A Chat With Tristian Kwong aka the Fruit Som @fruitsomm

What is the does the fruit som mean? You better read til the end to find out! 😄

I sent over some food questions to the incredibly talented NYC based chef Tristian Kwong aka @fruitsomm. Here is what he said.

3 things to eat

Three things I think are worth eating? Hard one
I can tell you the last 3 things that blew me away

1) Akbar mashti gelato from passione gelato, the saffron flavor was crazy

2) Stupid Kumamoto oyster from Fanny bay, so far and the cups are so deep, super creamy and melony, incomparable to an east coast oyster imo, STUPID

3) Crab brain fat rice from Justin song el at Pax Romana at like 2am
The rice he gets and the way he’s able to waste nothing on an animal and repurpose it for a dressing, a sauce, a new layer or whatever is crazy. Maybe best bite of rice I’ve ever had.

2 things to see

2 things to see….
Tough, I’d love to watch attack on Titan again for the first time lol

If I had to say:
Phi phi island in Thailand, the first time I went it actually f***** me up I didn’t know water could be that blue or that mountains could stand alone like pillars breaking the surface of the sea extending toward the sky. In all fairness I went the first time they opened up after being closed for like 5 years and it was actually incredible.

Toyosu market, actually sick experience
As someone who loves raw fish and I guess grew up watching sushi take a global culinary seat as one of the leaders in taste, quality, in the hearts and minds of people, watching sushi become an art form in the mainstream; it was wild to watch the tuna auctions.

I won the raffle and was able to go down to the floor and see it happen in real time at like 5am. Like every omakase counter, every Michelin star, every edomae sushi spot, f*** every any resto putting up any type of tuna is linked back to.

This one room where like 300 Japanese dudes are just fighting tooth and nail over some of the most gigantic fish you’ll ever see. In order to keep this whole wheel of sushi consumption going.

Actually wild.

Then you go to the like food hall and you get to eat it.

The things you saw moments ago, at 7am, you’re dogging a bowl of raw tuna and scallops and crazy s*** on no sleep and it’s culinarily deeper than a bowl of fish, you’re tapped into the source.

1 dish that only you can make

I don’t think there’s anything I make that anyone else can’t do, I also believe that every single chef in the world is a tapestry of techniques and discipline taught or shared to them from someone else. It goes back to the start of time, the same way stories and heritage are shared; ie there’s no original thought anymore, just improvement and personal taste

If I had to say… maybe a fruit plate? Pork jowl char siu? Neither are particularly hard to do it’s more about care and the specifics I want it to be at and whether someone else is able to mimic my state of mind.

So you made it this far... 9 mins in, we get the answer behind the name Fruitsomm! Big Shout out for Tristian for following through with the interview! Hope to get some food together sometime soon!

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-Albert