Who

The unrivaled "It" boy of the New York culinary scene, Chang is the chef and restaurateur behind the ridiculously popular East Village eateries Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momufuku Ssam Bar, and Momofuku Ko.

Backstory

The son of a Korean immigrant who owned several restaurants in suburban Virginia, Chang went to college at Trinity, suffered through an entry-level job in finance, and then decided to pursue food, enrolling at New York's French Culinary Institute. Following stints at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Mercer Kitchen and Tom Colicchio's Craft, in 2002 Chang departed for Tokyo, where he apprenticed with a veteran soba maker whose shop was located inside one of the Japanese capital's finest, er, homeless shelters. After returning to the U.S., he tried to fit in at Daniel Boulud's Café Boulud, but quickly decided he'd be better off on his own. With $130,000 in financing from his restaurant-owning father, Chang opened his 650-square-foot spot with partner Joacquin Baca (now of Ken Friedman and Taavo Somer's Rusty Knot) in 2004.

Of note

It took a few months for word to spread but when it did, Chang became the object of unmatched critical bootlicking, with the foodie establishment cooing over Momofuku's hoisin-slathered Berkshire pork buns, the "irresistible slurpability" of its ramen, and the charmingly iconoclastic young chef behind it all. Fancy awards and torrents of adulatory media attention soon followed: In 2006, Food & Wine actually changed its nominating criteria just so it could name him one of the year's "Best New Chefs"; the James Beard Foundation bestowed its Rising Star Chef award upon him; and the New York Times, GQ, New York, and the New Yorker all ran multi-page profiles hailing this culinary messiah. Late in 2006, Chang unveiled his sophomore venture, Ssam, a restaurant he initially styled as an Asian burrito bar. Despite his white-hot reputation, the restaurant flopped at first, just as Noodle Bar had. Only after Chang drastically made over the menu, relegating the burritos to lunchtime and adding a collection of freewheeling, pork-heavy confections like Bo Ssam (pork butt) to the dinner menu, did the venue take off: Ssam 2.0 won two stars from Frank Bruni in February 2007 and business has been brisk since.

In the fall of 2007, to alleviate the crush at the always-packed Noodle Bar, Chang relocated it to a larger space a few doors down on First Avenue. In the space that formerly housed Noodle Bar, Chang opened the (predictably gushed-over) Momofuku Ko, a waiter-less, loosely-defined, 12-seat spot where Chang presents his first true stab at fine dining, and where his unorthodox culinary handiwork has included kimchi consommé with Long Island oysters on a half shell and fried pork belly as well as shaved foie gras torchon with Riesling jelly, lychee and pine nuts. The restaurant observes Chang's tradition of capriciously inhospitable hospitality—sorry, only parties of 1, 2, or 4; sorry, no telephone, please make reservations via our website; sorry, we only accept reservations seven days in advance; and sorry, no photographing the food.

Personal

The foul-mouthed, volcanically-tempered, porcine Chang (his staff's nickname for him is "Gordo") is seeing a fellow Korean-American who works in the ad department at Microsoft.

No joke

In a city where most restaurants bend over backwards to cater to the meat-averse, Chang is proudly hostile toward vegetarians. The dinner menu at Ssam Bar states, "We do not serve vegetarian-friendly items."

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