Eddie Huang\u00a0\u2014 the cult chef who made it in Hollywood as the producer of the long-running hit ABC series \u201cFresh Off the Boat\u201d \u2014 is back with a debut novel that\u2019s also headed to the screen.<\/p>\n
Like so many industryites, Huang has exited LA while still working in the business \u2014 and he reopened the resto that made him famous, Baohaus, in NYC this year. The former host of Viceland\u2019s \u201cHuang\u2019s World\u201d tells Page Six Hollywood he\u2019s writing a screen adaptation of his new book, \u201cCome Undone,\u201d to be produced by \u201cTell Me Lies\u201d executive producer and director\u00a0Jonathan Levine.<\/p>\n
Huang was also in LA last Thursday for a high-profile book reading at New Roads School and a talk moderated by acclaimed novelist-turned-screenwriter\u00a0Ottessa Moshfegh. But that meant Huang \u2014 who received a law degree in NYC before becoming a chef, and who\u2019s a\u00a0Chalamet-level Knicks fan without the courtside seats \u2014 missed the NBA champs\u2019 Canyon of Heroes parade.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was bummed,\u201d the rock \u2018n\u2019 roll restauranteur told us. \u201cBut I got a beautiful photo of my son who was there and I\u2019m glad my family got to experience it.\u201d He\u2019d watched Game 5 with close friends at Baohaus in the East Village. \u201cThe buzzer rang and it was ecstasy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s finally settled in and we\u2019re learning how to be champions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The LA leg of Huang\u2019s book tour was a homecoming of sorts for the 44-year-old. Starting in 2019, he lived in LA for five years during which he tried on a variety of enclaves: Malibu, DTLA, Mid-City, Hollywood Hills, Bel-Air.<\/p>\n
\u201cMid-City was the first real neighborhood I lived in. You could walk to places, we had friends, and honestly, I could make do with City Spa, discount liquors, Bloom and My 2 Cents. I regret leaving there,\u201d he said. In early 2024 he moved back to New York, moth to a flame. He became famous for opening the critically acclaimed Baohaus in 2011 before closing the eatery in 2020 due to the pandemic. (\u201cFresh Off the Boat\u201d ran for six seasons from 2015 to 2020.)<\/p>\n
Nowadays, when he rolls through LA he posts up at the Sunset Tower, schedules back-to-back meetings, tries to squeeze in a hike and eats as much Korean and Persian food as his intestinal tract will allow. \u201cI got a lot of love for LA,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Throughout his career, Huang has done just about everything. He briefly worked at a blue chip law firm before he stumbled into a life as a chef, restaurateur, media personality, author, director and now novelist. It was a rapid ascent that hit its apex in 2014, when ABC ordered a series based on his memoir, \u201cFresh Off the Boat.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Huang established his bona fides when he later openly criticized the show for sanitizing his origin story growing up as a Taiwanese immigrant raised in Virginia.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome Undone\u201d is described as a semi-autobiographical romantic comedy that centers on a food show host who\u2019s working through his red flags as they pertain to his personal life. He\u2019s a commitment-phobe who limits relationships to three months, but his world flips when he meets Anastasia (a character based on his wife,\u00a0Natashia Blanca), who has as many \u201cred flag\u201d hangups as he does.<\/p>\n
Huang didn\u2019t originally set out to write a rom-com. The initial pitch he sold to One World, an imprint of Random House, centered on a sushi chef who was an aspiring MMA fighter, a story which he abandoned. But he now finds himself fighting for his novel\u2019s place in the classic standard of a rom-com story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it fits that genre in the same way that \u2018Anora\u2019 fits the genre,\u201d he says referring to the Academy Award-winning, genre-defying film that was written, directed, produced and edited by\u00a0Sean Baker. In his estimation, seminal rom-coms include \u201cPretty Woman\u201d (\u201cI believe I developed a boot fetish from that film\u201d), \u201cHigh Fidelity\u201d and \u201cAnnie Hall.\u201d He stands firm on the idea that \u201cGood Will Hunting\u201d is also a rom-com.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the biggest mistakes Hollywood has been making is that they still try to define films by a definition and an understanding of a genre that dates back to the 1980s. I hate to break it to you, but that was 40 years ago. I just see it differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while he may have love for LA, negotiating life as a prominent writer\/producer seems more comfortable from Manhattan. He uses a restaurant metaphor to explain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis town makes it so difficult to set up your station \u2014 to use a kitchen metaphor. In LA it feels like you are always setting up and you never get to cook and that\u2019s frustrating never getting to cook. I had a sous chef who had a lot of issues and he just couldn\u2019t get the line set and one of the line cooks came to me and he said, \u2018Yo chef, are we gonna get to cook\u2026 because I need to cook,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI just wish Hollywood would do that more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Huang\u00a0\u2014 the cult chef who made it in Hollywood as the producer of the long-running hit ABC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2136,1208,9,24,55,54,56,50622],"class_list":["post-273933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-california","tag-media","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-page-six-hollywood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}