Continuing our top ten of most influential Korean-Americans in 2009, we meet a man who stormed America with his food truck.  How influential was Roy Choi and his Kogi Truck?  The Zagat guide for 2010 began including the ratings of food trucks and it would be safe to say that the Kogi truck made the most influence on the Zagat guide to include this new category.  How many restaurateurs can say they were profiled in the New York Times, LA Times, Newsweek, ABC News and many other national media outlets?  Not many if any, but a little truck that zooms around southern California with Twitter followers may have made the biggest news in the food world in all of 2009.  New trucks were popping up all around the country and this was a direct correlation to the success and popularity of the Kogi Truck.  Of course David Chang is the most famous of Korean-American chefs, but it was Roy’s grassroots efforts and guerrilla mentality that got Kogi Truck on the American map.  Roy Choi has a pedigree – a La Bernardin alum and Culinary Institute of America valedictorian - but he chose to do something very innovative with the invention of Korean Kogi Tacos and delivering them on wheels.  No one else out there used Twitter and social media as a marketing tool better than the Kogi Truck.  Roy Choi and the Kogi Truck were honored at this year’s prestigious Bon Appetit Awards, where he spoke in front of America’s top chefs and restaurateurs.

He (Roy Choi) spoke of delivering cheap, healthy, sustainable fast food to kids and adults in underprivileged neighborhoods who from birth to death eat nothing but fast food. (Later Choi explained to Eater that what they do would be the equivalent of an NYC truck going into the South Bronx or Bed Stuy at midnight). He spoke of starting with $1,500 and a family of co-workers and growing it into a 53 person company. He got a standing ovation. Ten minutes later, reps from both the Today show and the Food Network were scheduling spots with Kogi.

Roy Choi and the Kogi Truck is #9 on our list of top ten most influential Korean-Americans in 2009.

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