David Chang was born August 5, 1977 and he is an American restaurateur , author, podcaster, and television personality.
David Chang Biography
Born in Washington, DC , he grew up in Arlington, Virginia with two older brothers and a sister. Chang’s parents emigrated from Korea as adults in the 1960s, his father from North Korea and his mother from South Korea.
They owned a golf store and two restaurants.
As a child, he was a competitive golfer who participated in several junior tournaments. He attended Georgetown Prep and then Trinity College , where he majored in religious studies.
After graduating from college, Chang took up a variety of jobs, including teaching English in Japan , later holding tables and holding financial positions in New York City.
David Chang Career
He began attending the French Culinary Institute (FCI), now known as the International Culinary Center, in New York City in 2000.
While in training, he also worked part-time at Mercer Kitchen in Manhattan and landed a job answering phones at Tom Colicchio’s Craft Restaurant. Chang stayed at Craft for two years, then moved to Japan to work at a small soba shop, followed by a restaurant at Tokyo’s Park Hyatt Hotel. 
Upon returning to the United States, Chang worked at Café Boulud, where her idol Alex Lee had worked. But Chang soon became “completely dissatisfied with the whole fine dining scene.”
In 2004, Chang opened his first restaurant, Momofuku Noodle Bar in the East Village. Chang’s website says that momofuku means “lucky peach,” but the restaurant also shares a name with Momofuku Ando , the inventor of instant noodles.
In August 2006, his second restaurant, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, opened a few blocks away. The Infatuation gave it a high 8.4/10, calling the menu “inventive, exciting and different”.
In March 2008, he opened Momofuku Ko, a 12-seat restaurant that accepts reservations ten days in advance, online only, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Later that year, he expanded Momofuku Ssäm Bar into an adjacent space with colleague Christina Tosi, whom he had hired to run the Momofuku pastry show. They called the new space Momofuku Milk Bar, which serves soft serve ice cream, along with cookies, pies, cakes and other treats, many of them inspired by foods Tosi had as a child.
In May 2009, it was reported that Momofuku Milk Bar’s biscuit cake, cereal milk, and compost biscuits were in the process of being trademarked. In October 2009, him and former New York Times food writer Peter Meehan published Momofuku, a highly anticipated cookbook containing detailed recipes from Chang’s restaurants. In May 2010, Chang opened Má Pêche in midtown Manhattan.
In November 2010, he announced the opening of his first restaurant outside of the United States in Sydney, Australia. Momofuku Seiōbo opened in October 2011 at the renovated Star City Casino in the southern hemisphere.
In a Sydney Morning Herald article, he was quoted as saying: ‘I just fell in love with Australia. I am fascinated by the food scene in Sydney and Melbourne. People are excited about food in Australia. It’s fresh and energetic.’ The restaurant received three hats from the Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Food Guide in its first year and was named Best New Restaurant. 
In March 2011, he announced that he would be bringing Momofuku to Toronto, opening it in late 2012. The restaurant is housed in a three-story glass cube in the heart of downtown Toronto. Momofuku Toronto is made up of three restaurants, these are Noodle Bar, Daishō and Shōtō; as well as a Nikai bar.
Daishō and Shōtō closed in late 2017, and the space was renovated. A new Momofuku restaurant, Kojin, opened in the space in 2018.
He launched Fuku, a fast food restaurant chain specializing in fried chicken sandwiches, in June 2015.
In 2016, he launched its first digital-only restaurant, offering a delivery-only menu in Midtown East and taking orders. through an app called Ando.
Later in 2016, he participated in a project organized by a Silicon Valley startup called Impossible Foods. He prepared food that was later added to the menu at one of his restaurants, Momofuku Nishi, as a partnership between Impossible Foods and David Chang.
In July 2017, he announced the opening of his first West Coast restaurant in Los Angeles. The restaurant, Majordomo, opened in January 2018.
In May 2017, he announced the opening of a new restaurant in the Hudson Yards development in New York.
In June 2018, Má Pêche closed after operating for 8 years.
On December 30, 2019, he opened the 250-seat Majordomo Meat & Fish restaurant in The Venetian Las Vegas’s Palazzo tower.
