Creator
Visoth Tarak Ouk
Long Beach chef who founded Cambodian Restaurant Week and co-wrote a Cambodian cookbook and memoir.
Visoth Tarak Ouk, known as Chef T, is a Cambodian American chef in Long Beach, California, and co-author of Kroeung: Cambodian Cooking with Chef T.[1][2] As of 2023 he was executive chef at Gladstone's on the downtown Long Beach shoreline, and he founded the Chefs off the Boat collective and Long Beach Cambodian Restaurant Week.[2][1]
Training and early work
Ouk came to the United States as a Cambodian refugee and grew up in Long Beach.[2][3] In high school he worked in the cafeteria at the Poly Academy of Achievers and Leaders, serving breakfast and lunch to his classmates.[2] He enrolled in the culinary arts program at Long Beach City College (LBCC) in 2002 but soon left. He re-enrolled in 2010, walking more than two hours each day from Cambodia Town to the college's Liberal Arts Campus, and earned an associate degree in culinary arts in 2011.[2][4] He also studied at Le Cordon Bleu.[1] His LBCC classmates nicknamed him the Rising Phoenix, a name he connects to rising from the ashes.[2]
After graduating he completed a six-month internship at The Westin in downtown Long Beach.[2] His early kitchen jobs included dishwasher, busboy, fry cook and sandwich maker at Quiznos, Boston Market and other restaurants.[2][4] He names the LBCC chefs Victor Hugo Lopez and Anthony Overton as mentors at the start of his career.[1]
Career
In 2016 Ouk posted an Instagram image of his change from gang member to chef, and after it spread widely he began catering events across Long Beach.[2] That year he gave the keynote at the Khmer Student Coalition Conference at California State University, Long Beach, where he also cooked for the event.[5] Gladstone's hired him as executive chef in 2019.[2] In January 2022 he competed on the Food Network show Supermarket Stakeout.[6] He has also appeared in television segments on KTLA, FOX 11 and ABC7.[2]
Ouk describes his cooking as fine-dining Cambodian cuisine that pairs Cambodian ingredients with Western techniques.[1] In 2023 he was studying for a master's degree in culinary business management, with the aim of opening a fine-dining Cambodian restaurant.[7] He has named a Michelin star as a goal.[1]
Chefs off the Boat and Cambodian Restaurant Week
In 2015 Ouk gathered ten Cambodian culinary professionals from Long Beach into a collective he named Chefs off the Boat. Its members included Maurice Yim, Chad Phoung, Shawn Ros, Rithy Han, Hak Seang, Molino Tan and Chef J.B.[1]
He co-founded Long Beach Cambodian Restaurant Week with Terri Henry and recruited the restaurants, businesses and other vendors that took part. The event was canceled twice before its first edition ran from March 19 to 26, 2023.[1][8][7] In October 2023 he bought the event from Henry. At that time he was also organizing an Asian Food Festival and Carnival with the Cambodian Consulate and LBCC for January 2024.[7] KCRW's Good Food called him a leader of Long Beach's Khmer community.[8][9]
Cookbooks
Kroeung: Cambodian Cooking with Chef T, written with the San Francisco scholar Christine Su, was published in 2022 by the Southeast Asia Research and Cultural Heritage Center in San Francisco.[5][2] Its title uses kroeung, the Khmer word for "ingredients."[2] The book combines recipes and memoir: six recipes, each introduced by a story from his life, which he frames as his path from Cambodian refugee and gang member to chef.[4][7] Among the recipes are somlor machu, a childhood soup made with tamarind paste, celery, dwarf Chinese eggplants, fish sauce, beef tripe and lungs; loup de mer with ginger and scallions; and octopus in yuzu and wasabi aioli with radishes.[4][8]
In October 2023 his second cookbook, Prahok, was scheduled for release that December. It is named for prahok, the Cambodian fermented fish paste, and follows the style of his first book.[7]
Works
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 ShoutOut SoCal, Meet Visoth Tarak Ouk (Chef T), Founder: Cambodian Restaurant Week and Chefs off the Boat (March 19, 2025)
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 The Hi-Lo, Gangster turned chef is putting Cambodian cooking 'back on the map' with new cookbook (March 20, 2023)
- ↑ Long Beach Post, Our 10 favorite videos of Long Beach this year (December 30, 2023)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Eat. See. Do., Gangster turned chef is putting Cambodian cooking 'back on the map' with new cookbook (February 5, 2023)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Historical Society of Long Beach, Kroeung: Cambodian Cooking with Chef T (PDF, 2022)
- ↑ Press-Telegram, Long Beach chef gets moment in sun on Food Network (January 26, 2022)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Eat. See. Do., Cambodian Restaurant Week sold to Chef T, Long Beach's gangster-turned chef (October 16, 2023)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 KCRW Good Food, How chef Visoth Tarak Ouk became a leader of Long Beach's Khmer community (March 17, 2023)
- ↑ Cambodian Restaurant Week Long Beach, How chef Visoth Tarak Ouk became a leader of Long Beach's Khmer community (PDF of the KCRW feature)