"David Chang" news and stories

New York restaurateur David Chang is notoriously outspoken, which is why we were psyched to read his latest interview over at Details. After he spilled his opinions on everything from anger management to the fallacy of "farm-to-table" dining, he gave the mag his list of the 5 most annoying things diners do. Get ready for some honesty.


5. Bloggers who don't know sh*t. The top one is to say you're a blogger, right off the bat. That always gets a good laugh from the chefs.
4. Being fu**ing drunk. It's just so annoying.
3. Fake allergies.
2. Special food requests.
1. Saying they're right when they're wrong. Like when they ask for a steak to be medium-rare and it's medium-rare and they say it's not medium-rare.

Get the whole David Chang interview at Details.

• They sell seashells by the seashore -- the shore in Sheepshead Bay, that is.
• Looking for clams? We've got your back.
• Meanwhile, the seafood industry in the gulf is reeling from the oil spill.
• Hungry Girl is on tour -- and she's saying what she really thinks about diet foods.
• At Má Pêche, the newest member of the Momofuku family, you can get "a punishing meal, deeply satisfying and utterly over the top." But you can't get dessert.

'Momofuku'
by David Chang and Peter Meehan
Photographs by Gabriele Stabile
Clarkson Potter -- 2009
Buy it on Amazon

Even if you haven't eaten at one of the Momofuku restaurants in New York City, chances are you've heard about David Chang -- the James Beard award-winning chef painted at times as a "neurotic" "culinary rebel" who just happens to be "a pork-loving, pickle-happy individualist."

Well, now it's his turn to tell his story. The world is finally getting a cookbook from the man who built his food empire on a simple bowl of ramen.

"Living up to high expectations sucks," he writes in "Momofuku." "But for all that, I know this: I am one very lucky bastard."

Lucky, yes, but it helps that his creations are filled with unlikely but delicious flavor pairings.

See what we tested and whether it's worth buying after the jump.

Saturday Night Live included a faux cooking show last night featuring Food Network mainstay Guy Fieri's (played by Bobby Moynihan) death by avian evisceration. Whether that was more or less painful than his limb-from-limb shredding administered by Friday night's "I Call Bullsh*t" panelists Anthony Bourdain and Momofuku's David Chang at the New York Wine & Food Festival remains to be seen.

"Who chaps your ass?" asked Bourdain, and Chang was quick to rake Fieri over the coals, citing his "douche glasses," and "stupid f***ing armband," and went on to ask a gleefully obliging Bourdain to "catch me and kick me in the ass" should he ever find him similarly adorned. Chang went on to add, "I'm sure he's a swell fella."

We're sure that Fieri, upon hearing of this, sobbed big, hot, manly tears into a solid platinum handkerchief and drove away in his diamond-encrusted dune buggy to have his frosted tips replaced with actual 24-karat gold.

[Via: Hulu]

Another day, another list. Yesterday the good folks at San Pellegrino released their annual World's 50 Best Restaurants, a sort of Rough Guide for gastronomes with fat wallets and abundant frequent flyer miles. Sponsored by the sparkling water company, the list was decided by a panel of 800-plus judges comprised of food writers, critics and chefs from around the world. The judges were big fans of Spain, whose six restaurants on the list included Ferran Adria's El Bulli (coming in at No. 1 for the fourth year in a row). France also got some love with eight restaurants, and the U.S. did pretty well for itself with seven eateries including new-to-the-list Momofuku Ssam Bar at 31 and Alinea, whose Grant Achatz rose 26 places from 2007 to a No. 10 ranking this year.