Eric Huang

Eric Huang is the chef and accidental founder of Pecking House.  While growing up in his family’s Chinese restaurant he had a stereotypical, Asian-American childhood of training as a cellist at The Juilliard School.  He would renounce the instrument and take a five-year victory lap at Northwestern University as the world’s worst history major before deciding to become a chef.  Eric trained in Michelin-starred restaurants in New York City for over 10 years beginning at Cafe Boulud, then Gramercy Tavern and finally Eleven Madison Park.  He was a sous chef with the team that earned the title of “Best Restaurant in the World” in 2017.  He would move on from his position in January 2020 with hopes of opening his own fine dining establishment, but a global pandemic stymied his efforts.  Eric instead returned home to help his family, their restaurant had been shuttered due to the lockdown.  Peking House in Queens was a key part of his parents’ life here in America.  Eric tried to save it so he came up with the idea to fry chicken and figure out a way to deliver it to New Yorkers trapped in their homes.  And thus, Pecking House was born.  New Yorkers were so enthusiastic about this Nashville hot chicken meets Sichuan fried chicken mashup that the waitlist ballooned to over 10,000 people.  Pecking House then transitioned from a long-range delivery fleet to its first brick-and-mortar in 2022.  Though the cooking at Pecking House has many fine dining touches, Eric and the chili fried chicken can be found living life casually on paper plates.  It is the country fried chicken restaurant meets Chinese takeout joint nobody thought to ask for but is close to the chef’s heart.