TOM YUM GOONG XIAO LONG BAO 6pc/$9
Pork belly, shrimp, coconut milk, wrapped in a beet skin
From the founders of Michelin starred Omakase SF, Dumpling Time is a casual, social, fun dumpling shop. Everything is fresh, locally sourced, and unique. I dare say Dumpling Time is on my top 10 SF Restaurants list of the year.
Stay hungry,
Jer
“Life is about making an impact, not making an income.”
Making an impact, rather than income is the most important part of business. When we focus on value creation and consideration to all other angles of how we can help a business, this is when we generate revenue. It's only when we're able to make an impact.
I didn't expect much out of my food photography work, when I first started it in on a trip to Hong Kong. It was a mere hobby. Flash forward to many years later, I've had the opportunity to photoshoot at some of SF's hottest restaurants, ranging from Michelin starred classics to up-and-coming restaurants to neighborhood gems. Now, food photography is my side business. It takes up a lot of time, due to the hands-on nature of the work: from the operational process of the photoshoot, the execution of the photoshoot, to the post-production of the photoshoot. In all, it would take anywhere from 10-15 hours per photoshoot. Even at the current rate (and rising), it still feels like a lot of effort. I, however, am thankful for the opportunities for having presented my art direction proposal, branding ideas, and ultimately closed the deal to execute the photoshoot. In the realm of business, it is best if every process is automated and does not require hands-on processes. Because of this, I started Dish Crawl Co with the intent to help restaurants grow.
Dish Crawl Co first started as a food photography workshop series: we taught food photography workshops at various top SF restaurants. It was events-driven - we connected people with restauranteurs and novel experiences throughout SF. What the business lacked initially was the scalability factor, and for that reason, Dish Crawl Co became a restaurant media agency, where restaurants in SF would seek us out for the sole purpose of filling their place with paying customers.
This soon changed, as yet another iteration, as I realize what my purpose and vision are. In today's increasingly chaotic world, I realize that the themes of social good, bridging cultures, transparency, strongly resonate with me. For this reason, Dish Crawl Co has become focused on legacy and impact, because at the end of the day, we are all on this Earth for a reason, and that is to create lasting memories or impact upon what we enjoy most. For me, the restaurant industry excites me most, as, yes, it is fun and exciting, but there is a huge element of hospitality, service, and giving back. Everyone in the industry goes through great pains just to serve others. Those who start restaurants see it as a way to build a legacy - they are committed to creating something great that lasts at least over 10, 20, or 30 years, if they are lucky and made it in SF.
Dish Crawl Co is a restaurant impact agency and works with restaurants that are focused on social good, impact, and legacy. These restauranteurs within the network are qualified because they are hungry to build something that lasts over 10, 20, or 30 years, at least. It is my hope that the service we provide at Dish Crawl Co aligns with the ethos of all of our clients and vice versa. For this reason, we choose to work with these particular clients who do good, because we believe good follows who do good. It is this synergistic combination of us, our clients, and our beliefs of impact, legacy, social good, and hunger for something higher than ourselves that we believe makes success inevitable.
As the end of the year approaches and I reflect upon all my goals for this year, I realize that I met most of my goals for Dish Crawl Co and it has been a truly remarkable experience. I couldn't have done it without the support of many.
Special thanks to my closest friends and family who support me and lift me up. You know who you all are. I can't wait to lift you all up with me. And special thanks to my mentors, advisors, and teachers, those who have taught me at The Harker School, those who have changed me for the better at Santa Clara University.
Let's do something incredible with our lives, for when the credits screen of our lives rolls, what do you want that screen to say?
Stay hungry,
Jer
Food Photographer at Jeremy Chung Photography
Founder at Dish Crawl Co
Barzotto is one of those type of restaurants where it's either hit-or-miss. And I appreciate that more than if everything is mediocre or just OK. When the dishes are a hit, they are outstanding and would be 12 out of 10 in quality. I can say this for the spaghetti carbonara and the pappardelle pork sugo at Barzotto. These dishes are the best Italian dishes I've had in SF Bay Area, and I think of them quite often.
Barzotto
1270 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110 b/t 24th St & 23rd St
Mission
Sometime over the summer, I brunched with my cousin and sister at Le Marais Bakery. The croque madame sandwich was delightful. Merci beaucoup, Le Marais Bakery!
- Jer
Daniel Patterson's Alta MSP is a major hit. Check it out in Potrero Hill.
Few weeks ago, I enjoyed the opportunity of photographing the event for Chef Ryan Scott at Burpee Home Garden in San Francisco. Here are some shots of the event.
It was a pleasure to work with the Chef Ryan Scott team, and I can't wait to work with them again.
Stay hungry,
Jer
It's been a while since I decided to do a food photography workshop. The next is on Saturday, September 30th at 11am. Use the discount code DISHCRAWLCO for 40% off.