In March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Momofuku restaurant group made a decision to temporarily close their restaurants.
Later that year, they decided to consolidate some restaurants and permanently close Momofuku Nishi in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan and Momofuku CCDC in Washington, DC.
David Chang Media Career
In 2010, he appeared in the fifth episode of the first season of HBO’s Treme alongside fellow chefs Tom Colicchio, Eric Ripert and Wylie Dufresne.
His presence on the show was expanded in the second season when one of the characters, a chef from New Orleans who moved to New York City, takes a job at his restaurant. Chang has also served as a guest judge on the reality show Top Chef: All Stars .
In 2011, he was a guest judge on MasterChef Australia . He hosted the first season of the PBS food series The Mind of a Chef,which was produced by Anthony Bourdain and was released in the fall of 2012.
In September 2013, David appeared in a parody of the Deltron 3030 album, Event 2 . In 2016, he guest-starred as himself on the series Documentary Now! From IFC,episode “Juan Likes Rice and Chicken”, a parody of Jiro Dreams of Sushi .
In 2018, he created, produced, and starred in a Netflix original series, Ugly Delicious. He also appeared in two episodes of the Buzzfeed web series Worth It, and another Netflix series, The Chef Show ., produced by his friends Roy Choi and Jon Favreau .
In 2019, he produced a Netflix Original titled “Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner” with guest stars including Seth Rogen and Kate McKinnon. He is also a guest star on Blue’s Clues & You! episode “Welcome to Blue’s Bistro” in the Mailtime segment
David Chung Writing
In the summer of 2011, he launched the first issue of his food magazine Lucky Peach , a quarterly created with Peter Meehan and published by McSweeney’s. The theme of issue 1 was ramen.
Contributors included Anthony Bourdain, Wylie Dufresne, Ruth Reichl, and Harold McGee. The subject of number 2 is The Sweet Spot, and number 2 peaked at number 3 on the NY Times bestseller list.
Contributors to Issue 2 include Anthony Bourdain, Harold McGee, Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar, Daniel Patterson, and Russell Chatham. Number 3: Chefs and Cooks, was released on March 13 and was also a New York Times bestseller. Each subsequent issue has continued to focus on a particular theme.
David Chung Podcast
He has his own show on the Ringer podcast network (The Dave Chang Show). He is also the host of a spin off of “The Dave Chang Show” called “The Recipe Club” with guest host Chris Ying.
David Chung Publications
- David Chang; Peter Meehan (October 27, 2009). Momofuku . Clarkson N. Potter Publishers. ISBN 978-0-307-45195-8.
- David Chang; Chris Yin; Peter Meehan (2011-May 2017). Lucky Peach .
- In September 2020, he released her memoir, Eat a Peach, in which she discusses her difficult relationship with her father, her long struggles with depression and anger, and her recent diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
David Chang Net Worth
He has a net worth of $60 million dollars. 
He may not be Steven Spielberg, but he has made it known that he can be good at producing, too.
He was a producer, host, and cast member on “Ugly Delicious,” whose first season, released in 2018, earned a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. He also carried the impressive rating into the second season.
Though it’s unclear how much he gets paid to host, TV hosts like Phil Keoghan and Jeff Probst earn $200,000 and $100,000 per episode hosting “Amazing Race” and “Survivor” respectively.
If David made at least $100,000 as a host, that would be $1.2 million over both seasons of “Ugly Delicious.” That estimate ignores that he’s also a producer and cast, so the number must be significantly large.
David Chang Private Life
He is married to Grace Seo Chang.
The two met after he broke off his engagement to Gucci PR executive Gloria Lee in September 2013.
The two started dating in 2016, then Grace and David finally eloped in 2017.
Not many knew of the leak, but the owner of David ‘s milk bar restaurant’s sister bakery “heard about it beforehand and sent a cake.” How sweet, literally and figuratively!
The married couple have one child, a son named Hugo. Model Chrissy Teigen was actually the one who accidentally spilled the beans.
In November 2018, announcing David at the WSJ Innovator Awards. Magazine, mentioned the couple’s pregnancy.
Their adorable boy was born in March 2019.
