 | |
| Author | Eddie Huang |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Memoir |
| Publisher | Spiegel & Grau |
| Pages | 276 |
| ISBN | 978-0812988536 |
| OCLC | 794359075 |
Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir is an autobiography by American food personality Eddie Huang. It was published in 2013 by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House. The book relates Huang's early life and rise in the food celebrity scene in New York City, and his relationship with his Asian American background.
Huang, an attorney, became prominent in New York's restaurant scene after the success of BaoHaus, his purveyor of Taiwanese-braised pork belly buns, also known as gua-bao (刈包). [1] He developed a reputation as a food personality after hosting food-themed programs on the Food Network and Vice TV. [2] The memoir is Huang's first published work; his previous writing experience was mostly limited to his popular blog, which covers both food and topical issues. The book shares its title with Huang's blog and his Vice online video program, and refers to Huang's Taiwanese immigrant background. [2] Huang stated in an interview with Publishers Weekly that expressing the experience of being an "other" in America was a major impetus for writing the book. [3] He has mentioned Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift and hip hop as inspirations for his writing. [4]
The memoir relates Huang's childhood, spent first in Washington, D.C., and later in Orlando, Florida. Huang, one of three sons of Taiwanese immigrants, struggled with his identity growing up. [3] Hip hop and African American culture provided a sympathetic counterpoint to the racism and exclusion he experienced at school. [1] Huang was exposed to cooking through his parents; his mother prepared traditional Taiwanese dishes at home, and he learned American regional cuisines through cooking at his father's Orlando restaurants.
Huang writes about his college days, his short careers as a lawyer and as a stand-up comic, and various forays into illicit commerce. Success came with the opening of BaoHaus, but there were failures, also - his restaurant Xiao Ye was closed after being panned by critics. [2] In the book, Huang discusses Taiwanese cuisine and his relationship with Asian cooking in general. [4]
Literary critic Dwight Garner, reviewing in The New York Times , commented on Huang's "bluster" and crude language, but appreciated the author's humor and observations on American culture. Garner called the book "a surprisingly sophisticated memoir about race and assimilation in America" and a "rowdy...counterpoint" to other memoirs dealing with the immigrant experience. [1] The book received a "starred" review from Publishers Weekly. [5] Kirkus Reviews called Huang a "unique voice with a provocative point of view." [6] The book received praise from celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, who called it "[m]ercilessly funny and provocative". [7]
Huang's memoir was adapted by Nahnatchka Khan for an ABC single-camera comedy series of the same name. [8] Huang's mother is played by Constance Wu, with Randall Park playing the role of his father. [9] Huang is played by newcomer Hudson Yang.
The phrase fresh off the boat(FOB), off the boat(OTB), are sometimes-derogatory terms used to describe immigrants who have arrived from a foreign nation and have yet to assimilate into the host nation's culture, language, and behavior, but still continue with their ethnic ideas and practices. Within ethnic Asian circles in the United States, the phrase is considered politically incorrect and derogatory. It can also be used to describe the stereotypical behavior of new immigrants as, for example, their poor driving skills, that they are educated yet working low-skilled or unskilled jobs, and their use of broken English. The term originates in the early days of immigration, when people mostly migrated to other countries by ship. "Fresh off the Boeing 707" is sometimes used in the United States as a variation, especially amongst East, South and Southeast Asian immigrants. In the United Kingdom "fresh off the boat" are referred to as freshies or simply FOBs.
Jeff Yang is an American writer, journalist, businessman, and business/media consultant who writes the Tao Jones column for The Wall Street Journal. Previously, he was the "Asian Pop" columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle. He is an expert on Asian American pop culture and is the co-author of RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now (2022) with Philip Wang and Phil Yu and The Golden Screen: The Movies That Made Asian America (2023).
Randall Park is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Louis Huang in the ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat (2015–2020), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series in 2016.
FOTB may refer to:
Constance Wu is an American actress. She starred as Jessica Huang in the ABC television comedy Fresh Off the Boat (2015–2020), which was her breakthrough role and earned her four nominations for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.
