robbery, 99, 120, 153-154
Shoplifting (“candy, chips, beef jerky”,) 16
Underage Drinking, 95, 101
Weapons Possession (“sawed-off shotguns, 9 mm Berettas, 357 revolvers, rifles, UZIs butterfly knives, numchucks, chains, bats, brass knuckles, police sticks, big hunting knives, little 22 pistols”), 99
For anyone who hasn’t bought a copy — and you really should — Diesel Bookstore is offering signed copies via mail order.
Earlier: Read an Unpublished Chapter From Roy Choi’s New Memoir