New Zealand’s Most Controversial Foodie Doesn’t Want To Be ‘Mean’
By: Jess Henderson
Tags: Food, New Zealand, Covid 19, Influencers, Interview

Hey Albert, for all the non-Kiwi readers, could you please introduce yourself and tell us about you, your work, and how Eat Lit Food came to be?

My name is Albert Cho, I’m 23 years old and I’m a New Zealand-born South Korean. Eat Lit Food came about for a whole bunch of different reasons… Firstly, I come from a family who love to dine out and experience new cuisines. But it was my time as a model, when my agents in Korea told me to restrict and diet, when I weirdly started getting more obsessed with food. I was put on this crazy diet where I could eat one meal a day and for me, that one meal was everything and I couldn’t let it be a fuck out. So I got into reading reviews, looking at photos of the dish so I knew what to expect. But a lot of the times, these food photos were barely ever uploaded with a caption to state what that dish was, so expecting someone to write an honest opinion was fucking stretching it. I guess you could say I just took matters into my own hands and started doing it… I also clearly had way too much free time.

‘I don’t give out words of advice.’

– Albert Cho

What was the trajectory of Eat Lit Food? Were any major events/happenings you can identify that caused the project to take a turn, amp up, or morph into something else?

At first, Eat Lit Food was just a fun platform where I could talk about my opinion and have a laugh. But then chefs and famous restaurateurs started following me. Al Brown (one of New Zealand’s most successful and ‘household name’ chefs) talked about me to the Sunday Herald and I had a full page feature in a newspaper which was so fucking cool at the time (2018). And when David Lee followed me, I was like holy shit. He’s the man who has opened the most successful cafés in Auckland like The Candy Shop and I’ve been looking up to this man since the early days at his North Shore cafe, Little King. I started to recognise that my voice was louder than I thought and then this controversy with Goodness Gracious happened. For those of you who don’t know what Goodness Gracious is, it’s a bagelry that doesn’t make its own bagels and is quite literally the most trash food in Auckland. I wrote a shitty review about them, which they deserved, and they responded, telling me to send them my mum’s bank details so they could send me a refund, and for me to take it as their contribution to my next yum cha feast. Newshub picked up on it and wrote a story, and I got so many death threats and racist remarks like “stick to reviewing noodles you gook.” That’s when I decided that my page was about more than just food. It’s about me being someone of colour, in an industry that is so predominantly white, and almost being a voice for Asian people. Us Asians have always been so ridiculed for our cuisine and I love how I have this platform to shine light to how fucking awesome all cuisines across the world are.

I find that it turned out to have a good balance between boojee white and authentic Asian and this wasn’t intentional. It’s just how it naturally turned out in the end and you can see it by clicking the link in my bio. None of these are in order because that’d just be fucking stupid as every day is different and the order will always change depending on how I feel. Before any of you @me, please remember that it’s just my fucking opinion – Albert Cho on his recommendations for Auckland eats.

Is Eat Lit Food your full-time ‘job’? Can you make a living from it?

As of currently, yes it is. We’re living in an online world now and sadly, print media does seem to be on its way out. I was made redundant from my job as a food journalist at Denizen Magazine (Ed. Note; Cho was given the post after being ‘discovered’ through Eat Lit Food), but my work for Eat Lit Food has sky-rocketed and I’m finally able to make a good living out of it.

Did you start Eat Lit Food with a vision for making it into your main gig, or was it intended to be something on the side that could open other doors more important to you?

I didn’t expect it to ever reach the point where it has now. The fact that brands are wanting to partner with me is still pretty crazy to me. Although it’s my main gig now, I don’t want to close any doors or opportunities. Some people ask if I regret giving a whole year of my life to another business (Denizen) or if I had an agenda while working there. My answer to that is, no. I am lucky to be able to say that I’ve worked for a small business for over a year where I learnt a lot about magazine writing, especially from the senior editor, Margie Cooney who I now call my older sister. A lot of the women that worked there are like my mums and sisters and they’ve shown me the ropes to not only writing, but owning your own business and brand which I will be using in the upcoming future, but I never planned on simply just learning what I needed to learn, and fucking off.

Over the past year you have moved from Instagram posts into ‘vlogging’ — creating a series of episodes on YouTube of food and eating experiences in countries outside of NZ. What caused you to embark on this? Is it a strategic move to transition Eat Lit Food into a new existence?

