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'We Don't Want to Make Some Crappy S--t': David Chang and McSweeney's Launch New Food Magazine

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By |June 20, 2011 2:44 p.m. |In Food
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Lucky PeachLucky Peach, the new print quarterly from McSweeney’s and David Chang of New York’s Momofuku restaurants, hit newsstands last week. Co-editor Peter Meehan, who also co-authored the Momofuku cookbook, writes in the introduction that the magazine came about when the group first talked about doing a TV show. That instead morphed into an iPad app, which reportedly features two hours of video and will launch shortly. From there, somehow a magazine evolved out of that project. The first 174-page issue of Lucky Peach focuses on one of Chang’s specialties, ramen.

The launch party is at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 22 at the Make-Out Room in San Francisco (3225 22nd Street, San Francisco); Chang will be in attendance. The $10 tickets are a good deal since that includes a copy of the ten-dollar magazine, beer and live music.

The magazine, which has no advertising, has a playful tone typical of McSweeney’s publications, and is full of graphics and illustrations. It’s packed with juicy pieces from Ruth Reichl, John T. Edge and hometown food science expert Harold McGee. Anthony Bourdain channels his inner academic on the evolution of Chang, while Todd Kliman contributes a spot-on essay about the nature of authenticity. Serious articles on the history and varieties of ramen are interspersed with an illustrated back-and-forth between Chang, Bourdain and Wylie Dufresne about mediocrity, and a rambling annotated diary of what Chang and Meehan ate in Japan (which could have been shortened by half but that’s the point, right?).

The recipes are portioned out in chunks with arrows connecting each step, which seems like it could have something to do with the design of the iPad app. We spoke to Chang by phone from New York about the magazine launch. Known for being direct and outspoken, he was true to form.

The Bay Citizen: Why a print magazine in this day and age?

David Chang: I’ll try anything. We wanted to partner up with McSweeney’s because print isn’t dead, not yet at least, and why not? Any time you get a chance to partner up with a team like McSweeney’s why not give it a shot?

TBC: Did you think there was a hole to fill where other food magazines leave off?

Chang: We’re not filling a hole...We’re trying to do what we want to do. We’re not doing market research. We wanted to do something we thought would be fantastic. We’re not really worried—if they don’t like it, that's fine. If they like it, that’s great too. We hope they will like it.

TBC: What kinds of topics do you want the magazine to focus on?

Chang: We want to do things that are relevant to us. Hopefully some of what’s going to be engaging for us will be engaging for other people. That topic can be anything. We want it to be as open as possible. No stance, really, other than we don’t want to make something crap. We don’t want to make some crappy shit.

TBC: Marcus Samuelsson of Rooster in New York and other restaurants recently launched Food Republic, an online magazine. Do you think more chefs will be coming out with food publications?

Chang: Not really. We just wanted to do what we wanted to do without anyone’s influence. Then the McSweeney's guys and Peter Meehan took to it to a new level.

TBC: How do you have the energy for this while running several restaurants?

Chang: We have a great team in place...I was in Japan anyway…it wasn’t really a time constraint. I’m part of it. I’m not a writer, I just helped out. A lot of people were involved and we wanted to do something awesome. It certainly couldn’t have happened without Peter and the team at McSweeney’s.

 

Tara Duggan
Tara is a freelance food writer who has lived in San Francisco since 1994. A staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle’s Food section from 1999 until 2009, Tara is the recipient of a James ... View Profile
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