Author of the week

David Chang

“When David Chang talks, the food world listens,” said Beth Kowitt in Fortune.com. And it should, given that the founder of the Momofuku restaurant empire has remade that world over the past 15 years. “Not too long ago, if you told people you want to be a cook, people were like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” says the 43-year-old, adding that anyone making that choice could expect questions about whether they were bouncing back from rehab or prison. “Now you see Ivy League kids cooking. It’s just the craziest thing.” Often, the newcomers are trying to repeat Chang’s success, which began when he established a downtown Manhattan noodle bar that offered culturally transgressive takes on ramen and japchae. Chang just hopes they don’t mimic his early management style. As he writes in his new memoir, Eat a Peach, “My method, if you can even call it that, was a dangerous combination of fear and fury.”

The raucous kitchen culture of the time doesn’t fully explain those flares of temper, said Ana Calderone in People. Just as his career took off, Chang was diagnosed with bipolar disorder—helping him identify the source of his mood swings and suicidal thoughts. Still, he resists using mental illness to excuse his low points. “I hate that the anger has become my calling card. I wish I could convey to you how hard I’ve tried to fight it,” he says. He at least has learned enough about himself to persevere in the face of difficult challenges, such as the pandemic-related business crisis that forced the recent closing of two of his restaurants. Though times aren’t great, “I’m still at it,” he says. “I’m still here.”