637: The Korean Restaurant Family Novel with Jinwoo Chong

Jinwoo Chong is the author of the novels I Leave It Up to You and Flux, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. We really enjoyed I Leave It Up to You. It’s a family story set in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and it features a Korean family working in a Japanese-Korean restaurant, with a family dynamic that feels quite realistic. Jinwoo talks about the research that went into writing so colorfully about restaurant culture as well as his own food memories from growing up in New Jersey. And, at the top of the show, it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt talk about what is exciting them in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: David Lebovitz has revised Ready for Dessert, a visit to Pavé NYC, Coffee Project NY is roasting exceptional coffee. Also: One Love Community Fridge launched a CSA, Van Leeuwen is king of non-dairy, and Muteki Udon is serving one of our favorite salads. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube

By This Is TASTE

3:00 AM EDT on August 9, 2025

Note: this podcast contains explicit content.

Episode Info

Episode637

Jinwoo Chong is the author of the novels I Leave It Up to You and Flux, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. We really enjoyed I Leave It Up to You. It’s a family story set in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and it features a Korean family working in a Japanese-Korean restaurant, with a family dynamic that feels quite realistic. Jinwoo talks about the research that went into writing so colorfully about restaurant culture as well as his own food memories from growing up in New Jersey. And, at the top of the show, it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt talk about what is exciting them in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: David Lebovitz has revised Ready for Dessert, a visit to Pavé NYC, Coffee Project NY is roasting exceptional coffee. Also: One Love Community Fridge launched a CSA, Van Leeuwen is king of non-dairy, and Muteki Udon is serving one of our favorite salads.Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices