Eddie Huang

Eddie Huang

Eddie Huang at a panel discussion for the show Fresh off the Boat

Eddie Huang at a panel discussion
for the show Fresh off the Boat
Born Edwyn Charles Huang
March 1, 1982
Washington, D.C, US
Citizenship American
Education Rollins College
Yeshiva University
The University of Pittsburgh
Occupation Chef, writer
Years active 2009-present
Known for BaoHaus (Manhattan restaurant)
Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir
Fresh Off the Boat
Eddie Huang
Traditional Chinese 黃頤銘
Simplified Chinese 黄颐铭

Edwyn Charles Huang (born March 1, 1982),[1] known as Eddie Huang, is an American restaurateur, chef, food personality, writer, and attorney.[2][3] He owns BaoHaus, a sandwich shop in the East Village of Manhattan.[4]

Early life

Huang was born in Washington, D.C. to immigrant parents from Taiwan, Jessica and Louis Huang.[5] He was raised in a Chinatown in Washington D.C., but then moved to Orlando, Florida where his father managed a successful group of steak and seafood restaurants, including "Atlantic Bay Seafood and Grill" and "Cattleman's Ranch Steakhouse".[6] He identified with African-American culture, especially hip-hop, at a young age.[6] He also frequently got into fights, getting arrested twice on assault charges while growing up.[7]

Huang attended The University of Pittsburgh and Rollins College, graduating with a B.A. in English and Film from Rollins in 2004. At Rollins, he also won the Barbara Lawrence Alfond English Award and the Zora Neale Hurston Award, and was Sports and Humor editor for the school paper, The Sandspur. In 2008, Huang earned a J.D. from Cardozo School of Law at (Yeshiva University).[8] At Cardozo, Huang worked at the Innocence Project, served as President of the Minority Law Students Association and as Vice President of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, and also won a New York City Bar Association Minority Fellowship in 2006.

Career

Huang's first job as a lawyer was working in corporate law at Chadbourne & Parke in New York City. He worked as a Summer Associate in 2006 and 2007, then was hired as an Associate in the Corporate Department in 2008. Within a year, due to the financial crisis of 2007–08, Huang was laid off, and began working as a stand-up comic and marijuana dealer.[9]

Clothing designer

From 2006 to 2009, Huang ran a streetwear company called "Hoodman Clothing," initially called "Bergdorf Hoodman."[10][11] At Hoodman, Huang co-created clothing designs with Art Director Ning Juang, a graphic designer whom he had met in Taiwan.[12]

Chef and restaurateur

Huang was also interested in food as he had grown up watching his mother cook at home. He also learned cooking techniques from various chefs of different cultural backgrounds and cuisine styles that worked at his father's restaurants. He learned management and how to be a good "expeditor." Expeditors are people who manage the communication of information and orders between the back and front of the restaurant, making sure that the food is prepared in the correct order, as efficiently and rapidly as possible and presented to the customer in the highest quality conditions. Working as an expeditor was a skill he learned from his father, who had also opened a number of restaurants in the Orlando area.[13]

Huang in New York City, 13 January 2013

Restaurants

In December 2009, Huang opened BaoHaus, a Taiwanese bun (割包) shop, in Lower Manhattan. In July 2011, he relocated his first shop to 238 East 14th Street in the East Village with an expanded menu.[14] Another restaurant, Xiao Ye, was less successful and closed after controversy over its sales of Four Loko.[15]

Author

Huang created a blog called Fresh Off the Boat and later published a memoir with Random House by the same name.[16] Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir was released in early 2013, receiving favorable reviews from Publishers Weekly[17] and The New York Times.[18]

Television

Huang hosted Cheap Bites on the Cooking Channel at the end of 2011 and also appeared on several episodes of Unique Eats before leaving the Cooking Channel for Vice, where he hosts a recurring segment, also called Fresh Off the Boat, which was later renamed Huang's World.[6][19] Also in 2012, Huang was named a 2013 TED Fellow.[9] He later had his TED fellowship revoked for not attending every event of the conference, per the fellowship agreement. He went on to compare TED to a "Scientology summer camp".[20][21][22]

