Eddie Huang sat down with the butter-voiced Eddy Moretti for The Vice Podcast Show to chat about all things Fresh Off the Boat, and, after talking more about his second book in the works, he revealed the kind of food show he’d like to do. Namely: not one on the “University of Phoenix” of food TV.
Said Eddie:
“Food Network is a vocational channel, just like a vocational school, like the University of Phoenix or some shit…You go to the Food Network and it’s all stand-and-stir. You could actually do amazing stand-and-stir shows that extend beyond that pot, and talk about the family and where you got the ingredients. You could actually have an ill talking head show with a stand-and-stir. I’ve been talking to people, I want to do something like that, like a stand-and-stir talking heads show.
Because food is such an ill trap. It’s beautiful. That’s what you’ve been catching mammals with for centuries is food. The Food Network, I don’t think, understands it, and I don’t think they want to have like, a higher calling. I want to be on like the Hebrew National of networks, you know. ‘We answer to a higher power.’ I just have a much bigger agenda in terms of speaking to people who watch what we’re doing. Otherwise, I mean, I’m not a pretty motherfucker. The reason I’m here is because I have ideas and I want to get those across and we’re using food to do that because the food will draw you in.”
We hear CNN is allowing cursing these days!
This summer, Eddie’s heading to China for work on his second book, inspired by our favorite re-telling of Harry Potter ever. As we know, Eddie draws a lot of inspiration from The Sorting Hat. The Sorting Hat is Eddie’s spirit guide. To quote an earlier interview we did with him:
For lack of a better comparison, the thing that always inspired me is from Harry Potter. Remember when he’s worrying, “What if I get put in the snake school?” Because he’s cursed, and he’s half bad. Right? And he’s worried about the hat telling him to be in, like, the snake school. And I remember it was, like, either his dad, or the fucking professor, or whatever, telling him: “You will be good if you want to be good. You will be in Gryffindor if you want to be in Gryffindor.”
So, he told Vice, the second book jumps off from there:
“This summer, for book two, it’s an extension of that idea of choice, and to go back to China. I’m going to go to Chengdu in the Sichuan province, right next to where my father’s family is from in Hunan, a neighboring province. I’m going to live in an apartment and cook downstairs in the stall five days a week, serving — I think I want to cook Taiwanese food in Sichuan China. I think that would be really cool, to cook Taiwanese food there, see how people react to my food…I want to see how the society embraces me.”
Is 2014 too optimistic a publish date? We can dream.
You can check out the whole episode of The Vice Podcast Show below.
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