Eric Huang
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Pecking House’s Chili Fried Chicken (Chef Eric’s self described first-born) blew our already-expecting-to-be-mind-blown minds. It is truly a no time for a napkin meal. A paper thin skin, doused in an exceptional spice blend coats your whole mouth with a heat that can only drive you for more. Walking out the door, it was all we could talk about for the rest of the afternoon. Chef Eric Huang took his nostalgia of childhood KFC meals and blended it with an upbringing in the heart of a Chinese restaurant to create the menu at Pecking House: a cool, casual spot with food you need in your life as soon as possible.
Full name, age, where are you from?
Eric Patrick Huang, 36 years old, from Long Island. Please do not use my middle name. I felt compelled to include it because you prompted me to use my full name and I had to tell someone the fun interaction that most people assume my middle initial is a Chinese name and they ask "Oh what's your Chinese name?" at which point I invariably respond "Patrick." It's hilarious, trust me.
Was food a big part of your upbringing?
Unfortunately, yes. My mother is sparse with the details but it seems as if she gave birth to me and immediately went back to work at our family's Chinese restaurant. All of my early and formative memories are of being in a restaurant. I was typically found hiding under tables or drinking Coke straight from the soda gun. I had a great deal of delicious food growing up in a successful eating establishment, but I lament the upbringing because I was a very overweight child as a result. And there may be some residual abandonment issues. But nothing that some cognitive behavioral therapy and Wellbutrin won't fix, right?! Also I have to give a shoutout to my grandmother who is an amazing cook. Grandma makes a dope you fan AKA Taiwanese sticky rice.
What are your earliest memories of dining out?
I have to give my mother credit in that she is truly passionate about her work. Whereas operating a restaurant is seen as sort of a necessary evil for many immigrants, my mother finds great purpose and passion as a hospitality professional. So that goes to say that she really liked going to restaurants and treating them as learning experiences. I am often reminded that I was a major pain in the ass to take to a restaurant given that the types of food I enjoyed as a child ranged from McDonald's to other interpretations of chicken nuggets. I would argue maybe don't take a six year old to a fine dining restaurant, but hey to each their own. So I was participating in restaurant outings from an early age and I really enjoyed going to casual joints or diners. Once upon a time there was a restaurant called Swenson's and they had a smoking and non-smoking section because this was the friggin' 90s. And I recall having a glorious and rarified dish called "New England Clam Chowder". It remains one of my most profound Proustian moments. On the record, Manhattan Clam Chowder is stupid. Oyster crackers and creamy soups for life.
If you could give a piece of advice to someone who wanted to pursue your career, what would it be?
Don't.
Okay fine, my genuine advice is to test the waters. Work in a kitchen wherever you can and settle in. Every restaurant is currently hiring any humans with a serviceable pulse. Really get a feel for whether you enjoy life as a restaurant vagrant. I find it a comfortable place to be after existing as a misfit and terrible student my entire life, but choosing to commit to America's only social safety net as a career requires some forethought and real experience. Or a priorly committed felony. Oh and in the name of 8-quart Cambros, please don't go to culinary school if it means you're going to take on any debt. Even if you do have the privilege of getting help with school, take a long hard look at this decision. If you think you're going to make a dent in that mountain of debt making $18/hour as we slide into a postmodern nightmare of late-stage capitalism, you're wrong. It's just an axe that swings over your head for decades. And then when you inevitably quit you're going to have an Associate's Degree that is about as useful as waxed parchment. I implore you to consider a career that won't be automated in your lifetime. As soon as we get decent culinary robots I am done with humans.
What do you think working in this industry has taught you?
Toughness, dedication, integrity. That sounds like a low-rent Navy slogan but it's true. It takes a certain kind of insanity to stand in the same spot, inches from your station partner who is maybe only working here to avoid being extradited to the UK, and roast and carve dry-aged ducks for 15 hours in the name of Michelin stars. That is obviously a statement in a vacuum that ignores the litany of issues of privilege and exploitation in fine dining, but I'm still proud of what I've survived. And the most challenging thing about cooking is doing everything the hard way because that's what makes great food. Sure, one innocuous detail may not make or break someone's meal. But it has always been my belief that it is the summation of thousands of cared-for details that make a great eating experience. And getting 30 humans to be on the same page and do the right thing even when no one is looking? That requires superhuman power of will and an unwavering commitment to madness that I have come to appreciate.
What's your favorite dish/drink on the menu?
I have come to love my firstborn child, the Chili Fried Chicken. I saw it as a bit of a needy bastard for a long time, but I've become quite grateful for how much this one little dish has accomplished. It truly exists as a neat encapsulation of the Asian-American experience, marrying a childhood of eating KFC to a childhood growing up in a Chinese restaurant. And without tooting my own bugle too much, it's fun, delicious and creative. Thank you, Chili Fried Chicken. Much as with human children, you have taken years off my life and caused me unending stress, but I look back at you with fondness and love.
What is your favorite place to go out and eat at and what are you ordering?
I always used to make the joke that I am a stereotypical chef in that I subsist exclusively on bodega sandwiches and mediocre Asian takeout, but that has become depressingly true as a restaurant owner. It is difficult to go out to eat and enjoy your life when you are chained to a deep fryer and a laptop. But I did really love my meal at our former coworkers' spot, Rolo's in Ridgewood. I am unconditionally enthusiastic about woodfired shellfish, housemade charcuterie and grilled pork chops. Also, despite hating fish for my entire childhood, I will now order sardines and/or anchovies whenever I see them. Yes, my family is also surprised I became a chef.
You’re on a desert island, what are the 5 kitchen items you need to run your business?
A knife I can sharpen on any random rock, a big-ass cast-iron Dutch oven, a spoon, a mesh sieve and an 8-quart Cambro. All things are possible through our savior; the 8-quart Cambro.
