After his inspiring keynote at the 2026 Bar & Restaurant Expo, Bar & Restaurant News Executive Editor Ashley Bray sat down for a one-on-one interview with chef and author Roy Choi.
The candid conversation covered everything from how the explosion in popularity of the F&B industry has led to food becoming a cultural currency to how vulnerability is the key to providing an authentic experience for both your guests and employees. Read on for the full interview, below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The industry has drastically changed since you first entered it and since you started Kogi back in 2008. What have you learned since launching that first venture? What advice do you have for independent owners entering the industry today?
Well, one thing I've learned, or seen change, is that this industry has become a lot more pop cultural. When I entered the industry, it was like becoming a blacksmith or something—you were entering a trade that had its own culture and its own kind of insular universe, and you usually didn't … use food as a social currency or any of these things. You ended up there because there was nowhere else to go, and then by landing there, you found other kindred spirits. Then you were creating this world that fed the real world.
So in that situation, things were a little more simple because of this separation, this subculture. You were allowed the space to move around, make mistakes, and figure things out. It was like early punk bands—there were no rules. You were writing the rules, and there probably were not as many expectations.
But now, in just 25 years, [food has] become this global phenomenon. Food has become more important than sneakers. It's become more important than fashion. It's the one thing that unifies people. It's become the currency for TikTok, for social media, for younger content creators. It's the main thing that allows people to create their own entrepreneurial existence. And because of that, the pressures, the expectations, the finances, all those things have changed around it. So it's become a lot more complicated.
And that's not necessarily bad, it's just a lot of us that started in the industry before it blew up like this are still here, and so it's requiring a lot of us to also adapt and to figure out the bridge between [us and] the new generation….To still stay involved with them and help bring them up because they're still looking to us too. And then our old models don't necessarily work anymore, but they also are still a foundation, so we have to find ways to still use them but make them adaptable. There's a lot of moving parts right now that have never happened before.
Much has been written about the challenges currently facing the industry—labor, rising costs, GLP-1s, supply chain woes, the list goes on. I wonder if you could speak to what you think is currently going right in the industry. What should operators lean into?
I think the popularity [of the industry] is going right, for sure. I know it's an extension of what I just talked about, but I think that's one part that we should really embrace, be proud of, and be marveled by. I think that's the best word for it. Not everything in the world becomes this popular. So instead of being a curmudgeon and grumpy about it, be excited about it.
Food is the first thing people think about in any circumstance or situation. When you land in Vegas, what's the first thing you look up: What's the best restaurant? That wasn't always like that. Every retail center, shopping center, landlord, real estate [venture] needed anchor stores. What do they need now? They need a restaurant. They need a chef.
You've always seemed more interested in what food means to people rather than what's trending. I think that’s become even more important in today’s industry thanks to guests valuing authenticity and shying away from anything that feels forced or fake. What does it mean to offer authentic food and an authentic experience today?
It means everything….The more you personalize your experience or your stories, share, and become more vulnerable, I think the more engaged you can become with your audience.
Social media has had a lot to do with that. Before social media, we didn't have the landscape or the language to be able to express our innermost thoughts….What Twitter did in the early days was it made our journal public, right?...And now with where we are with TikTok and beyond is we can be dorky. Things don't have to be polished. We can share information with each other in a fun way. And I think all those things are a part of this new language of operating as well. The more vulnerable you are on social media, the more followers you get; the more vulnerable you are as an operator, the more customers you can get. I think we have to stop holding back and continue to put value in not being so buttoned up.
In our restaurants and our food and beverage businesses, we should show our blemishes, show our mistakes, show our vulnerability, show our effort, and not hide those things. Have an ongoing conversation and exchange with your audience. Say, “Hey, I don't know what to do in this situation,” or, “I'm exploring using this water,” or, “I want to get out of using plastic containers, but I don't know what to do.” Have an exchange because you have a two-way conversation now with your customer that you never did before, and that's really important. Crowdsourcing information—there's a lot there that could help you as an operator.
In a similar vein, technology and AI have made major inroads into the hospitality industry in just the last few years alone. What’s your take on technology in what has always been an industry about people?
Well, I think technology helps for sure, like POS systems, lighting, music systems, reservation systems, where we've gone with the online reservations and being able to do it through whatever your platform is—Resy, Tock, Toast, Square. We used to write that stuff down and do the data entry on our own. All those things are now mined and collected. So that's good.
But is AI gonna clean the toilet? Is it gonna deliver the goods and put them back on the shelf right now? I don't know if we're there yet, so I think we got a few years still. On that level, we get too panic stricken.
But looking at the positive side of things, I think the technology has helped the industry a lot. Imagine having to manually go back to do a lot of the things that are all automated now. It allows us to focus on the guest experience, the things that are more important.
I want to switch to the other side of the people coin—employees. You've said you can't have profits without people. But for a small operator running tight margins, "people first" can start to feel like a slogan — something big restaurant groups say in press releases while the line cook still can't make rent. How do you make it real at the ground level? How do you make your team actually feel valued without blowing up the labor cost?
I think there are two major things. One is the vulnerability part of it and being honest. Again, the old ways are not dishonest, but the old ways are parceling the information. The executive branch only reveals so much to the line-level branch. Everyone is kept in the dark in certain ways. There should be no dark anymore.
I think that's the most important thing in this era and this stage of life where everything is exposed, everything is expressed, and the vulnerability of who you are is all out there. We're wearing all of our hearts on our sleeves. The information you have shouldn't be in dark corners. Your line level should know as much as your executive level. You should share the realities of your business as much as you can, so that everyone is working together, and you shouldn't be ashamed or shy about any of those things. Sure, there's some certain sensitive information pieces that you have to protect, but on most levels, you should be able to share everything. You should run a business that has the ability to share everything. There shouldn't be any lies or secrets.
Sit down with your team members and let them know, “You can make this much, not because I'm holding back and getting fat off of your work and you're not getting a piece of that, but because here are the real economics behind everything.” Then that becomes a teaching element as well.
A lot of us who end up in this industry, no one ever took us aside to figure these things out. No one ever took us aside to learn how to do money management, to develop our accounting skills. We're figuring all this stuff out on the fly.
The other thing is being as involved and hands-on as possible. The old days of managers sitting in the office and managing … are dead and gone. It’s being out on the floor, working with the team, being a player coach. If you're on the front-of-the-house, helping out with tables, bussing—not just troubleshooting, but being involved. If you're in the kitchen, don't just be a chef that is never in the trenches. Be in there, ask questions, and be open to ideas.
I think having a suggestion box is really important. Whether that's a physical suggestion box, or whether that's doing it in preshift and allowing your team the space to vent and give ideas. And not expecting all of those ideas to be implemented, but the space to express those ideas because a lot of times in the industry, the space gets compressed. Either the team feels like they can only say a certain amount because they'll get in trouble if they say anything more. And on the executive side, a lot of things get compressed because they feel like if the team expresses themselves, that they're being attacked or that they have to implement everything that they're saying. But we have to embrace more of an environment where we can express how we're feeling, we can make suggestions, but understand that maybe only 10% of those things could be implemented, or none of those things could be implemented, but at least there's a space to talk about it.
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