Chefs Roy Choi, Daniel Patterson may revolutionize the fast-food industry

Chefs Daniel Patterson and Roy Choi opened the Watts outlet of Loco'l.

CAN FAST FOOD be healthy? Or, the converse to that question, can healthy food, that you usually find in high end restaurants, meet the demands of fast food, inexpensive, tasty and fast?

Noted chefs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson brought their gourmet food to Watts to  challenge the notion that chef-created dishes have to be costly and “fast food” has to be greasy and fried.

“The core of the idea is how do we get the food to be 99 cents and sit right next to a Popeye’s and sit right next to a Church’s or a KFC?” Choi told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s where the chef’s mind comes in." 

If Choi and Patterson are right, McDonalds, Burger King and Taco Bell might be shaking in their grease-splattered boots.

Loco'l's fare looks and tastes like fast food,

They had planned to open their first collaboration in San Francisco's Tenderloin, a neighborhood out-of-towners are told to avoid. Encountering complications with the site, they decided to focus on the Watts location to open Loco'l.

The line starting forming around 7:30 a.m. for the 11 a.m. grand opening. Opening on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was a statement by the chefs.

A Rand Corp. study found that from 2007 to 2012, the percentage of people who were overweight or obese was increasing everywhere but especially in neighborhoods where the only dining out options are your typical fast-food outlets.

RELATED: Roy Choi and friends launch a fast-food revolution

The idea for Loco'l began a couple of years ago at a symposium for chefs from around the world meeting in Copenhagen. Choi, whose fusion offerings from his food trucks revolutionized the food industry, stood in front of the some of the best chefs in the world and talked about hunger.

“We have a hunger crisis in Los Angeles,” Choi told the international audience. “In many parts of our city, this is how we supply our neighborhoods: liquor store, liquor store, liquor store.”

After the symposium, Choi was contacted by Daniel Patterson, who at the time, was executive chef at Coi, one of the fine-dining restaurants in San Francisco. Together they merged their ideas to develop Loco'l.

The two chefs hope to open the Tenderloin restaurant and an Oakland outlet this summer.

Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson.

"We fundamentally believe that wholesomeness, deliciousness and affordability don't have to be mutually exclusive concepts in fast food," state's Loco'l's website. "We believe that fast food restaurants can truly empower the communities they currently underserve. We believe that the giant corporations that feed most of America have degraded our communities by maximizing profits over decades. We believe that chefs should feed America, and not suits."

Loco'l in Watts at 11 a.m. and will stay open until 10 p.m. at Wilmington Avenue and East 103rd Street. It closes on Mondays.

"If [Locol] becomes successful and it grows, then these kids will grow up with this as a memory and impression on their lives," Choi said. "A lot of the [adults] in this community didn't have this impression, memory, or experience growing up. Now, these kids will. That alone will change things. Their first and only experience with food won't be fast food or processed food. It will be natural food."

Let the revolution begin!

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Chef Roy Choi and friends launch a fast-food revolution

Top chefs take on fast food

Roy Choi demonstrates his cooking "moves" to John Favreau.

DID YOU watch the movie Chef? During the cooking closeups, did you notice the tattoos on the hands and forearms of the chef? The audience thought they were the arms and hands of actor John Favreau's character, they were - in actuality - the hands and arms of Roy Choi, celebrity chef and food truck owner extraordinaire. (He combined the taco with Korean BBQ - voila - fusion cuisine.)

Choi and a few of his celebrity chef buddies are fomenting a revolution in fast food. It began a couple of years ago at a symposium for chefs from around the world meeting in Copenhagen. Choi stood in front of the some of the best chefs in the world and talked about hunger.

“We have a hunger crisis in Los Angeles,” Choi told the Copenhagen audience. “In many parts of our city, this is how we supply our neighborhoods: liquor store, liquor store, liquor store.”

Choi suggested that to combat hunger and access to good food, his peers in the room should leverage their investors so that “for every fancy restaurant that we build, it would be a requirement to build a restaurant in the hood too.”

After that talk, he was contacted by Daniel Patterson, chef-owner of Coi, one of the high-end restaurants in San Francisco. No, I haven't eaten there yet, but professional restaurant reviewers place Coi as one of the best in the foodie-haven city.

Together, the chefs formed Loco'l and started a fundraising campaign through Crowd-Funding to raise $150,000 to build Loco'l first-ever location in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood, where the homeless intermingle with tourists and strip joints are next door to pizza joints.

Choi and Patterson test and taste for their Loco'l venture.

“The core of Loco’l has to strike the same nerve that Burger King, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and KFC strike, which is affordability, youthfulness, addictiveness, cultural relevance,” he told TakePart's food editor Willie Blackmore, “because the only people talking smack about fast food, a lot of times, is the people who have the privilege to not have to eat it every day.”

Soon, other top chefs wanted to partner with them.

After the Tenderloin, there are already plans for expansion to cities such as Richmond, Anaheim and across the Bay in East Oakland.

The online fundraiser campaign was started because so many people wanted to get involved. "And it was a way to start building a community; a way for people to participate on a very low level but feel like they are a part of it and it's their thing."

If you want to join the revolution, click here. The deadline is March 19 so there is only a few days to go and they are not even half-way there. Pick what level you want to contribute so you can be eligible for a lot of perks from t-shirts to cooking lessons to an invitation to the grand opening. The revolution is on!

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