Loco'l: Fast Food Made With Ideology | R. Choi & D. Patterson

escal you guys like lunch so we do a little something that when I say Ki you say porv Ki KI that's what's up man um thank you for being here yeah thank you for being here um that was my heart that was my life big love to my team that's what we do on the streets um but I'm here to talk about something else forgive me my mind is still in cook mode so I'm going to use my phone a little bit but um I'm here to talk about local and uh what local is is really let me first get into this uh I stood on this stage last year and I poured out my guts to everyone here um and really there was no plan uh I just to put up a mirror so that we as chefs could all look at it and just kind of like take a litness test and see what's up um and then this guy called me Daniel Patterson DP you know we uh we chopped it up a little bit and then things really just clicked uh and then we just went to work you know like us Cooks do and so I'll say it what we're going to do is we're going to tackle the fast food industry okay and we're going to start in America um you know we're we're going to build a concept that really you know it has that will have the ideology and you know the heart and the ideology and the science of a chef but it'll have the relevance of you know McDonald's or Burger King you know out there in the neighborhoods in the street um we're going to go toe to- toe you know and not really in a like in a confrontational way but we're going to go Toe to Toe to try to see um how we can challenge the status quo of of fast food so you know in a way it kind of feels too big right it's like it's this huge cloud and it's like how do you tackle it um you know in many ways we as a community we rais the white flag and we think that this is how food is going to be forever fast food junk food institutional food commodities corporations GMO School food cheap cheap cheapap cheap cheap cheap you know uh nasty food but addicting you know um so really like where do you start that was the big question where do you start how do you start and does the world even need us to start then I was like [ __ ] it man you just start you know um so so this is this is how we're going to start uh this is the concept A little bit in its moodboard form and kind of uh uh in this feel so I'm going click through some images you can see this be these beautiful really you know especially here in Europe you guys have the patas and the plazas and the big big centers in town where everyone can in the summertime go out there's something about in the streets in in America we have curbs we have curbs and street corners but there's something beautiful about eating outside and what that does and how that evokes your appetite so really these images of the asphalt of colors of fruits uh bringing the outdoor and the indoor in coming here for the first time last year I was really inspired by Danish design and ergonomics and Furniture Design and just the the way this country approaches uh designed but for the everyday life but also thinking high-minded so you know why can't a fast food place be that way as well was our thinking so incorporating woods and concretes uh incorporating uh creative seating areas you know looking at things like this where a big a big part of fast food in America is really trapping the the young kid and so you know using using all the tricks of the trade creating an area where instead of fluorescent lighting and boxed in seating everything is a flow and everything is a playground so you can sit anywhere you want you can climb anywhere you want the whole place flows in a rhythm and we treat it just like a restaurant with an open kitchen um there's no there's no barrier between what's being cooked and who's ordering the food skateboard parks especially in Los Ang it's a it's a huge culture and for for me just the rhythm and and again the the flow of it the the smoothness being able to sit anywhere maybe creatively create something out of whatever is there and create something that wasn't supposed to be but then it becomes something else um you had something along with the Ki Taco which is the first beta prototype of our our smash so um the way the biggest thing though is how you know there are gourmet burger stands out there and Gourmet fast food but still the price point is anywhere from 5 to9 um you know that doesn't seem like a huge deal but that is there there's a huge Valley in between $2.99 and $6 even and so the the IDE really the the the core of the idea is how do we get the food to be 99 Cents and sit right next to a Popeye sit right next to a a churches or a KFC be in the neighborhood um we can't do it by providing just all meat you know and protein so we that's where the chef mine comes in and that's where Daniel really you know where he really inspired me is we we cut the meat with grains um but we may we but you never get the feel of the fact that the burger is not 100% meat because we're not big enough yet to buy Futures in meat and buy Futures in in the odity so the only way we can go about is by using science um and then you have just the feeling right there that's that's just a feeling of what we want to evoke in local you know we didn't eat like you see now in the world right like just two generations ago probably many of your parents or even grandparents um but now this is who we've become we've been brainwashed and our whole diet has been washed and polluted but I feel like we could change it I mean I said it last year but I didn't know I was going to be standing on this stage