Chef Keith Corbin will join the L.A. Times Book Club tonight (Aug. 23) to discuss his memoir, “California Soul: An American Epic of Cooking and Survival.”
Corbin will be in conversation with Times Food editor Daniel Hernandez at 7 p.m. PT at the ASU California Center in the historic Herald Examiner Building downtown. This book club evening is also available virtually.
You can watch live on YouTube, Twitter or Facebook. Sign up on Eventbrite for direct watch links and autographed books.
In his new book, Corbin talks about success, failure, family and addiction, and how he created his version of California soul food in Los Angeles.
When Corbin writes about growing up in a world awash in drugs, guns and gangs, it burns with the intensity of the best pulp fiction, says author Jervey Tervalon. “But it isn’t fiction — it’s the life he lived.”
Chef Keith Corbin
(Katrina Frederick / For The Times)
Corbin’s young life as a drug dealer landed him in prison, but that turned out to be the beginning chapter of his story rather than the end. “California Soul” tells how he unexpectedly found a passion for cooking.
He says he wasn’t looking for a career in the kitchen when he went to work for Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson at their Watts neighborhood restaurant, Locol. He needed a job and heard about a new restaurant in his old Watts neighborhood that was hiring.
“I was just coming home from prison. I had been fired from my other job. It was about paying bills,” Corbin says during a conversation with Laurie Ochoa at The Times Test Kitchen.
During his kitchen visit, Corbin created and shared the recipe for Vegan California Gombo from the menu at Alta Adams, the restaurant he now co-owns in the West Adams neighborhood.
Chef Keith Corbin prepares ingredients in the L.A. Times Test Kitchen.
(Katrina Frederick / For The Times)
“California Soul” is the L.A. Times Book Club’s August selection.
In September, we’re reading “The Daughter of Doctor Moreau” by bestselling novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Get tickets.
Sign up for the L.A. Times Book Club newsletter to become part of our community book club. We’ll keep you updated on the latest reads, discussions, giveaways and live events.
