David Chang's Ego-Driven Burrito Failure

If you're a fan of David Chang's three Momofuku restaurants in New York, or just a fan of cookbooks in general, the recently released Momofuku Cookbook is a must-read. David Chang is a great writer, and while the recipes are uniformly strong and easy to follow, the real meat of the book is the story of how he grew from an okay chef working the lines in a string of New York kitchens to the burgeoning star chef that he is. Here are some of the juiciest tidbits that he drops along the way:

--Chang's diet consists almost exclusively of Chinese take out and fast food

-- The previous restaurant in the Sssam bar space housed a brothel in the basement

-- The night before opening the Noodle bar, Chang blew most of his remaining budget on strippers

-- Chang graduated with B.A. in Religious studies from Trinity College

-- He found his first sous chef (now right-hand man) on Monster.com

-- Chang's loves "Lies" by Guns and Roses

-- He once went to the emergency room seven times in two weeks for undiagnosed stress-related injuries

-- Chang cites cooking American food with Japanese ingredients at a Hyatt in Tokyo, as a formative kitchen experience

-- His Momofuku bakery was originally planned to be in an abandoned gas station in Virginia

-- Chang's a big Modest Mouse fan. Also: The Hold Steady

-- Tom Colicchio helped him with the paperwork for The Noodle Bar

-- When re-locating The Noodle Bar, to throw off bloggers, he put up a fake menu for "Paul's Grill W/24 Flat Screen T.V.'s"

-- Chang describes the attention from the press as like being "in The Truman Show"

-- Chang's childhood hero was pro-golfer Ben Hogan

-- One of the inspirations behind Ko was a meal from a tiny, obscure Parisian restaurant, L'Astrance

-- He describes the early days of Ssam bar as " my ego-driven burrito failure".