this year I told you five years I was going to come back mad 8 but like I'm here mad four but like you know we can change it now in two it took like two generations ago we weren't there but and then now we're here but I feel like we can change it in two generations from now you know really just took this this one generation to change our whole eating habit it and um you know so while we're physically here all of us while we're physically in this form in this skin in this body we can make a change for Generations that aren't here physically yet so then that way everything shifts um you know and we can eat more like like animals you know like not the animals we become but like how animals really eat and um so one of my metaphors is like you wouldn't have record execs making the music right like you that's what musicians do so right now we're in a situation where we have we don't have the cooks designing the food for the masses in what in which most people are eating so um you know this this really this presentation is about let's get the chefs us to make the food and the moral choices for the people and let the suits do what they're good at you know and it'll become a symbiosis just like front of the house and back of the house you know what I mean so it's time to shift and we do it like we know how as chefs we just get in and cook and this is DP right here first of all team kogi come on and and a and a huge thank you to team Noma and team muko please please if just in case you're curious if team Noma can throw down on Burgers yes yes they did um so I guess uh I guess the idea for local started a few years ago um started a charity foundation called the cooking project and and um it was about teaching young kids uh how to cook but but but not cook for a restaurant how they could make nutritious food at home instead of going to a fast food place and it was really interesting I learned two things one is that there's this kind of myth that there's a certain sector of of American society that really wants garbage but but it's actually not true you know no matter how people grew up if you give them delicious food they choose delicious food and I think there's a there's there's a myth about the choice that's given you know we're actually not giving that choice to every everyone and then the other thing is we don't have a cooking problem in America we have an eating problem you know we have no taste memory of Real Food anymore but it took one generation to lose it like Roy said and I think we take one generation to get it back so MK Fischer once said or she wrote uh one cannot uh think well uh love well or or sleep well unless one has dined well you know I think you can survive on bad food but it's not much of a life you know access to nutritious food is a fundamental right you know it's one that a lot of Americans don't enjoy so so part of the problem is so Roy was up here last year and he talked about Hunger how too many people in America fall at or below the poverty line and they can't afford enough to eat but but there's this other problem which is that most of the country which can afford enough to eat or choosing to eat processed food you know like Roy is saying you know most of our country is by corporations not chefs you know so so the question is like what can a chef do about it you know how can a chef create change well you know Roy and I are going to like he said we're going to open a fast food restaurant you know and and a lot of them so we're open two one in San Francisco next spring and then a few months later in LA and then you're after that like like a million yeah um I mean you know you think about it like as a chef right no one has actually gone into the fast food sector and I'm saying fast food and I'm not saying like like ADV fast food plus you know there's a lot of those kind of places that like Ro said they're they're they're cheap to most people but to a lot of the country they're not cheap they're expensive you know so how how do we do that well we're Cooks you know there's not only um grains in the in the in the burger there's also uh tofu seaweed garam beef garam too thank you very much Lars from Noma for that that was a great idea um you know we think and this is this is not a charity this is a for-profit business so we think that if we can create something that can make money serving real food at a low price point you know we can do this other thing where people say you know the fast food places it's all we can do for that price it's all we can do I don't think so I think we can start from the ground up and re and kind of reinvent it but if you think about it it's only it's only one part of institutional eating in America there's also schools hospitals prisons I mean think about prisons like we're trying to rehabilitate people and we're feeding them food that most people wouldn't feed a dog you know hospitals like you think about cooking with love for someone who's who's sick you know and then you think about hospital food I mean hospital food is like a benchmark of discussing this you know someone puts up a plate of food and the chef says oh looks like Hospital food you know that is not a compliment you know and then and then kids are like you know everyone's concerned because because the kids in America are falling behind other industrial Nations they don't know why it's like I don't know take your car and put put garbage in it and see how well it runs you know I mean we're feeding them crap and then we're expecting them their brains to move at the highest level it just doesn't work like