I had basically every follower telling me to please start a YouTube channel and I put it off for as long as I could. I’ve seen YouTube vlogs and 95% of them make my skin fucking crawl, but I knew I had to do it someday. I can’t just swear my nut off on one platform. That gets so fucking old! This guy, Tim Lambourne started following Eat Lit Food and I noticed that a lot of people that I followed, follow him too. I did a little stalk and saw that he lived in Tokyo and I messaged him, telling him to get the Hokkaido Cream Cake Roll from Lawson and his life will change. He thought I was bold and weird and asked me if I had ever been on camera, which I sort of had from doing a few TV commercials, but never as me just being myself on camera. He said that he was coming to New Zealand for a few weeks to do some contracted video work and suggested that we should just film something for fun.

We met up at Selera and shot on a phone and Jesus fucking Christ I hope that never resurfaces. I hadn’t planned on doing anything with the video, but apparently, Tim saw something special in me and went back to Tokyo with a plan. He planned to find an investor, which he did. I got a phone call, asking if I could get two weeks off work because we have a man who’s willing to fund our entire trip and eat around Asia. My first reaction was, honestly, “do I have to suck his dick?.. Because I don’t do life like that” and Tim said there were no strings attached. It took me a free trip around a continent with a professional videographer to really push me into starting a YouTube channel. Fuck I sound so snobby.

I hope this episode can make you all laugh a little, especially during our current climate where people are in fear, including me to tell the truth.

— Cho on Episode #32 of his vlog with local comedian Chris Parker

Now that you’ve transitioned to the vlog, what are your ambitions for Eat Lit Food?

That’s a hard one… I guess my ambition with Eat Lit Food is to always keep it as something that gets me excited. This Instagram account has turned really personal, which I never expected. People don’t just message me to ask about what restaurant to go to, but they also seek advice on how to come out as bisexual or gay to their family. How to deal with body positivity issues is also a big one. For now, I keep these messages unread and although that might sound harsh, I’m not a therapist and don’t have the confidence to give anyone life advice. But I hope one day, I grow into a person that has lived a seasoned life and actually can give words of guidance in the future.

How has life in the times of COVID-19 changed your days and Eat Lit Food?

Well, now Eat Lit Food is my full time job. I had to decrease my fee rates because nobody has money and charging a large fee per post is just wrong right now. I also have to make my content, like literally make it, and it’s so fucking draining. I’m so tired of cooking and I’m not ashamed to admit it. But it has been really fun, learning new recipes and everything. But fuck, I’m so excited to go to restaurants again.

All I’m saying is, if you want to stay home, nobody is stopping you. If you want to go out, do it, but safely and sensibly.

– From an EatLitFood post, early-March 2020. Fuck me gently with a chainsaw, I have never felt so conflicted while uploading a post in my life and this is coming from the one of the biggest assholes in Auckland. On one side, I have people telling me that I need to go out and support the restaurant industry, while the other side is telling me that dining out is socially irresponsible and Rona is just not chilling the fuck out aye. People are telling me to ‘use my voice and platform’ and like, I know that I have a large following on here but just because I have followers, it doesn’t mean I have a fucking brain. You all should be listening to Jacinda, not a 22 year-old punisher and as of most currently, Cindy has told us to reduce human contact even further. So what I have decided is, from now on, after this post, I’m going to be eating majority of my meals, takeaway, at home for a while and that way I can support both, the restaurants and the community. Going out to eat is my favourite thing to do, I love being a wanker and being seen but right now ain’t the fucking time for that. – From an EatLitFood post, three days later in mid-March 2020.

Earlier on you were a proponent for continuing to support the restaurant industry despite social distancing recommendations, was there a backlash?

Oh my god, yes. But I’ve learned to accept that there will be a backlash from whatever I do. If I don’t support the local restaurants, people will talk shit, and same for when I do. I said this before, but I can’t stress this enough: just because I have followers, doesn’t mean that I have a fucking brain, and we should all be listening to Jacinda (Ardern, New Zealand’s Prime Minister) and not a food Instagrammer.

…if I post something that isn’t good, that’s all on me and I look like the fucking idiot.

— Albert Cho

What’s the process like now for continuing the Eat Lit Food project and coming up with fresh content?

Babe, it’s so fucking stressful aye. So what I do is create a little content buffer. I will make something today for tomorrow’s post, while I post yesterday’s creation, today. Unfortunately, life can get in the way sometimes and completely fuck up your cooking, and that means you’ve just lost a potential post and have to whip up something else. When I was reviewing restaurants, it didn’t matter if it was lit or shit as it wasn’t by me and it was the chef’s fault. But now, if I post something that isn’t good, that’s all on me and I look like the fucking idiot.