Michael Huynh Bao, David Thai and Nguyen Van Tu, three Vietnamese Iron Chefs with successes in international cooking contests, gathered at a night in Sunrise Nha Trang Beach Hotel & Spa to perform their cooking talents with delicious dishes and share about their career...
Michael Huynh Bao, David Thai and Nguyen Van Tu, three Vietnamese Iron Chefs with successes in international cooking contests, gathered at a night in Sunrise Nha Trang Beach Hotel & Spa to perform their cooking talents with delicious dishes and share about their career.
Roads to cooking
Iron Chef Michael Huynh Bao started the night by his childhood story, “I’ve got familiar with cooking since I was a child. At that time, my family had a small restaurant in Sai Gon and I was a help to it. I was so keen on cooking that all my toys are tools for kitchen. When I was 10, I could make patéchaud and dumpling. After that, although I came to America to train as an architect, I kept the dream of cooking. Many years later, I opened a restaurant in New York named Bảo 111. Then, I’ve devoted all my time to cuisine.”
Not lucky as Michael Huynh Bao, Iron Chef David Thai spent a harder childhood. He told, “I lost parents at four and left Vietnam for France to live with my uncle who worked with all his might to raise his children and me. When he decided to open a Vietnamese restaurant for a better earning, my initial work was peeling onions, washing vegetable and cleaning kitchen. One time, I dipped some pieces of grilled shrimp paste in oil and put them in freezer. Several days later, when I fried them, their taste became more special. My uncle recommended me to study cooking and I’ve pursued this career since then.”
Iron Chef Nguyen Van Tu told his road to cooking, “In 1996, I quitted high school to study cooking regardless of my parents’ objection. So, I had to study and work at the same time. In the morning, I washed dishes for restaurants; in the afternoon, I studied cooking; and in the evening, I worked as a cook helper. The hard days gave me much experience. After finishing cooking school, I can work as a chef of a big restaurant in Hanoi.”
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Desires to popularize Vietnamese cuisine abroad
Despite the fact that the three chefs have achieved success in European cuisine, they from their heart have desires to bring Vietnamese cuisine closer to foreigners.
“Cuisine is one of channels to advertise Vietnam culture abroad”, said Iron Chef Michael Huynh Bao. With that thought, when opening a Vietnamese restaurant in America, he deliberately looked for a location apart from streets of Chinese, Thai and Japanese restaurants for customers not to mix the restaurant up with others.
Iron Chef David Thai had a good opportunity to introduce Vietnamese cuisine abroad when being invited to set up a restaurant with Vietnamese food in Dubai. With his talent and creation, Vietnamese dishes in the restaurant are liked quickly. Moreover, David Thai always tried to Vietnamese food in menu of luxurious restaurants where he used to be chef.
In Iron Chef Nguyen Van Tu’ s view, Vietnamese food is fine, harmonious, nutritious and suitable with modern cuisine, so it’s necessary to introduce Vietnamese cuisine more to the world. The chef also won the title Iron Chef Thailand 2012 owning to Vietnamese sweet bird nest soup.
T.T
