Eddie Huang

Early life and education

Huang was born in Fairfax, Virginia, to Jessica and Louis Huang, who were immigrants from Taiwan. They were both Taiwanese waishengren; the ancestral homes of his father and mother were in the Hunan and Shandong provinces of mainland China, respectively. Huang was raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., then moved to Orlando, Florida, where his father owned a successful group of steak and seafood restaurants, including Atlantic Bay Seafood and Grill and Cattleman's Ranch Steakhouse. He appreciated African-American culture, especially hip-hop, at a young age.

Huang attended Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando. He also went on to attend the University of Pittsburgh and Rollins College,

Career

After graduating from law school, Huang worked as a corporate attorney at the law firm Chadbourne & Parke in New York City. He worked as a summer associate in 2006 and 2007, then was hired as an associate in the firm's corporate department in 2008. Within a year, due to the 2008 financial crisis, Huang was laid off, and began working as a stand-up comic and marijuana dealer.

Clothing designer

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

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. Working as an expeditor was a skill he learned from his father. In 2011, Huang was named to the Chow 13, a list of influential people in food presented annually by Chow.com.

Restaurants

In December 2009, Huang opened BaoHaus, a Taiwanese bun (刈包) shop, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In July 2011, he relocated his first shop to 238 East 14th Street in the East Village with an expanded menu. In October 2020, Huang announced the permanent closure of BaoHaus. Prior to shutting down, the restaurant had been praised by TimeOut for cheap pricing and unique menu items.{{Citation

Another restaurant, Xiao Ye, was less successful and closed after poor reviews and controversy over its sales of Four Loko. Sam Sifton, a reviewer for The New York Times, awarded the restaurant zero (out of four) stars, and wrote that "if Mr. Huang spent even a third of the time cooking that he does writing funny blog posts and wry Twitter updates, posting hip-hop videos and responding to Internet friends, rivals, critics and customers, Xiao Ye might be one of the more interesting restaurants to open in New York City in the last few months."

Author

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

Double Cup Love: On the Trail of Family, Food, and Broken Hearts in China was published in 2016.

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 Viceland, where he hosted a recurring segment, also called Fresh Off the Boat, which was later developed into an hour-long show and renamed Huang's World. In 2014, Huang was the host of Snack Off on MTV. The show featured Huang, mentoring contestants participating in challenges that determine who can whip up the tastiest treats using random ingredients like fish sticks, canned oysters, chocolate and much more.

''Fresh Off the Boat''

In 2014, ABC ordered a television series based on his book, also titled Fresh Off the Boat, starring Randall Park and Constance Wu, with Hudson Yang playing Eddie. The show debuted with two preview episodes on February 4, 2015, and premiered in its prime time slot on February 10, 2015. Huang narrated every episode of the first season, but left the show prior to the second season.

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. Huang has said that he doesn’t like the show, because he thinks that the storyline after the pilot episode is not what he wrote in his memoir. He has said that he mostly avoids watching it, though he admits there were two exceptions he tuned into: The episode with a DMX cameo in which he appreciated the interactions between DMX and young Eddie, which he talks about in his book, “Double Cup Love”. He also admits tuning for a few minutes to the episode where the family visits Taiwan, but didn’t like it.

Film

In August 2019, it was announced Huang would direct and write Boogie, a coming-of-age movie about a young Chinese-American basketball player's rise to prominence, starring Taylor Takahashi, Pamelyn Chee, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Mike Moh, Dave East, Pop Smoke, Perry Yung, Alexa Mareka and Taylour Paige, with Focus Features distributing. Huang wrote the screenplay in five days with no plan or outline, incorporating the themes that have defined his life such as basketball, feeling adrift in a country where he has always been in a minority, and domestic abuse. He directed the 2025 documentary Vice is Broke.

