Sandwich shop owner and celebrity chef Eddie Huang gives his readers a lot to chew on his new book, Fresh Off the Boat.
Huang recounted the story of his father to PRI , an immigrant from Taiwan, who made his million when Eddie was just 14 and moved to a gated community in Florida. Even then he felt like an outcast being lumped in together with the only three other minority kids in the neighborhood.
“My dad was successful and moved to this neighborhood, but even in that neighborhood and even with money, money can only change you so much,” he said.
Stories from his childhood clearly still sting Eddie.
“There’s racism everywhere. When I was nine years old in Florida, this kid Edgar pulled me by my shirt, threw me to the ground in the lunch line and said ‘Chinks get to the back.’ And it wasn’t that I realized, people made me realize what I was,” he said.
“You can have clothes on your back, a roof over your head and food in your mouths and the foundational levels of Maslow’s Pyramids of Needs are taken care of — but emotionally, intellectually, mentally, there’s so much more to being an American than food in your mouth. And I really feel like we were robbed of the American experience at times.”
Huang talks about the felony conviction he received while in college and how he later turned his life around. You can listen to his entire interview and hear his life story on PRI,