Majordōmo

Los Angeles, CA (The Joy of Food) — Majordōmo’s location in a warehouse district north of downtown L.A. is recognizably Changish, designed to screw with you before you even walk in the door.

Spot the peach

You’ll undoubtably ask yourself if you’re in the right place as you meander down gritty, graffitied back alleyways, passing a soy sauce factory and a parking lot of trash trucks on the way. A neon-colored sign is what you’re looking for featuring, of course, a peach. David Chang’s bigger, better known global brand, Momofuku, means “lucky peach” in Japanese.

If you know anything about Majordōmo’s chef-owner, David Chang, none of this is surprising. The chef’s first venture into California, with a myriad of super-popular restaurants including the Michelin-starred Momofuku Ko in New York, was a long time coming. He’s been making inroads ever since opening Majordōmo in 2018, named a Bib Gourmand in the Michelin Guide California and a semi-finalist for Restaurant of the Year from the James Beard Foundation.

Modern influences

In L.A., he aims to make food in the spirit of East-Asian and California cuisines. It is a mashup of traditional Korean cooking, European fine dining, and southern California flair. It is an amalgam and represents Chang’s evolving appreciation for the region’s food, which he once stereotypically reduced to “figs on a plate.” Of course, now at Majordōmo, they put fruit on a plate and call it dessert.

If you’re expecting dishes airlifted from Momofuku such as ramen or pork buns, you’ll be disappointed. And although L.A.’s Koreatown is just around the corner, the food is nothing like the traditional bulgogi, bibimbap, and mandu you will find there, and yet it pays homage to it in the best of ways. Entrees revolve around humble, locally sourced ingredients and are focused on meat and fish.

Modern food

The simplicity of some of the dishes might belie the work, thought, and time that goes into their production. Take, for instance, the hozon, brought to life in a Willy Wonka-type culinary lab in Brooklyn. It is a seasoning like miso that adds a slight sweetness to any dish. You will taste it throughout the menu. 

You might first encounter this in the chickpea dip, one of the spread options for Majordōmo’s house flatbread known simply as bing, reminiscent of a savory hotteok — a Korean sweet pancake that’s griddled in the streets of Seoul. It is soft, chewy, and just a tad crisp, with an external fluff that’s brushed slightly of oil. The composite is almost cream-like in texture.

The macaroni and chickpea is a riff on cacio e pepe, a dish that attempts to recreate the umami goodness of a classic Italian staple. The chickpea hozon is subbed for what’s usually a creamy blend of parmigiano reggiano and pecorino romano. Something familiar takes on a new dimension, even more so when it’s topped with a layer of black truffles.

You will also find seafood entrees here made a number of different ways, such as the black cod marinated in sake, mirin, and there’s that hozon again, bringing a slight sweetness to the fish. it is served with bok choy and blood orange slices on the side. If there is any dish at Majordōmo bordering on transcendent, it would be this one.

The crispy pork belly pays tribute to classic bossam and comes with kohlrabi, lettuce, and a variation on doenjang, the Korean fermented soybean paste. Your meal becomes interactive as you wrap the butter lettuce, top it with sauce, and sprinkle on some of the kohlrabi to enjoy a Korean taco of sorts. These walk a fine line between a light meal and an indulgent feast.

Vegetables are a highlight at Majordōmo, more so than at Chang’s other restaurants. Take, for example, the magic myrna potatoes, a huge dish of fingerling butterballs from Alaska that come fried, dotted with peanuts, and mixed with salsa seca and whole chiles. The textures are on point with crispy, chewy skin and creamy innards, and flavors are a deft blend of sweet, spice, and heat. 

Note that serving sizes can vary among proteins. Some are single-portion dishes, and others are designed for two to four people. The whole plate short-rib entree that is frequently on the menu (and must be pre-ordered) can feed a small country, but the dishes that I’ve covered are just enough for one. Determining your entree(s) first will help you balance the volume needed from other parts of the menu. 

Modern decor

You will enjoy all of this in what’s basically a giant warehouse heavy on cement accents. If you squint a little, it looks like it might have been an airplane hangar in a former life. There is art from Dave Choe on the walls, the famous muralist and a close friend of Chang’s. It is a buzzy scene — high ceilings and lots of metal will do that — filled with tones of amber and light thanks to the floor-to-ceiling windows that line one of the walls. Like many of Chang’s restaurants, it merges the sophisticated and the casual with ease. It is exactly the type of place that any Los Angeleno would want to be; luckily the food merits the sentiment, not to mention the price of admission.

The approach to cooking here is centered around this: serving good food that is rooted in many cuisines and cultures. There is a certain amount of ease with showing the ways they both can stand apart and play together. By mixing and matching across the fabric of options here, you will get a look into the chef’s creative process and evolving maturity, not to mention an excellent meal you can’t get anywhere else.

Written by Joy

Thanks for reading. The Joy of Food blog celebrates eating well, traveling often, and living la dolce vita. San Diego, California is home base, but thoughts are from all over. Reviews and photos help to highlight wonderful (or not) food experiences from around the world.

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