Lara's Reviews > Eat a Peach

So, I did not really know a whole lot about David Chang before reading this. I first encountered him with Lucky Peach, which I subscribed to for its first year, and I have seen a couple of episodes of Ugly Delicious. From those two things I've sort of had the general impression that he's a nice guy who likes interesting food. This memoir...definitely paints him in a different light.

I guess, first of all, I should say that I liked his emphasis on mental health and his honesty about being bipolar and what that can look like. He talks a lot about conversations he's had with his therapist and describes the blinding rage he feels at times and how that causes hurt to those around him. He highlights a few particular instances where he went too far, and expresses guilt for the way he has treated people.

But having worked for someone like this in the past, I sort of came away from it feeling...yucky. I was rarely the direct recipient of my boss's rages, but I saw the way he treated everyone he worked with more closely, and several of my friends who eventually quit because of it described it as an abusive relationship and told me how ashamed they were for having stayed for so long. He was charming and charismatic and fair-minded and generous at his best. At his worst, he screamed and threw things at people and threatened them (he told me once that he would kill me if I ordered an extra amount of stationary because it was cheaper in bulk), and when they inevitably quit, it was like he had no comprehension that it could possibly have been because of him--they were all just horrible people. Reading this memoir brought all of that back to me, so...I can't really say I loved being back in that world. I'm still feeling stressed out about it and will not be surprised if a few nightmares where I'm back at that job pop up again--I had them for yeeeeears after I quit.

So I guess, I like that it seems like Chang is trying to be honest about where he's been and is trying to become a better person, but I could kind of only empathize with his employees.

That said, I guess if you're really into Momofuku, you'll probably really enjoy hearing the stories behind it?