Works and publications

• Huang, Eddie. Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2013;
• Huang, Eddie. Double Cup Love: On the Trail of Family, Food, and Broken Hearts in China. New York : Spiegel & Grau, [2016]
• Huang's World (Viceland) 2016
• Vice Is Broke (MUBI) 2024

References

References

1. "Eddie Charles Huang - United States Public Records".
2. "Attorney Directory - Edwyn C. Huang".
3. (January 23, 2013). "IAmA Eddie Huang (cook, author, host of Fresh Off the Boat)".
4. Ozersky, Josh. (February 23, 2011). "Why Food Personality Eddie Huang Is Still Going Strong".
5. (January 29, 2013). "'Fresh Off The Boat' And Serving Up Asian Culture". [[NPR]].
6. Huang, Eddie. (2013). "Fresh off the boat : a memoir". Spiegel & Grau.
7. Marx, Rebecca. (April 8, 2010). "Chatting With Baohaus' Eddie Huang About Crackhaus, Cheeto-Fried Chicken, and "Chefs Slapping Each Other on the Ass in the Press"".
8. Garner, Dwight. (January 24, 2013). "Pork Buns Steamed in Bluster 'Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir'". [[The New York Times]].
9. (December 14, 2012). "Off The Boat, But On The Grid: PW Talks With Eddie Huang". [[Publishers Weekly]].
10. Eddie Huang, ''Fresh Off the Boat'', page 211
11. Stein, Joshua David. (January 23, 2013). "Chef Who Refuses to Be Defined by His Wok". [[The New York Times]].
12. (December 1, 2008). "Hoodman Clothing".
13. (May 11, 2012). "Eddie Huang: "I'm about getting paper, but I need a 'why'"". Silicon Prairie News.
14. (June 20, 2007). "Hoodman Clothing: Politics as Usual".
15. (March 28, 2011). "Talking With Eddie Huang: The bad-boy restaurateur takes a Bao". [[Food Republic (website).
16. "Error".
17. Chowhound. "The 2011 CHOW 13".
18. Turner, David [https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/rap-snacks-inside-the-hip-hop-restaurant-boom-20151006 Rap Snacks: Inside the Hip-Hop Restaurant Boom] ''Rolling Stone''. October 8, 2015
19. (July 14, 2011). "Eddie Huang Opening East Village Location of BaoHaus". New York Eater.
20. Warerkar, Tanay. (2020-10-05). "Baohaus, the Taiwanese Hotspot that Propelled Eddie Huang to Fame, Closes".
21. Freeman, Nate. (November 2010). "Xiao Ye, Eddie Huang's Bastion of Four Loko Has Shut Down". [[The New York Observer]].
22. Sifton, Sam. (October 12, 2010). "Xiao Ye on the Lower East Side". The New York Times.
23. (March 21, 2012). "Fresh Off the Boat". The Pop Chef (blog).
24. (January 29, 2013). "PW Pick: Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir by Eddie Huang". [[Publishers Weekly]].
25. (February 27, 2013). "Best Sellers". [[The New York Times]].
26. (August 2, 2014). "Eddie Huang to Premiere 'Huang's World' on MUNCHIES".
27. (February 4, 2015). "Meet Eddie Huang, the memoirist who inspired 'Fresh Off the Boat'". [[The Washington Post]].
28. (February 3, 2015). "Eddie Huang Against the World". [[The New York Times]].
29. (September 22, 2015). "Eddie Huang Is Not Narrating Fresh Off the Boat Anymore".
30. (February 4, 2015). "Bamboo-Ceiling TV".
31. (February 4, 2015). "Eddie Huang Gives 'Fresh Off the Boat' a "B"; Pushes for Domestic Violence Arc". [[The Hollywood Reporter]].
32. (April 8, 2015). "Eddie Huang Is Still Angry His ABC Sitcom Is an ABC Sitcom".
33. Huang, Eddie. ''Double Cup Love: On the Trail of Family, Food, and Broken Hearts in China.'' Spiegel & Grau, 2016.
34. N'Duka, Amanda. (August 26, 2019). "'Fresh off the Boat' Author Eddie Huang To Make Directorial Debut With 'Boogie' Film At Focus Features".
35. Day-Ramos, Dino. (September 13, 2019). "Eddie Huang's 'Boogie' Rounds Out Cast With Mike Moh, Dave East, Perry Yung, Taylour Paige and Alexa Mareka".
36. (August 26, 2019). "Eddie Huang to Make Directorial Debut With 'Boogie' {{!}} Hollywood Reporter".
37. Threadcraft, Torry. (2020-09-12). "Eddie Huang Nearly Cast Pop Smoke In 'The Last Dragon' Remake".
38. (March 13, 2021). "Eddie Huang on racism, domestic violence and defying the Asian stereotype".
39. "'Vice is Broke' Review: The Rise and Crash of a Fleeting Empire".
40. [//www.viceland.com/en_us/show/huangs-world Huang's World] at viceland.com
41. [//www.tiff.net/events/vice-is-broke Vice Is Broke] at tiff.net