Radiologist's culinary side gig draws celebrity patrons

A southern California radiologist’s tasty hobby has turned his cooking skills into an impressive side hustle that has patrons flocking to his backyard to experience his culinary creations. 

Hong Pham, MD—a breast and body imaging specialist with Kaiser Permanente—is known by many as “That Peking Duck Guy.” While Pham was experimenting with ways to improve a dish from his home country of Vietnam, he turned his attention to duck. This eventually led to Pham creating a social media account in late 2025 to document his experiments with Peking and Pipa duck, though selling his dishes was never part of the plan. 

“I have a day job,” Pham told LAist, referring to his work as a radiologist. 

But Pham’s birds began to gain popularity on social media, and several of his neighbors requested a chance to try his duck for themselves. 

"I was actually making so many that neighbors wanted to claim it and offered to buy it," he said. "So I'm like, 'OK, that makes it easier 'cause I don't have to eat it all.'" 

His talents eventually caught the attention of strangers who would send him direct messages on social media asking to get a taste. Eventually, word of Pham’s obsession with cooking the perfect duck made its way to notable celebrity chefs Roy Choi and Mei Lin, the latter of whom even offered some advice on crafting the perfect dish. 

"She's like, 'Keep it simple. Keep it basic. Keep it traditional,'" Pham told the L.A. news outlet. 

Pham says that he and his wife have always been foodies; the couple enjoys cooking traditional Asian and Vietnamese meals at home and will often experiment with new techniques. He also admits to once going through a serious tofu phase that had him creating new dishes nonstop. However, none of their cooking ventures took off quite like this one.  

Today, That Peking Duck Guy hosts takeout pop-ups from his South Pasadena backyard and caters events. Customers can pick up a whole Peking or Pipa duck along with sides and soup. What began as a home-cooking rabbit hole has now evolved into a social media following, backyard pop-ups and catering gigs, all while he continues working his day job as a radiologist. An earlier story from the South China Morning Post has more about Pham's process and inspiration.