An Exclusive Look At How One Chef Is Expanding His Empire

David Chang is expanding America’s palate with his fast-growing Momofuku empire. Plus: 13 other culinary leaders who are bringing something new to the table.

- Rob Brunner

IT WAS 9:30 ON A FRIDAY MORNING, AND DAVID CHANG WAS ALREADY FURIOUS.The Momofuku Group founder was at one of his dozen-plus restaurants, Má Pêche in Midtown Manhattan, for a meeting with chef de cuisine Ian Davis and three sous-chefs. But Chang had arrived a bit early, and he decided to drop in on the kitchen with Davis and the others. Within a few moments, he was clocking mistake after mistake—a cascade of small lapses that, in the chef ’s mind, added up to an epic transgression.

The butter was too cold. A whipped-cream topped waffle sat melting under a warmer. The breakfast-tray setup was all wrong, the salt-and-pepper shakers had gone missing, and a server was handling toast without wearing gloves. Worst of all, a cook at the flat-top griddle was overdoing the eggs. Eggs! Are you kidding me? Chang thought. Whoosh: that familiar jolt of rage. He slid his arm around Davis’s shoulder, gripping hard to contain the fury.

There was a time when Chang would have yelled, definitely at high volume and possibly at great length. He would have dumped the eggs in the trash, grabbed the spatula, and just cooked the dish himself, yielding soft eggs, yes, but also hard feelings. Chang would have made a scene, embarrassed his crew, ruined everyone’s morning and possibly the whole day, all without actually addressing the problems that caused the issues in the first place.