Mike Coppola

We caught up with her at midtown Korean fine dining spot Bann, where the Korean Food Foundation sponsored an event to remind us that the Chinese don't have a monopoly on celebrating the Lunar New Year. Many of the Korean customs involve consuming copious amounts of food as a means of garnering good luck for the New Year (think of it as a Thanksgiving with the gluttony but no guilt). Choi educated us on the finer points of Korean cuisine and where to find it in New York, talked about her plans for the New Year, and gave us the story behind that infamous photo of her in Times Square.

So you filmed Top Chef Masters in L.A. While you were gone, what was the number one thing you missed about New York? I missed that I could walk anywhere or get on the subway anywhere and get exactly what I wanted, whenever I wanted it. L.A. is very much a driving town and I was there for work so I never had any time off to even check out the L.A. scene and there's a lot of good food happening there, too. That's what I missed- the comfort of being able to order to-go or sushi or going to K-Town.

What is the story behind the New York Post spread where you're in Times Square with a dead lamb around your shoulders? That photo was for an on-going book project that I still have that I haven't released yet. The book is centered around dishes that I love in New York. I have a fashion background and I used to model, so I wanted all the shots to be kind of like a marriage of fashion and food and just be visually amazing. So me and Melissa Hung, who was my photographer for the project and still is, thought we would go one day and wear the clothes that my designer chose, and Michael White actually was going to let me borrow a suckling baby pig that day. I wanted a sweet baby pig on my shoulders, dead, but still sweet. And Craig, who's at Convivio, is like, "Don't worry, we have suckling pigs every day so whenever you call, we're ready." So the one day that I call they're like, "We're out, but we have this dead lamb," so we made do with that. So Melissa and I are walking from my apartment to Times Square, I take off my jacket, I saw this and I was like, "Oh my god, it looks like a dead dinosaur." It was a little too harsh for me. At that time, the Post just happened to come. Traffic had stopped and tourists were like, "What the heck is going on? Is that real?" And the cops came and they were like, "Do you have permission to shoot here?" And I did because I worked for the city as well and I was like, "Isn't this public?" and the cop told us to wait. So we waited, and we walked a little bit away from 42nd, to 45th or wherever it was, and we were able to get some shots.

Did you get in a lot of trouble with PETA? No, nothing. It didn't go viral and I'm glad. I have heard somewhere on some site they were like, "Oh my god, she should stop eating stuff like that," but that's cool, everyone has their thing.

What happened to the Matrix-style jacket that you had for Secrets in New York? I'm actually shooting a new season of Secrets and we're kind of looking at outfits right now, but that season, I have the very first original one that me and my producer bought. We bought it on St. Marks Place at Trash and Vaudeville. It was like, $85 and it got so worn down, I mean, that's all I wore forever. So then we went back to get more and we bought a couple more, just in case.

If you're doing another season, are you bringing it back? No, because they want to make it feel different and it's a different producer now, so we found this designer named Talia who's doing more pieces for me so I'll be warm when it's cold. That first jacket was so brutal. When it was cold, I was freezing, and when it was hot, I was sweating bullets. But I still have it. Maybe one day I'll auction it off for a charity.

So, what's the different about the way Koreans celebrate the New Year? I feel like the Chinese New Year is more performative? It's all about the family on New Years Day.

Do Koreans get together for New Years in K-Town? In K-Town, on the night of the 31st of December, no. I mean, people definitely go out now because they're following the Western tradition.

But what about on Korean New Years Eve? No. New Year day is really about being with family and having that meal, the tteok, the rice cakes, hanging out, and playing games. Some people really do sing karaoke and play these wooden stick games that are sort of like dice. It's really about remembering and respecting your ancestors and people who have passed on. And then the parents throw money to the kids and wish for great health and wealth, and it's all about family. It's really like Thanksgiving Day.

A lot of people think Chinese food is being bastardized in this country. Has that happened with Korean food? Because people only know about kimchee and barbecue. Those dishes are great, and they're totally a part of it. I kind of know what that sense of Chinese food means and I kind of feel like I agree with certain parts of it. But Korean food, I feel pretty good about it. I used to think that 32nd street in Manhattan was all Westernized and too sweet, sour, and salty but I feel like it's gotten a lot better now. I've never gone to 32nd Street as much as I do these days.

Where are some of your favorite New York places to order in? Let's start with Korean restaurants. Korean for Manhattan, definitely 32nd Street, I like Shilla. For Kunjip, I love the bibimbap dish there. It's a pretty popular Korean dish with rice, a bunch of vegetables, beef, and a spicy sauce. That place, the Kunjip, they're really well known for the sulangtang. It's basically a bone marrow stew and they boil it forever so the broth is milky white, the marrow has been juiced out of it. You add some salt and eat it with rice. I also love Woorijip on 32nd and Food Gallery 32 isn't bad, I checked it out a couple of times. I liked the concept of it because it very much reminds me of Seoul and going to a food court and having a million things at once.

Do you know of any Korean cocktails? Is that something that they do in Korea? I'm sure they do it now, a lot more, just kind of following the Western way of being. There's no traditional cocktail. Definitely, the thing people drink is a lot of sake. Korea is definitely a drinking culture. They drink a lot of beer. I don't know if you've heard about these sake-bombs, but it's very Korean. And similar to that, there's soju-bombs, but soju is a Korean rice drink that's similar to sake and whenever you start a new job, you'd be taken out by your boss and everybody else and do these soju-bombs. You'd have a shot and drop it into a glass and you have to drink the whole thing in one shot. If you don't, you have to have two.

So what are your plans for the future? Other than Secrets in New York, and the book. I still work for my restaurant show, NYC Life, which I produce. And I have something else that I'm working on that the world will see soon.

Is it going to be a new restaurant? No, god no. I love to enjoy it, I definitely would not open one on my own. There is just way too much work and way too much politics involved in terms of opening a restaurant. It's nothing like that. It's food related, but it's not like opening a restaurant or bar

But you're going to tell Gothamist fairly soon? Of course!