What were your favorite foods growing up?
Japanese and Chinese cuisine, including sushi, tonkatsu, tempura, yakitori, tepanyaki, shabu shabu, okonomiyaki, chow fun, and dim sum.

When did you decide you wanted to open a food truck?
In about March 2010, when I realized I could not raise all the capital I needed for a full build out restaurant.

Where and when did your interest in food begin?
At a very early age when I lived in Tokyo. Japanese cuisine is so diverse and so explosive in flavor. The effort the Japanese put behind their food is nothing short of phenomenal, and their cuisine really shaped my love of food early on.

If you didn't own a food truck, what would you be?
I probably would not be an attorney; I would do something in sports or marketing.

Who/what has shaped your cooking the most over the years?
My mother. She is a fantastic cook. Not only does she cook amazing Chinese food (she is Chinese), she cooks all types of cuisines at a high level.

How would you describe your cuisine?
Eclectic and unique. Our goal was to put flavor combinations out there that a lot of the general public was not regularly exposed to. These flavors are Southern and Asian inspired, however, so they are not wholly unfamiliar.

What influences your cooking style and particularly the menu at your truck?
My cooking style and The Peached Tortilla menu are influenced by my upbringing. I was born in Asia and was influenced by Asian cuisine early in my life. I then moved to Atlanta where I was introduced to Southern cuisine during my teenage years.

How did you come up with the name for your truck?
Georgia is the peach state and I wanted to incorporate the word "peach" into my concept's name. Peached obviously is not a word, but I wanted something funky and a little bit out there. Something which indicated that as a concept, we were willing to "color outside the lines." We define "peached" as flavorsmitten, but really it's open for interpretation. Getting peached is whatever you feel when you eat our food.

What are your favorite culinary weapons in the kitchen?
We wouldn't survive without a mandolin and a pressure cooker. We do our prep work on our truck so it's really important that the equipment we have can minimize prep time and still produce our menu effectively.

What is your favorite secret ingredient?
Chili garlic sauce.

What is the one rule or value you try to instill in all of your staff?
Never satisfy for mediocre. If the presentation is off for our food, I tell our staff to redo it. Even if there is a smudge on the plate we serve our food on. If the taste is off on our product just a little bit, we won't serve it until we make it perfect.

What qualities do you look for when hiring cooks?
A cook has to be a machine in the kitchen. I look for someone who is mentally tough to handle the hours. I also look for someone with experience; someone who has experience cooking with a variety of ingredients using a variety of methods. Experience is king in the kitchen and I want to have someone in my corner whose weathered the storm on multiple occasions. Luckily, I found one of those guys.

What was the most challenging meal you had to make? Why?
Anything with hand rolled pasta. The process of rolling out the pasta, letting it dry for the right amount of time, etc. takes forever.

What was your worst restaurant/truck disaster?
There are plenty to pick from. On our first dry run our grill went out on our drive and so we were in a ten minute hole on orders right off the bat.

What is your least favorite food?
I'm not sure I have one. I don' really care for chicken breast though.

What is your beverage of choice?
Coca-cola served out of a bottle.

What are some recent dining and culinary trends you have been observing?
There's the obvious mobile food truck trend taking New York and LA by storm. Asian flavors are really hot right now, especially Korean (we see that with Kogi and the Korean taco boom). But it really goes beyond Korean; Americans are looking beyond the Panda Expresses and prototypical Chinese buffets and are seeking out more sophisticated Asian flavor profiles.

When you are not eating at your own truck, where are you eating?
There was a noodle house in St. Louis called Bobo Noodle where I used to eat at twice a week. There was something about hot noodles coming straight out of a wok which lit up my day. I'm also a fan of East Side Kings, a trailer in the back of the Liberty Bar in Austin.

Which foreign country inspires your style most?
Japan, not so much in flavor profiles but in the sophistication and thoughtfulness put behind the food that is put out. There is nothing haphazard about Japanese cuisine; it is all thought out.

What was the most spectacular meal you have ever had?
My parents took my sister and I to a hole-in-the-wall tempura joint off the streets of Roppongi in Japan when I was 9. I have never tasted tempura like that in my life. The panko breading was perfectly crispy and the shrimp, vegetables, etc. were exploding with flavor. You could also include any of the hundred times I ate yakitori or robatayaki out of a truck or on the side of a street.

What is your best cooking tip for a home enthusiast?
More complex isn't necessarily better. One of my favorite things to eat is salmon; as long as you get a real fresh piece, just season it with salt and pepper, put a good sear on it on the pan, and stick it in the oven for a few minutes. Awesome.

What do you eat when you are home?
I don't have much time these days so I eat simple but fresh. I don't eat a ton of red meat at home, so I eat mostly fish (salmon, steelhead, cod, skate) and chicken (roasted leg). I usually cook a side of veg which I roast with smoked applewood sea salt, crushed black pepper, olive oil and balsamic. Simple and healthy but flavorful.