Ever since I started Dish Crawl Co, it's been hard to keep healthy. As such, I've been going through waves of feeling as if I've eaten a lot and very, very much. I'm often confused as to how much I've actually eaten. In order to stay accountable, I will write down what I plan to eat less of:
- Need to eat less carbs (cut down on bread, noodles, rice). Goodbye to bread at the beginning of the meal.
- Cut down on desserts (croissants, ice cream, boba, cake). These are not necessary, and will need to eat more fruit to replace this.
For the first time in months, I stumbled across a treasure trove of optimism.
Goals can't exist without accountability. For this reason, I'll leave my goals here in plain sight, in order to be held captive to them. Thus far in 2017, though it's been a strong year in many regards, I have fallen short of a few goals in my personal and professional life. In a strong push to combat this, here are my goals:
1) Traveling: I'd like to travel more to broaden my perspectives about the world, to experience different lifestyles, and to understand culture of other people live. More specifically, by the end of 2017, my goal is to visit Los Angeles many times, San Diego, Vancouver, and New York City. In 2018, my goal is to visit Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.
2) School: I plan to finish school as soon as I can.
3) Business: By the end of 2017, I plan to hire a full-time Operations Manager to assist me on all day-to-day activities. This would give me the opportunity to start my next venture by February 2018.
4) Lifestyle: Treating yourself right is key. By summer of 2018, I plan to rent my own place in order to sleep, eat, and feel better. It's crucial to have a quiet, calm environment to sleep in, and the food we put into our body on the daily, dictates how we ultimately feel. This would also give me the opportunity to fully schedule my day, hour-by-hour, which is important to me.
5) Fitness: I've been meeting my fitness goals, but aim for growth. Once I'm able to eat better, I can leverage that into greater gains.
Hold me accountable.
The simplest things in life are the greatest.
1) develop an abundance mindset. and stay positive.
2) not everyone will like what you do. some may even hate it for no reason. accept this.
3) people only see the end result, and fail to see the journey in-between.
4) happiness comes from the smallest things in life. children and animals. the sun when it is out. drinking a cup of tea. dining out at the city's hottest restaurants does not make one happy.
5) invest in today.
6) treat others exactly how you want to be treated.
7) health is everything. eat extremely healthy and exercise at least 5 times a week.
24 hours in a day, 16 of which are waking. 10 hours go to work. 2 hours go to eating. 2 hours goes to commuting. 2 hours goes to leisure activities. Lift each other up and I'll gladly fit you into my life. Otherwise, don't waste my time.
We must always seek to challenge status quo, not for the sake of rebelling, but in search of what's right versus what's wrong. If we fall into tradition without consideration, this lack of evaluation and awareness is very dangerous.
I pray that I lead by example as my work as an entrepreneur and relationships with others conforms as such.
There are many reasons why I've been on social media less lately, but the main reason boils down to authenticity and lack thereof. I really dislike how Instagram misrepresents who I am as a person and how people who view it can make such broad assumptions about my life. Unfortunately, if you've been following it, know and understand that the image on Instagram is not me, and it is only my work. While I enjoy my work, I do not consider my work an extension of who I am as a person, my likes, dislikes, my personality, the struggles that I face on a daily basis, or anything other than it is just merely my work. At the end of the day, I'm just an individual with an average life, and Instagram fails to encapsulate such, that it is painfully disconcerting when people reference my Instagram as an extension of myself. It is seriously dissonant.
I'm very thankful for the endless support that I've received for my work, but understand that I do not have to post on Instagram when asked to (I've been asked where I was at least 100+ times the past month), and I prefer to get to know people in real life. I want to hear about your hopes and dreams, your struggles, who you are as a person, rather than see things in a light that is just so fucking one-sided and empty.
What bothers me most about social media is the artificiality of it. Someone's life may look all put together, but in reality it is far from it.
Deep down, I've always been an artist, not a businessman. #authenticity
It isn't always easy. This is a subject that's deep and personal to myself and I haven't really been able to put it into words. Many friends and acquaintances look upon me and my work and say you're an inspiration or a similar expression of "your life must be super exciting."
Let's get back to the drawing board though.
Everyone's journey is invisible. You're unable to see what's actually going on in someone's life. You're able to make assumptions and attributions based off the minutes or hours you seem them, and the rest you fill in the gaps with social media.
What bothers me about social media is that people do not understand each other. There's a huge connect between the who you really are versus the facades that are visible.
For business reasons, I must continue to put up jer.chung as it is a brand and not a person, however much I consider myself an artist and not so much a business person.
---
I've recently realized my mistakes in my life. It dawned on me that I have to fix them. I can't repeat the same mistakes.
I sometimes have these suppositions that I am not doing enough with my life or maybe that I screwed up things in the past regarding my career, academic, or love life. As if it's indicative of imposter syndrome.
