After Going Viral On YouTube, The “Chicken Connoisseur” Gets A Book Deal

In his web series The Pengest Munch, Elijah Quashie visits restaurants on two sides of the Atlantic to stake his claim as the “Chicken Connoisseur.” Now, after gathering more than 575,000 subscribers and generating 27 million views in just 19 months of activity, Quashie is taking his act to bookshelves. He is the author of In Search of the Nation’s 50 Favourite Chicken Establishments, a forthcoming book that will arrive on October 5th, 2017.

In The Pengest Munch (“peng,” according to Urban Dictionary, is a slang term meaning “of exceptional quality”), Quashie travels around Britain and offers candid reviews of budget fried chicken eateries. His unbounded charisma, unbridled passion for poultry, and uncertain age (though he looks young, he claimed in a since-deleted tweet to be 23 years old) have combined to make his series a smash hit, particularly in his native U.K.

Quashie’s book, as its title implies, will offer more of the fried chicken criticism that made Pengest Munch a viral sensation. In Search of the Nation’s 50 Favourite Chicken Establishments will be released by Kings Road Publishing, which has acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to the book.

While the book is still months away from publication, fans can still interact with its author. Quashie has asked viewers to tell him about their favorite chicken shops, and he will visit the ones that prove most popular. The last day to submit a restaurant will be May 7th.