Stephanie Dinh, owner and chef of S Fine Dining restaurant in Westminster, CA, likes to keep up with the latest in Vietnamese food news. This morning, she sent me a piece from her local paper that features Charles Phan, James Beard Award recipient and owner and chef of Slanted Door restaurant in San Francisco.
Charles ventured southward to Little Saigon in Orange County (the Mecca for overseas Vietnamese Americans) for this article. He shopped with the writer for water spinach (rau muong), chayote, and lemongrass and explains their uses in the Vietnamese kitchen by demonstrating a few recipes.
Nobody says
Do you really think there is such thing as Vietnamese fine dining?
You can take Vietnamese food, add a few nonesensical ingredients, serve it on square plates (haha!) and dress it up in a gaudy, psuedo "nouveau indochinois" setting but the foundation still remains the same, peasant home cooking.
Is it not foolish to take somethng that is authentic and contort it to something that is contrary what is related to the spirit of its people all in the sake of following a trend? The trends will pass i
Andrea Nguyen says
Using "fine dining" in the restaurant's name is meant to signal to customers that they'll get consistently good service, nice ambiance, thoughtfully prepared and presented food, and high quality ingredients. Think of it as a strategic communication move to distance the restaurant from the run-of-the-mill Viet spots nearby. Stephanie's restaurant is more upscale and she also plays with Viet culinary concepts -- which isn't out of line with what's going on in Vietnam these days. Charles Phan does
Nobody says
Quality food is something that is expected even at the hawker level and only needs to be marketed as some kind of new concept to people who have no capacity for quality.
Professional cooking is an exercise in quantity and is similar to working an assembly line and does not need genius to do. The purpose of a restaurant is to make profit.
Home cooking, although more time consuming than visiting a restaurant, results in superior quality and is not a mere economic transaction, but allows one to ac
Simon Bao says
I can think of several things that would distinguish Vietnamese "fine dining" from all other kinds of Viet dining experiences. Service and setting are the most obvious, and fine service and a fine setting are exactly what's often *lacking* from many VietnAmerican restaurants. In the words of many of my non-Viet friends, "You don't go to a Vietnamese restaurant for the service - or for comfort, decor or flattering overhead lighting - you go for the food." So even without altering the food, yes
Simon Bao says
I'll let Andrea explain what she means by "Viet culinary concepts," but will also jump in and explain what *I* mean when I use that phrase.
To me, it means taking the cuisine as it's been delivered into our hands, but encouraging it do what all cuisines do - evolve, change, grow, expand, embrace new ingredients and techniques.
But first, a historical analogy... If one turns the clock back to 16th and 17th century Vietnam, the cooks there were looking at a staggering variety of new, unfamiliar,
Andrea Nguyen says
Viet culinary concepts are the fundamentals of the cuisine. Fish sauce, rice, fresh herbs, and caramel sauce are the essential ingredients. Classic dishes like pho, goi cuon, cha gio, kho are also elemental and part of the foundation of the cuisine. So how do you twist and bend the rules while still staying within the parameters to arrive at good tasting food?
Indeed, Simon's right. Viet cooks have been doing that lively dance in the kitchen for millenia. And now with the diaspora of Viet cookin
Air Jordan says
Blogs are really cool. They are so entertaining like this one. However there are blogs which are offensive even blogs about servng trays could be one of them.