Peggy Cherng Panda Express Empress Chapter 1 Panda Powerhouse You’re shopping at the mall with friends and decide to get some lunch The food court has many restaurants But there really isn’t a choice to make You and your friends always go to Panda Express It’s everyone’s favorite Your mouth waters as you wait in line One of the staff scoops steaming fried rice and wok-tossed Orange Chicken into bowls You can already almost taste the Orange Chicken’s famous tangy sauce Panda Express is a chain of American Chinese restaurants It serves traditional Chinese food with changes made to appeal to American tastes Panda Express is the largest Chinese food chain in the United States It has nearly 2,000 restaurants These restaurants are owned and overseen by two people Peggy and Andrew Cherng are the people behind Panda Express The husband and wife are both co-chair and co-CEO of the company Panda Restaurant Group In addition to Panda Express the company owns Panda Inn 4
Peggy Cherng is one of the most successful Chinese-American businesswomen and Hibachi-San restaurants Panda Restaurant Group began as one small restaurant run by Andrew and his father Peggy joined the business shortly after they started opening more locations She is credited with shaping it into the successful chain it is today 5
Peggy Cherng Panda Express Empress Chapter 2 American Education Peggy Tsiang was born around 1950 in Burma a Southeast Asian nation known today as Myanmar When Peggy was young her family moved to Hong Kong As a teenager Peggy came to the United States to attend Baker University in Baldwin City Kansas There Peggy studied mathematics Andrew Cherng was born in China in 1948 He moved to Japan in 1963 Three years later he moved to the United States to attend Baker University That is where Andrew and Peggy met The pair bonded over their Chinese roots and love of math They started dating Food Bite After completing bachelor’s degrees Andrew and Peggy continued their education Both attended the University of Missouri There Andrew earned a 6 Food in the United States was a big surprise to Peggy She had never had pizza or tacos before
The University of Missouri is in Columbia Missouri master’s degree in math Peggy earned a master’s degree in computer science Peggy stayed in school after earning her master’s degree She went on to earn a PhD in electrical engineering Meanwhile Andrew began a new venture that would completely change his and Peggy’s lives 7
