David Chang Got Some Bad TV Offers Before Lucky Peach

A new WSJ piece explains the origins of David Chang's forthcoming iPad app/quarterly magazine, Lucky Peach. As the story goes, Chang received a number of absurd TV proposals following the release of his cookbook with co-author Peter Meehan in 2009, of which he notes: "I'd call Pete and I'd tell him, 'Hey, they want me to go on a farm and yell at people—what do you think?" He did want a show, however, something educational, like what his friend and mentor Heston Blumenthal does on British TV, and something which could fund research and development at the Momofuku restaurants.

He teamed up with production company Zero Point Zero, of No Reservations fame, who realized the iPad app would be a way for him to express an idea as "a deconstructed, non-linear television show." And Chang says, "We wanted to capture things in writing that wouldn't be able to make it on an iPad five-minute video and basically that was the impetus and catalyst for the magazine." The first print edition of Lucky Peach comes out on June 22, and the iPad app will be available for download early next month.
· iPad App or Magazine? A Chef Orders One of Each [WSJ]
· All Lucky Peach Coverage [ENY]
· All David Chang Coverage [~ENY~]
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