But after catering a wedding I found myself with a few offcuts that needed a home – and so they sat in the freezer for a few days until I stumbled upon Chang’s recipe for sam gyup sal ssäm with mustard seed sauce.

The different style and atmosphere of each restaurant – Noodle Bar, Ssam Bar and Ko – is present in the food and in the pages, with the hints and tricks needed to pull each dish off included.The relatively low sugar content in cauliflower allows it to cook to a high degree of caramelisation without tasting bitter: this was the secret to the legendary cauliflower cheese of which we served hundreds each week at the pub (and which actually saved us from going under, but that’s another story for another day). There are things we say in the kitchen, a codified lexicon, that explain some of the kitchen mentality at Ko. Each recipe comes with a couple paragraphs of introduction, as is the style these days, but this one tends to feel a little more involved.

So I had Chang on the brain (a phrase that would be been infinitely more appropriate if I had reviewed his OTHER Netflix show, Mind of A Chef, but we can’t have everything in life. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. And to an extent that can come across as a “humble brag”, but his specific word choices lead me to believe that he legitimately believes it.From his journey to find the perfect ramen to his story of finding the secret to cooking the perfect steamed buns for his famous steamed pork buns. When I talk about this, I’m not trying to say “this book is pretty, therefore it’s better”, as if a hard-back glossy paged coffee-table photo gallery of a cookbook is the epitome of the form. And it serves as the kind of epitome of David’s journey: he started by making Ramen, at a noodle place. Recipes towards the end of the book are mostly unnecessarily complicated and pretentious, which is funny, because half the book is clearly intended to make the reader think that this guy is totally unpretentious and casual.

I've been a little obsessed with trying the Momofuku restaurants since I saw Chang featured on the food porn episode of "No Reservations" with Anthony Bourdain last year, and reading this book just kicked my desire up to a frenzied pitch. Some of the recipes are very simple, but even the ones that are too involved for the home cook offer a fascinating window into the mind of Chang.

Man, social media's emphasis on personal branding and FoodTV's invention of the celebrity chef has killed cookbooks. But it does actually maintain a narrative as well: see, the chapters of the cookbook are not divided by ingredient or time of meal, or any standard practice. But it would be hard for any passionate cook, or artist, or anyone who’s interested in the creative process, not to devour this book.