The May installment of Creative Mornings was a little unusual to say the least. To begin, our assortment of donuts and coffee (courtesy of Media Temple) were sans cups, not normally a problem but being a line was forming around the block, it was not the ideal way to start the morning. Secondly, as Creative Mornings’ Los Angeles director Jon Setzen was greeting guests during interim period between cups, an Asian mustachioed man sporting a commodore hat burst in and explained that his balls would taste great in our mouths’. Probably the strangest of all, however, was that this man was the speaker.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the bizarre antics of restaurateur Nguyen Tran (known as Commodore Boobie McHooters during the lecture), he is the illegally inspired, underground driven cofounder and “social media whore” of Starry Kitchen.

Operating (illegally) out of their North Hollywood apartment, Starry Kitchen became famous when they became the #1 rated Asian restaurant on Yelp, even ahead of the two-star Michelin rated Urasawa. Written about in everything from Los Angeles Magazine to The New Yorker, Starry Kitchen is no longer a secret culinary gem with a permanent, and legal, restaurant in downtown LA.

Tran explained over a roar of laughter how Starry Kitchen, like many of his past endeavors, was a result of “constantly fucking up.” When his wife Thi lost her marketing job, Tran had the wild idea to open their apartment up as a restaurant. Eventually the word spread and Thi’s fusion dishes were attracting dozens if not hundreds of people to try their home made cuisine.

Fans of Starry’s cuisine include Jonathan Gold, Los Angeles magazine food critic Garrett Snyder, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (who admitted he “loved Tran’s balls in his mouth.”)

Mayor Villaraigosa and Nguyen Tran- image courtesy of starrykitchen.com

As the morning wrapped up with a Q&A session, Tran in his true social manor invited everyone to come down to his new location to eat or just talk. As everyone filled up their last cup of coffee, perused through the last of donuts and set off for the day ahead they were undoubted feeling creative and confused.

After the show antics with Jon Setzen, Nguyen Tran and the Poketo Team.