2. The introduction of Kogi BBQ has led to several other food truck businesses in and around Los Angeles. Does this competition help or hurt Choi’s mission?

Ah, the food truck! Long ago, food trucks parked outside a factory or office building or on a college campus were dubbed “ptomaine trailers” and “roach coaches” because they dispensed eats that only the brave—or the seriously famished—would consume. But today, the food truck concept has morphed into a valuable channel for delivering high-quality food at affordable prices to people in neighborhoods that can’t support gourmet restaurants and where healthful eating isn’t always the norm.
Helping to change the food truck’s image and introduce gourmet cuisine to the masses is Los Angeles chef Roy Choi, the son of Korean immigrants, who grew up on the streets of Koreatown.
A law-school dropout, Choi became inspired to enroll in culinary school while watching chef Emeril Lagasse on TV. Preparing delicious, healthy food for people of modest means has become something of a calling for Choi. He gets passionate when he talks about it:
“It’s convenient to eat horrible food, and it’s so difficult to eat great food. It’s O.K. to eat flaming-hot Cheetos and never read books or eat vegetables.”
After working as a hotel and restaurant chef, Choi borrowed a truck from a friend and began serving a mix of Korean and Mexican cuisine—short-rib tacos and kimchi quesadillas—to targeted neighborhoods. Another friend created visibility for Choi’s enterprise, Kogi BBQ, through Twitter and a Web site. The first couple of months, the venture simply broke even, but by the end of Year One, Kogi BBQ had generated $2 million in sales, with the average tab around $13. Today, Kogi BBQ operates four trucks in Los Angeles.