Momofuku: A Cookbook

by David Chang and Peter Meehan

With 200,000+ copies in print, this New York Times bestseller shares the story and the recipes behind the chef and cuisine that changed the modern-day culinary landscape. 

Never before has there been a phenomenon like Momofuku. A once-unrecognizable word, it's now synonymous with the award-winning restaurants of the same name in New York City (Momofuku Noodle Bar, Ssäm Bar, Ko, Má Pêche, Fuku, Nishi, and Milk Bar), Toronto, and Sydney. Chef David Chang single-handedly revolutionized cooking in America and beyond with his use of bold Asian flavors and impeccable ingredients, his mastery of the humble ramen noodle, and his thorough devotion to pork. 

Chang relays with candor the tale of his unwitting rise to superstardom, which, though wracked with mishaps, happened at light speed. And the dishes shared in this book are coveted by all who've dined—or yearned to—at any Momofuku location (yes, the pork buns are here). This is a must-read for anyone who truly enjoys food.

• ISBN10: 030745195X
• ISBN13: 9780307451958
• Publish Date: 27 October 2009
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Clarkson Potter
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780307451958

Reviews

[nannah]

So I became a fan of David Chang after watching Ugly Delicious on Netflix. I loved his outlook on food, his general attitude, and basically all the food he made and featured. Reading his cookbook was a given.

Like he says at one point in this massive autobiographical cookbook-type thing, Momofuku is less a cookbook and more a way of getting all of what happened throughout Noodle Bar and Ko and etc. written down somewhere. So what we have here is a bunch of notes about food, passages about the wild things that happened to him while trying to open his restaurants, and the recipes he makes in his restaurants (the failed and successful). It sounds messy, but it actually works.

But, as he had said, it’s kind of less of a functional cookbook than it is a “this is how we make everything and how we did everything” kind of log. Of course, because it’s not actually designed for the home cook in mind, most of the recipes included aren’t actually doable for the average person. In an average kitchen … the “48-hour Short Rib” comes to mind, with its need for a water circulator and constant tending. To his credit, though, David Chang makes a mention of the fact that it’s probably not going to work in a home kitchen.

There are also hard-to-find or expensive ingredients in the recipes, things like meat glue, alkaline salts, and Allan Benton’s bacon (he’s very specific about this one). However, at the very end of the book, he has a page about where to find each ingredient. Doesn’t help with the price, though!

So while many of these recipes are beyond my ability and price range, they were still interesting. And I definitely enjoyed reading about how David Chang’s restaurants began and reading about the interesting events and the massive amount of luck that got him to where he is today.