Fine dining to fried chicken success | Eric Huang, Chef/Owner of Peking House | 035

The Pre-Shift Podcast presented by 7shifts breaks down everything you’ve ever wanted to know about running a restaurant better. Conversations with some of the biggest names, newest players, and industry innovators bring key insights into how they grew their businesses.  Host DJ Costantino asks probing questions to get to know restauranteurs, chefs, and executives better and find out where they came from, how they got to where they are, and what lessons they learned along the way. On this episode, we’re joined by Eric Huang, Owner of Pecking HouseGuest BioEric Huang grew up in a Chinese-American restaurant in New York, a very common tale in the Chinese diaspora. He is an amateur cellist turned subpar college student turned chef. Despite investing many years and taking on crushing student debt to become a college-educated professional, he would return to work in restaurants because that’s where he felt most at home. He has been cooking in New York City for the last decade, honing his craft at Michelin-starred institutions such as Cafe Boulud, Gramercy Tavern and most recently as a sous chef at Eleven Madison Park. His dream was to open his own restaurant that would challenge the Western world’s prejudices against Chinese cuisine, but he encountered a minor obstacle in the spring of 2020. With his family’s restaurant, Peking House, shuttered due to the pandemic, he stepped in to do what he could and started frying chicken and delivering it to New Yorkers trapped in their apartments. This became wildly more successful than anyone planned on it being and thus Pecking House was born. He is now a fried chicken dealer in a restaurant landscape figuring out its direction in the wake of the pandemic. He has fully embraced the fast-casual restaurant life because it's fun, it’s tasty and you can put food on disposable plates.Additional ResourcesPecking HouseHow Pecking House's Chili Fried Chicken Became a Smash Hit in NYCEric Huang (@eric.p.huang) • InstagramMeet Eric Huang - Founder of Pecking House in New York CitySend us Fan Mail📲 Connect with usEmail usFollow on LinkedInMore 7shiftsSpotify | Apple Podcasts | Google PodcastsSubscribe to Food Runner, our Monthly Restaurant Newsletter7shifts on YouTubeFollow us on TikTokRead the 7shifts BlogAbout Us7shifts is a restaurant platform that helps operators and managers hire, train, schedule, pay and retain their restaurant teams. With an easy-to-use platform and industry-specific solutions, 7shifts saves time, reduces errors, and helps keep costs in check for over 55,000 restaurants.