Eric Wang: Cooking on Wall Street – From Private Equity to Culinary Craft

For the final episode of 2025, we are joined by a guest who embodies the spirit of exploration: Eric Wang. 

By day, Eric works in private equity in New York City, managing commercial real estate deals on Wall Street. On weekends, he trades his spreadsheets for a chef's knife, running 81 Eats – a supper club and pop-up series featuring "Chinese-inspired comfort food." 

From growing up in Shanghai and attending boarding school in the US at age 12, to training at Wharton and a top-tier French culinary school, Eric is turning the journey inward. 

We discuss how he balances a high-pressure finance career with the grounding nature of cooking, his solitude during the pandemic in Tokyo, and his personal philosophy rooted in nature ("touch grass" to feel alive) and gathering people together.