I sometimes wonder whether I'm doing the right thing with my life, to simultaneously burn myself out with an MBA program while trying to run my own food tech startup. Whether it's easier to just join a 9-5 and to be a sheep like everyone else.
But no, most people are wrong in this world. This is why leaders comprise such a small portion of the world. And even so, many leaders are wrong.
I reconcile that it's in my best interest to stray away from the norm, to keep fighting for what's right, and being authentic to who I am. I realized that I never want to work a 9-5, but there may be a day if this all fails that I might have to, temporarily or whatnot.
---
Would I recommend anyone to be a food photographer / food entrepreneur? I'm not so sure.
I don't mean this to be a piece that resonates with other liberal millennials hogwash - a subtle reference to how we are always whining and entitled. The hustle is difficult and requires constant attention, planning, and action.
It requires an immense amount of attention and even if you're burnt out tired, you need to be responsive via email and calls and be willing to meet and drive long distances while it's raining really hard outside.
There are days of ups and downs - where I feel like I made it and can rent a house in SF, or also days where I feel I'm going to starve over.
I'm good with action and impulsivity, but not planning. And it's sometimes scary, not knowing what will happen next.
Entrepreneurship is a difficult journey, because no one tells you what to do and you must hold yourself accountable for everything. Your friends and family will be there to root you on, but have no idea what you're actually doing.
It's a journey that I'm not so sure I'd recommend to everyone; it does take a certain type of personality type for it to all work.
Stay hungry,
Jer
See, when people ask what I do and I tell them I take photos of food, they get all confused. They think I eat all day long. It's also easy to mix up food photographer with food blogger (which I am not). My focus is on providing food photography services to restaurant and other food businesses. On the other end, which is the b2c side, Dish Crawl Co focuses on helping food entrepreneurs, whether through helping restaurants through influencer marketing and helping aspiring food photographer master their craft from both a technical and business side.
As a food photographer, my job often looks easy and is met with awe and admiration. Through the beginning, I've been blessed with positive comments and adulation. Friends often come to me and say how much I've inspired them. I am equally thankful for these encounters and could have never dreamed that I'd inspire anyone with my work. Through the countless positive remarks, there have been only about a handful of cases of negativity - passive aggression as we call it, but I won't go into that here.
My work requires a lot of due diligence and grind. 90% of this game is strategy and understanding how this ecosystem works. Currently, my wish is to dominate the ecosystem of food photography within the SF Bay Area region. This means that, I'm hoping to work with larger deals than restaurants currently. I'm looking for commercial deals as well as cookbook deals. If you have any leads, I'd love to hear you.
All creatives deal with emails, logistics, and planning, and the business talk. It's essential to learn to deal with people with the highest level of professionalism. If a deal isn't fair, you must learn to communicate it in a cordial manner. You must also know how to provide value and continue providing the amount of value to match your pricing strategy.
No two days are the same. I'm currently enrolled in a masters program at a university within the SF Bay Area and have been trying to run my own food photography business, as well as Dish Crawl Co which helps many restaurants in SF Bay Area. I wear many hats as an entrepreneur and realized that since I do not deal well in structured environments, this is the way I learn the fastest. I have dealt with the simple side of business from communications, public relations, and email marketing, to accounting and finance, managing invoices, customer service, account management, marketing, and most importantly, sales. I couldn't have learned any of this in an MBA program, and I'm thankful that I now have the opportunity to apply all of this skills in a way that makes most sense to me.
Through my time as a food photographer, the most part is executing the actual food photoshoot. It does not take too long, and I always love meeting the restauranteurs at hand and having a good time with the shoot. The hardest parts involve the logistics.
Currently, I plan to do food photography for a long time - as long as I can. I'm also working on my food videography to capture more of the market, but to also target online education for food photography workshops. These videos will serve 2 sets of consumers, 1) consumers who want to learn about branding and food photography and 2) consumers who want to learn how to build a customer base for their restaurants. This will all be done through Dish Crawl Co.
That said, no days are the same at all. On most days, I'm working on school work, and then working on food photography edits and photoshooting at restaurants. I attend many tastings for influencers that help restaurants and host an occasional food photography workshop event. I also wrote an ebook recently that can be found here. I've been working on brainstorming and ideating for my next ebooks, workshops, and photoshoots. I'm also working on different post-processing techniques, and finding a way to streamline my food photography business from a logistics standpoint. I also spend a lot of time talking to restauranteurs and finding a way to bring in more customers for them on a macro aspect. This is managed through Dish Crawl Co.
I'm often hustling at this work during school (during class time) and during meetings that are not related. As an entrepreneur, I realize that there needs to be a time for proper relaxation, as life is stressful and these tastings are not healthy. As such, I try to make a point to exercise around 5 days per week. On Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday, I lift, and Wednesday I run. I occasionally run or hike on the weekends. These gym sessions help me stay grounded and keep me happy.
