By Fiona Ng for LAist
Originally published on Sept. 5, 2026
Got a taste for ducks cooked the Chinese way? Your quest may take you to a quiet suburban backyard in South Pasadena.
That’s where That Peking Duck Guy cooks and sells his birds. His clients, he said, include Phil Rosenthal and Roy Choi.
The guy behind That Peking Duck Guy is Hong Pham, who started the social media account in late 2025 as a way to document his latest culinary obsession: making the perfect duck, be it Peking or Pipa (deboned and flattened into the shape of the namesake Chinese string instrument).
The intention was not to sell. “I have a day job,” Pham said. A radiologist, to be precise.
“I was actually making so many that neighbors wanted to claim it and offered to buy it,” he added. “So I’m like, ‘OK, that makes it easier ’cause I don’t have to eat it all.'”
Soon came DMs from strangers asking for the same thing.
These days, That Peking Duck Guy caters events and holds takeout pop-ups where people can purchase and pick up a duck (which comes with sides and duck soup) from his South Pasadena backyard — right where he cooks them.
Duck is the latest obsession
Duck is not his first rodeo. Pham said he and his wife are foodies who’ve always been curious about delving into Vietnamese and other Asian culinary traditions. For Pham, that also means replicating some of these dishes at home, from scratch.
He’d gone on a tofu bender — making gallons of the stuff, as blocks, drinks and pudding — and also a bánh cuốn spree, or Vietnamese steamed rice rolls. He landed on duck as his latest subject only because he had wanted to make better heo quay, or Vietnamese roasted pork belly.
It’s the oven
He researched how to get that extra crisp online and landed on an oven people in Asia use to make roast and Peking ducks.
How to get your duck
Pham hosts takeout pop-ups from South Pasadena backyard. Follow That Peking Duck Guy’s Instagram for updates.
Visit the official website for catering requests.
“It was called the Apollo oven ’cause it looks like an Apollo space capsule,” he said.
He bought one and then another. In between, he experimented cooking different meats with the new oven to get a feel before turning to the waterfowl.
He even got advice from Top Chef winner Mei Lin, whom he messaged cold: “She’s like, ‘Keep it simple. Keep it basic. Keep it traditional.'”
Hundreds of ducks later, Pham said he still learns something new. That’s one reason why his side hustle has stuck around.
“I didn’t create like, you know, That Bánh Cuốn Man,” he said. “Yeah, duck’s gonna last.”
How That Peking Duck Guy cooks his ducks
Pham starts 7 to 10 days before cooking. Here’s the preparation process:
- He usually trims off the legs and the wings, because those parts get burnt in the oven.
- He insufflates the duck. He sticks an air pump in between the meat and the skin to separate the two, so the entire duck blows up into a “huge balloon essentially,” he said.
- He scalds the skin with a combination of vinegar and maltose to make it “aerodynamic and tight” to get that crispiness.
- He seasons the inside of the duck.
- He then hangs and dries the ducks for about 7 to 10 days.
- Then in the Apollo oven they go. Peking ducks take about an hour and 15 minutes to cook. Pipa ducks take about 40 minutes.
When does he know they’re done? “Well, you know the color, we’re looking for that beautiful mahogany glistening skin, you know?” Pham said.
