Eddie Huang might be the TED Fellows’ first working chef. Then again, he might be a few other things too. Huang “defies description,” according to a feature last week in The New York Times. The profile captures his refusal to be categorized in any manner – be it by his Taiwanese heritage, by his deep love of hip-hop or by his status as a triple-threat chef, writer and television host.
Yes, Huang is a chef — he pioneered Cheeto-fried chicken and is the chef and co-owner of the New York City Taiwanese bun shop BaoHaus. However, as Huang tells the Times, “I have more to say as a writer than from behind a wok.”
Huang writes the blog Fresh Off the Boat, where he discusses everything from race representation in shows like Girls to what it was like growing up in suburban Orlando. And tomorrow, Random House will release his memoir, also called Fresh Off the Boat, which fellow chef Anthony Bourdain describes as “mercilessly funny.”
Last October, Vice launched Huang’s exploratory food and travel show, also titled Fresh Off the Boat — an online series with new segments every week. And to further complicate his classification, Huang was also once a corporate lawyer and, after being laid off, turned to stand-up comedy.
“My only goal as a comedian was to stomp the life out of the model-minority myth,” Huang tells the Times. “I want to prove you don’t need to have academic syntax to be intelligent.”
Read lots more about TED Fellows »
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