Fresh Off the Boat

In 2014, ABC ordered a television series based on his book, also called Fresh Off the Boat, starring Randall Park and Constance Wu, with Hudson Yang playing Eddie.[23] The show debuted with two preview episodes on February 4, 2015, and premiered in its prime time slot on February 10, 2015.[24]

Huang was outspoken in his criticism of the development process of the show, writing a lengthy essay about his concern that his vision for the show was compromised.[25][26] Huang has said that he does not watch the show, as he thinks that after the pilot episode, it isn't what he wrote in his memoir.[27]

Works and publications

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Eddie Charles Huang - United States Public Records". FamilySearch. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "Attorney Directory - Edwyn C. Huang". New York State Unified Court System. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  3. ↑ Huang, Eddie (23 January 2013). "IAmA Eddie Huang (cook, author, host of Fresh Off the Boat)". Reddit. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  4. ↑ Ozersky, Josh (23 February 2011). "Why Food Personality Eddie Huang Is Still Going Strong". Time. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  5. ↑ Martin, Rachel (29 January 2013). "'Fresh Off The Boat' And Serving Up Asian Culture" (AUDIO INTERVIEW). Weekend Edition (NPR). Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Garner, Dwight (24 January 2013). "Pork Buns Steamed in Bluster ‘Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir’". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  7. ↑ Cutolo, Ruby (14 December 2012). "Off The Boat, But On The Grid: PW Talks With Eddie Huang". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  8. ↑ Schuster, Dana (15 March 2011). "Q&A: Six Seconds With... Eddie Huang is the new Anthony Bourdain". New York Post. Archived from the original on 14 March 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Stein, Joshua David (23 January 2013). "Chef Who Refuses to Be Defined by His Wok". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
  10. ↑ TSS Crew (1 December 2008). "Hoodman Clothing". UPROXX. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  11. ↑ Koch, Macy (11 May 2012). "Eddie Huang: "I’m about getting paper, but I need a ‘why'"". Silicon Prairie News. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  12. ↑ Paine, Jake (20 June 2007). "Hoodman Clothing: Politics as Usual". AllHipHop. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  13. ↑ Nordee, Emily (28 March 2011). "Talking With Eddie Huang: The bad-boy restauranteur takes a Bao". Food Republic. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  14. ↑ "Eddie Huang Opening East Village Location of BaoHaus". New York Eater. 14 July 2011. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  15. ↑ Freeman, Nate. "Xiao Ye, Eddie Huang's Bastion of Four Loko Has Shut Down". The New York Observer. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  16. ↑ "Fresh Off the Boat". The Pop Chef (blog). 21 March 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  17. ↑ "PW Pick: Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir by Eddie Huang". Publishers Weekly. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  18. ↑ "Best Sellers". The New York Times. 27 February 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  19. ↑ Banks, Alec (2 August 2014). "Eddie Huang to Premiere 'Huang’s World' on MUNCHIES". Highsnobiety. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  20. ↑ "TED Conference Exposed As Scientology-Style Cult". YouTube. 7 February 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  21. ↑ "Eddie Huang Says TED Conferences Have Turned Into A "Scientology Cult" (video)". Political Blind Spot. 24 June 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  22. ↑ "Chow 13 honorees". CNN. 3 November 2011. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  23. ↑ McDonald, Soraya Nadia (4 February 2015). "Meet Eddie Huang, the memoirist who inspired ‘Fresh Off the Boat’". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  24. ↑ Yang, Wesley (3 February 2015). "Eddie Huang Against the World". The New York Times (Magazine). Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  25. ↑ Huang, Eddie (4 February 2015). "Bamboo-Ceiling TV". Vulture (New York Magazine). Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  26. ↑ Goldberg, Lesley (4 February 2015). "Eddie Huang Gives 'Fresh Off the Boat' a "B"; Pushes for Domestic Violence Arc". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  27. ↑ Jung, E. Alex (8 April 2015). "Eddie Huang Is Still Angry His ABC Sitcom Is an ABC Sitcom". Vulture (New York Magazine). Retrieved 21 April 2015.

External links