I realize that a lot of what I do is potentially glamorous, but many people do not understand what goes behind it, and what the diet entails. I believe that much of it is unhealthy as it is filled with processed foods, high carbs, high salts, high cholesterols, fatty/oily foods, and ultimately food that should have no place in my body. As such, I have decided to change my life, by still attending these tastings, but really just tasting, instead of ingesting a full meal of it. I plan on focusing on a more wholesome diet that is high in proteins, and low in carbs and sugars to ensure that I have a higher energy throughout the day. I have recently heavily decreased the amount of coffee I drink and that has made me already feel much better. I used to drink coffee a high amount per week and believe that is not the way to live.
Through all these tastings, adventures, and shenanigans, I now know that I want to live a healthier life, one that is healthier in terms of diet, exercise, and relationships, as well as one that free from stress and maximizes experience based happiness. I know that it doesn't take much to be happy, and understand that a focus on finding my purpose, working towards it, as well as working on myself in ways that are simple, yet make a huge difference will ultimately garner the highest level of happiness.
I never want to stop doing what I do and I'm very thankful for those who have supported me. I hope that my work inspires others to lead a life that he/she has always wanted and to never stop learning and doing.
Stay hungry,
Jer
People are on constant auto-pilot. Traditional success these days means going to school for 20 years, graduating from high school, college, and graduate school with a fresh MBA in hand. Those degrees grant you a shitty 9-5 job with an $80K salary surrounded by people you don't even know, doing things to impress people you don't know at all. Then, you may get married and work for the rest of your life to pay the debts of your childhood. They live without purpose.
Purpose is all that matters, because at the end of the day, all you have is yourself. If you're constantly lying to yourself to impress others, tons of regret is going to start building up.
This fact that people are constantly on auto-pilot is something that bothers me very much. It's because society has imposed great demands upon itself to create bullshit and make everything seem OK, when they're really forgetting to cover their ass.
Here in Silicon Valley, it's astounding that we're constantly trying to innovate, when in all honesty, we've haven't gotten the greatest inkling of what to do with the problems right in front of us. Things that really matter - people starving on the streets everywhere, for instance.
People just don't seem aware of their existence and the greater purpose of their lives. Many lack authenticity. They're busy constantly. Blowing off things that really matter - family, close friends, their health. They're just in this rat race to make more money, dealing with more bullshit, just to impress the people around them that they don't even know.
At the end of the day, many seem content with just watching TV and drinking beer. Calling it a day. Going to Costco and Target on weekends. Not really taking their time to see the sky, or watch the stars at night. Not enjoying a good meal over weekends. Things that are normal.
This is ultimately why a city like SF appeals to me so much as opposed to Silicon Valley. People seem more normal, and at the same time paradoxically weird. They're weird, because they're just doing normal people things - drinking coffee at cafes, walking their dogs down Hayes Valley, chatting with friends over mimosas during brunch, chilling at Mission Dolores, watching the boats at the Marina, or eating at a classy restaurant. Living life.
I'm unabashedly a work in progress myself. I know my purpose and am working on myself every day. I'm always looking to improve my health through lifting and running, and constantly curious on how to improve my relationships. I'm also strongly in tune with my moral compass and know that it'd be wrong to follow the path that society dictates, though it has not been an easy path to follow at all. Today, I identify as a food photographer and entrepreneur. My dream is to help restaurants around SF and around the world. Through a variety of services stacked upon each other, we focus on helping different aspects of restaurant business, as well as those who are chefs or really enjoy eating. Ultimately, I want to be able to run a small company remotely, from where ever in the world I am.
That said, my plan of action for Dish Crawl Co includes expanding the food photography workshops to other cities on the west cost of the US first. These workshops have been focused on building a larger presence for restaurants, as well as helping eaters better their food photography to attract more clients. I am first owning the process of food photography workshops and food photography in SF. After, we will expand to a city such as LA or Seattle. My hope is that once we've taught someone food photography and how to build your brand, they will be able do food photography under us with many restaurants through the different cities.
Currently, I'm building out the different resources, such as ebooks, guides, and videos. Once these are all in place, eaters learn a lot from our free content as well as paid content, if they do choose to buy them. There will also be ebooks, guides, and videos for restauranteurs to study to help them boost their customer base. At the workshops, we will have these guides available for eaters to read. We are also opening the private coaching for eaters, currently starting at $270 per 2 hours - the price will increase.
This is why I've been working so hard at my food photography and Dish Crawl Co. I don't want to be another cog in the machine that deals with shit every day. It scares me to see and hear about it, and it's also extremely motivating to see a few others join me on this journey of making it every day.
This is my purpose - now what's yours?
---
Check us out at Dish Crawl Co!