My friends and I spend far too much time talking about Albert Cho. We M normally do this on a boozy Saturday evening as we scroll through his hugely popular Instagram account, Eat Lit Food, trying to decide whether to spend our measly salaries on doughy noodles or pasta.
Last time we did this, we settled on noodles. Between slurps, we tore into the pettiness of his public tantrum over not receiving free samples of Whittaker's latest chocolate, all agreeing to unfollow him after dinner. None of us have.
With 75,000 followers, Cho is one of New Zealand's leading food influencers, but his rise and role within the food scene is unconventional. For starters, he maintains a day job in Auckland marketing agency Mark by South. And his highly opinionated Instagram-caption reviews of the city's restaurants and eateries are as known for their (often sexually) explicit rambling as they are for dictating what's hot and what's not.
In a Zoom interview with the Listener, Cho is right on form. His skin is flawless for the camera, accentuating his sharp jawline - he was, after all, briefly an international model - and he has a couple of things to declare. It is, he says, time for people to stop obsessing over burrata at restaurants. It is also time for him to finally share his story, which he has done in a new book, I Love My Stupid Life.
A memoir at the ripe old age of 25 might seem absurd, but Cho who grew up on Auckland's North Shore with a sister and South Korean immigrant parents has already accumulated plenty of interesting anecdotes in his life. And behind the modelling and relishing the self-described "C-list celebrity fame" there is a dark side: he has been a victim of racist online frenzies; experienced the extreme emotions involved in disordered eating and substance addiction; and, as a young child, was sexually abused by someone connected to his family, a situation he only came to understand later in his life.
Denne historien er fra November 12-18 2022-utgaven av New Zealand Listener.
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Denne historien er fra November 12-18 2022-utgaven av New Zealand Listener.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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A hint of mermaids
Erin Palmisano's latest novel once again has food and romance at the heart of its well-plotted story.
Execution over innovation
Big and bold ideas are fine, but being the best beats being first.
Something's wrong with all of them
Engaging dissection of the 20th-century novel likely to send the reader in search for the book under discussion.
Cell warfare
A NZ trial using immunotherapy to beat a form of blood cancer is expanding after promising results – and it's hoped the 'gold standard' treatment will soon be widely available.
The virus that stole all the smells
In this edited extract from The Forgotten Sense, Jonas Olofsson traces the rise in anosmia as a result of Covid-19 infections.
When caring is ‘woke'
Some years ago, I sat in a small plane circling over Punta del Este in Uruguay. There was a delay and we sat in tense silence until we began our descent. Outside the tiny airport, a taxi ferried us past private Lear jets; these had been the cause of the hold-up. The driver pointed to two planes side by side. \"This one is a Trump plane.\"
Getting along swimmingly
The presenters of Endangered Species Aotearoa spend a fair bit of time on and in the water in the second season.
That clingy feeling
Our pets display the same types of attachment behaviours as we do, or so it seems.
The famous furred
A peaceful little spot in LA is the final resting place for the pets of some of Hollywood's biggest names.
Gone girl
She wandered in on Thursday morning looking very wan, and climbed into her bed. I sat on the edge and stroked her back.