Julie Anne Powell was an American author known for her 2005 book Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen which was based on her blog, the Julie/Julia Project. A film adaptation based on her book called Julie & Julia was released in 2009.
James Oseland is an American writer, editor and television personality. He is the author and editor-in-chief of World Food, an acclaimed book series from Ten Speed Press. He served as editor-in-chief of the U.S. food magazine Saveur from 2006 to 2014. His memoir and cookbook Cradle of Flavor was named one of the best books of 2006 by the New York Times, Time Asia, and Good Morning America, among others. He has edited an array of bestselling and award-winning anthologies and cookbooks, notably Saveur: The New Comfort Food, A Fork In the Road, and Saveur: The New Classics. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Gourmet, Vogue, and dozens of other media outlets. He was a judge from 2009 to 2013 on the Bravo television series Top Chef Masters.
Edwyn Charles Huang is an American author, chef, restaurateur, food personality, producer, and former attorney. He was a co-owner of BaoHaus, a gua bao restaurant in the East Village of Lower Manhattan. Huang previously hosted Huang's World for Viceland. His autobiography, Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir, was adapted into the ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat, of which he narrated the first season.
Nahnatchka Khan is an American television writer and producer. She created and executive produced the ABC comedy series Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 (2012–2013) and Fresh Off the Boat (2015–2020), and the NBC comedy series Young Rock (2021–2023). She also directed the streaming films Always Be My Maybe (2019) and Totally Killer (2023).
Roy Choi is a Korean-American chef who gained prominence as the creator of the gourmet Korean-Mexican taco truck Kogi. Choi is a chef who is celebrated for "food that isn't fancy" and is known as one of the founders of the gourmet food truck movement. In 2019, Choi began presenting a cooking series on Netflix with Jon Favreau titled The Chef Show.
Hudson David Yang is an American actor. From 2015 to 2020, he starred as the lead actor in the ABC television series Fresh Off the Boat portraying Eddie Huang.
Fresh Off the Boat is an American sitcom television series created by Nahnatchka Khan and produced by 20th Century Fox Television for ABC. It is loosely inspired by the life of chef and food personality Eddie Huang and his 2013 autobiography of the same name. Huang also executive produced the series and narrated its first season. Depicting the life of a Taiwanese-American family in Florida in the 1990s, the series stars Randall Park, Constance Wu, Hudson Yang, Forrest Wheeler, Ian Chen, and Lucille Soong as the Huang family as well as Chelsey Crisp and Ray Wise portraying the family's next-door neighbors.
A gua bao, also known as a pork belly bun, bao, or bao bun, is a type of lotus leaf bun originating from Fujian cuisine. It is also a popular snack in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and Nagasaki Chinatown in Japan.
Jessica B. Harris is an American culinary historian, college professor, cookbook author and journalist. She is professor emerita at Queens College, City University of New York, where she taught for 50 years, and is also the author of 15 books, including cookbooks, non-fiction food writing and memoir. She has twice won James Beard Foundation Awards, including for Lifetime Achievement in 2020, and her book High on the Hog was adapted in 2021 as a four-part Netflix series by the same name.
Chelsey Crisp is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is best known for her role as Honey Ellis on the ABC television sitcom Fresh Off the Boat.
Chris Jackson is an American publisher and editor-in-chief of the One World imprint of Random House.
New York City is home to the second-largest Taiwanese American population, after the Los Angeles metropolitan area, California, enumerating an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 individuals as of 2020.
The first season of Fresh Off the Boat, an American sitcom created by Nahnatchka Khan and produced by 20th Century Fox Television, premiered in the United States on ABC on February 4, 2015, and concluded on April 21, 2015. The season consisted of 13 episodes.
The second season of Fresh Off the Boat, an American sitcom created by Nahnatchka Khan and produced by 20th Century Fox Television, premiered in the United States on ABC on September 22, 2015, and concluded on May 24, 2016. The season consisted of 24 episodes.