David Chang's Headshot

David Chang

Award-winning Chef and Founder of Momofuku - Panelist Blurb

David Chang is the chef and founder of Momofuku, which includes restaurants in New York City, Sydney, and Toronto as well as a best-selling cookbook and print journal called Lucky Peach.

Momofuku originated in New York City, now home to Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssam Bar, Momofuku Ko, Momofuku Milk Bar, Momofuku Ma Peche, and Booker and Dax at Ssam. Chang opened Momofuku Seiobo, his first restaurant outside of New York City, at The Star in Sydney in October 2011. In 2012, he opened Momofuku Toronto, located in a three-story glass cube in the heart of downtown Toronto. The building is home to five concepts: Noodle Bar Toronto, Nikai, Milk Bar Toronto, Daisho and Shoto.

Since opening Noodle Bar in 2004, Chang has been honored with awards by Food & Wine Magazine and Bon Appetit and profiled in the New Yorker and Vogue. He was named a TIME 100, one of GQ's "Men of the Year," and Fortune's "40 Under 40." Chang has been called one of "The Most Influential People of the 21st Century" by Esquire and one of Fast Company's "10 Most Creative People in Food."

Chang has taken home four James Beard Foundation Awards and Momofuku Ko has two Michelin stars, which it has retained for six years. Momofuku Ko, Momofuku Ssam Bar and Momofuku Seiobo are all featured on the S. Pellegrino World's Best Restaurants list. Momofuku Seiobo also has three hats from The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide (2013 and 2014 editions) and was the first restaurant to receive this honor in its opening year. Gourmet Traveller selected Momofuku Seiobo as Restaurant of the Year for 2014 in addition to the #1 restaurant on the Top 100 2014 Restaurant Guide.

Chang's first cookbook, Momofuku, a New York Times best seller, came out in the fall of 2009. His quarterly print journal with Peter Meehan and Chris Ying called Lucky Peach launched in the summer of 2011. Lucky Peach Issue 2 & Issue 3 are both New York Times bestsellers. In the fall of 2012, Chang was the first chef to be featured on the PBS television show The Mind of a Chef.

Chang and Momofuku are also collaborating with Dave Arnold to create new equipment for use in the food sciences. The company will be called Booker and Dax, which is also the name of Momofuku's bar project with Arnold.