If you love both Roy Choi (Kogi, Chego, A-Frame, the world) and your treasured stack of cookbooks, those demi-glace-spattered volumes cluttering your kitchen or serving as doorstops to same, you might want to turn the page to today's feature food story, in which Choi considers his path from local chef to cookbook author. With some stops along the way, involving reading other people's books and, yes, a little cooking:

“Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail Eating also spoke to me, made me believe in my cooking. Forget measuring, just take a handful of this or that, he writes, or make sure your guests are in a good mood before serving spleen. He says it's done, probably, when you think it's done. This book is how cooks really cook: from the heart, cooking a heart, and with a little tongue-in-cheek while cooking tongue or braising cheeks.”

Choi, as you may know, recently signed a deal with Ecco (Anthony Bourdain! Dan Halpern!) to write his first cookbook, Spaghetti Junction: Riding Shotgun With an L.A. Chef, due out next year.

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