David Chang

Chang's parents emigrated from Korea as adults in the 1960s.

As a child, Chang was a competitive golfer who participated in a number of junior tournaments.

Chang attended Georgetown Prep and then Trinity College, where he majored in religious studies.

After graduating from college, Chang pursued a variety of jobs, including teaching English in Japan, then bussing tables and holding finance positions in New York City.

On a 2022 episode of the TV series Finding Your Roots, it was revealed that one of Chang's paternal ancestors was Jang Bogo, a famous mariner and military leader of the Medieval Korean kingdom of Silla.

David Chang (Korean: 장석호; born August 5, 1977) is an American restaurateur, author, podcaster, and television personality.

He is the founder of the Momofuku restaurant group.

Chang started attending the French Culinary Institute (FCI)—now known as the International Culinary Center—in New York City in 2000.

While he was training, he also worked part-time at Mercer Kitchen in Manhattan and got a job answering phones at Tom Colicchio's Craft restaurant.

Chang stayed at Craft for two years and then moved to Japan to work at a small soba shop, followed by a restaurant in Tokyo's Park Hyatt Hotel.

Upon returning to the U.S., Chang worked at Café Boulud, where his idol, Alex Lee, had worked.

But Chang soon grew "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 states momofuku means "lucky peach", but the restaurant also shares a name with Momofuku Ando —the inventor of instant Noodles.

In August 2006, Chang's second restaurant, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, opened a few blocks away.

The Infatuation rated it a high 8.4/10, calling the menu "inventive, exciting, and different."

In March 2008, Chang opened Momofuku Ko, a 12-seat restaurant that takes reservations ten days in advance, online only, on a first-come-first-served basis.

Later that year, Chang expanded Momofuku Ssäm Bar into an adjacent space with his colleague Christina Tosi, whom he had hired to run Momofuku's pastry program.

They named the new space Momofuku Milk Bar, serving soft serve, along with cookies, pies, cakes and other treats, many of these inspired by foods Tosi had as a child.

In 2009, Momofuku Ko was awarded two Michelin stars, which the restaurant has retained each year since.

In May 2009, it was reported that Momofuku Milk Bar's Crack Pie, Cereal Milk, and Compost Cookies were in the process of being trademarked.

In October 2009, Chang 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, Chang announced the opening of his first restaurant outside the US in Sydney, Australia.

In 2011, he co-founded the influential food magazine Lucky Peach, which lasted for 25 quarterly volumes into 2017.

Momofuku Seiōbo opened in October 2011 at the redeveloped Star City Casino in Southern-hemisphere.

In an article with the Sydney Morning Herald, Chang was quoted as saying: "I've just fallen in love with Australia. I'm just fascinated by the food scene in Sydney and Melbourne. People are excited about food in Australia. It's fresh and it's energetic."

The restaurant was awarded three hats from the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide in its first year and was named Best New Restaurant.

In March 2011, Chang announced that he would be bringing Momofuku to Toronto, and opened it in late 2012.

The restaurant is located in a three-story glass cube in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Momofuku Toronto is made up of three restaurants, Noodle Bar, Daishō and Shōtō, as well as a bar, Nikai.

Chang launched Fuku, a chain of fast food restaurants specializing in fried chicken sandwiches, in June 2015.

In 2016, Chang launched his first digital-only restaurant, which offers a menu only for delivery in Midtown East and takes orders taken via an app named Ando.

Later in 2016, Chang participated in a project hosted by a Silicon Valley startup named Impossible Foods.

Daishō and Shōtō closed in late 2017, and the space was refurbished.

In 2018, Chang created, produced, and starred in a Netflix original series called Ugly Delicious, and through his Majordomo Media group, he has produced and/or starred in more television and podcasts.

A new Momofuku restaurant, Kojin, opened in the space in 2018.

On November 29, 2020, he became the first celebrity to win the $1,000,000 top prize for his charity, Southern Smoke Foundation, and the fourteenth overall million dollar winner on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

Chang was born in Arlington, Virginia, the son of Korean parents, mother Woo Chung Hi "Sherri," who was born in Kaesong, and Chang Jin Pil, later Joseph P. Chang, who was born in Pyongyang.

Chang grew up in Arlington, with two older brothers and one sister.