"What took me to cooking was that there was something honest about it," says David Chang. There is no lying in the kitchen. And no god there, either. He couldn't help you anyway. You either can--or can't--make an omelet. You either can--or can't--chop an onion, shake a pan, keep up with the other cooks, replicate again and again, perfectly, the dishes that need to be done. No credential, no amount of bullshit, no well-formed sentences or pleas for mercy will change the basic facts. The kitchen is the last meritocracy--a world of absolutes; one knows without any ambiguity at the end of each day how one did."