Who is Pei Chung? Alleged Dine and Dasher accused of posing as fake food influencer to rip off top NYC restaurants

The New York based Pei Chung is being accused of defrauding prime restaurants in the city. Chung, who has allegedly dined and dashed at some of New York’s best restaurants, was reportedly arrested after she refused to settle her bill at a restaurant earlier this month.

Pei Chung is a 34-year-old resident of Brooklyn, as per The New York Post. According to her Instagram profile, Chung is of Taiwanese origin who posts luxury content to her social media pages. She has about 14,000 followers on Instagram.

Chung previously worked as user experience designer in the capacity of a consultant for JP Morgan Chase & Co, as per her LinkedIn page. She has a total of 6 years of experience in the tech, finance and e-commerce industries.

She has a Master in Information Experience Design (IXD) from New York’s Pratt Institute. Chung received a full merit based scholarship to the Institute in 2019.

As per her own admission on her LinkedIn page, Chung was a child prodigy. She has listed that she could play the violin at age 3 and performed royal ballet and the classical piano from the ages of 5 to 10.

Pei Chung has reportedly been posing as a fake food influencer to defraud New York City restaurants

Pei Chung, who often puts up images of designer clothing and shoes from luxury brand names such as Prada, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton, also posts pictures of food from high-brow restaurants of New York City. Most recently, she posted images and rave reviews of a Michelin-starred restaurant named Francie to her Instagram page and online blog.

However, her experience at Francie in Brooklyn was not as smooth as Chung’s social media presence would have her followers believe. According to The New York Post, Chung dined on $188 worth of food at the restaurant on October 27, following which she offered an exchange of her services as a food influencer instead of directly paying her bill. One of Francie’s owners, John Winterman, told the news outlet,

“She wanted to trade pictures and a blog post for the meal…I said, ‘That would be something we would have to agree upon before, and we haven’t done that, so I need you to pay the check.’”

She returned to the restaurant on November 7 after attempting to dine there but being refused multiple times. As per The New York Post, Chung’s bill that day went up to $83.83, which she refused to settle.

The authorities became involved, and the fake influencer was arrested at the bar inside the restaurant on charges of theft-of-services. Francie’s owner told the news outlet,

“Police officers showed up. Two cars and four cops – they looked at her and said, ‘Oh yeah. That’s her. We know her.’…The police went to the bar, read her her rights, handcuffed her at the bar and escorted her out.”

Other restaurants in the city are also familiar with Chung’s alleged tactics. She posted reviews online of her visit at another restaurant, Peter Luger. According to Daily Mail, however, a manager at Peter Luger claimed that Chung hid in the bathroom for about 45 minutes when the time came for her to settle the bill at the restaurant. She allegedly hinted to the waiter at Peter Luger that she could pay for the meal in another way, alluding to exchanging s*xual favors, reported Daily Mail.