that it makes no sense you know so this is um this is exactly the moment where I lose my train of thought um so so anyway we we have this idea and um and and if I was really smart I would have brought my not I'll talk about local the name local and um it's two concepts together local like we're [ __ ] crazy to be doing this you know everyone's going to be like what is this like you're crazy and then local you know we're local and so uh that became local yeah and you know I don't know that one just keep yeah I smoke a lot of weed man so like the word just like it looked right you we have a good partnership like Roy does all of the the front stuff the smart stuff I just stay behind and and just watch all of the names say awesome job um you know one one thing though like we're talking about all these things and there's a lot of chefs in the audience and one of the things we're not saying is that is that chefs aren't doing enough I mean chefs have the biggest hearts of anyone I know you do more to donate their their time energy resources than almost any other sector I can think of than any other sector I can think of but I wonder sometimes if we couldn't use our efforts a little more effectively like I wonder about like this thing where we have charity dinners and and all the chefs you know what I'm talking about you show up you make a thousand pieces of something for a reception you make a a um a plate for 400 people and crab canopy the crb canipe but you know it's like it is the the least efficient way of raising money that I can think of why I just write a [ __ ] check let the charity do its job you know instead you're making the charity become a Hospitality organization they're not a Hospitality organization so what you get at the end is much less than what people pay but but that's not what I was thinking about what I was thinking about is the really funny thing which is that you know Chef are there like we're the entertainment you know we're the band we're the reason the people come but but let's just say the the charity is like trying to solve hunger I mean we're the experts it's like it's what we do we feed people I don't know maybe they should ask us I mean maybe we'd have some ideas you know I mean like maybe we should have the board of directors instead of in the reception line I just think that you know maybe chefs have a little bit more to offer than putting a piece of crab on a crouton so I mean I mean so we like I talked about the other institutional eating in our country like who else is going to actually do the work to recreate an entire system and I don't mean just take something that's already there and make it a little bit better but fundamentally break it down and rebuild it in a way that we can we can feed people real nutritious food you know I mean who else have the drive the intensity the the the skill The Experience who else is going to care as much as a chef you know it's not a teacher not a doctor I mean they have other jobs to do you know it's not going to be our government I mean they've shown that you know but there's there's something else that we have that other people don't have as we have each other you know um I couldn't do this without Roy he couldn't do without me you know and then so we're talking and I'm thinking um I really want to have like a bun long fermented whole grain how can we do something that seems like a fast food bun but actually has some nutritious value so I called Chad the Tartine Baker in San Francisco um and so he made the Buns the recipe I I actually made the buns with Louise from Noma so if there's any uh problem with them that would be my fault and not Chad's um but it's 20% COI rice you know it's it's like it's this really interesting delicious thing with perceptual sweetness that you only get if you know how to cook you know so okay let's show her hands a lot of chefs in the audience tonight like what if uh Renee Alex Dave Chang Alice Waters they call you up and they say uh I have this idea that we can change how people eat in schools so we can feed everyone in the entire country nutritious food but but I need your help how many people say yes yeah so look around it's everybody you know and that's what we have that no one else has you know and there's there's something else too um I'm sorry don't mind me that wasn't his water that's the crazy thing we're a very sharing place I'll get you a new one I promise um but um you know the the idea of of this kind of Cooper ation you know this sharing of ideas and values I mean this is what mat is all about this is why Rene started it this why I come every year and this is how Roy and I met you know it's really important so I mean I think there's one other thing that's really important and that's that we spend a lot of time learning how to cook like years and years or my case decades unfortunately it's kind of grown to and sometimes people say you know Chef should stay in the kitchen as if it's like the feudal system still and we're the servants but I do agree for young Cooks you know I think they should keep their head down keep their mouth sh stay off with the [ __ ] Instagram and learn the craft you know but but if if you work hard over time if you're lucky you develop some skill and some experience and then every once in a while you can step out of your kitchen like this this and maybe do something more so anyway I asked a question and what can a chef do to create change but I think it's the wrong question you know I think the question is what can all of us chefs do together I think the answer is a lot thank