The Power of Phở
Presented by Chef Life Radio
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By Mimi Lan
Surviving the Fall of Saigon in 1975, my family immigrated to the U.S. when I was a child and we settled in New Orleans to rebuild our lives all over again.
I remember, my late aunt’s tiny apartment turned into a makeshift phở shop that she operated on the weekends to make ends meet. Her entire apartment was filled with the intoxicating aroma of phở soup, and was packed every weekend with guests congregated together around cheap, low plastic chairs and tables, laughing and crying together, and sharing their immigrant escape stories while slurping her delicious phở. If you’ve never had phở before — it’s a flavorful Vietnamese beef noodle soup, made with simmering bone broth, rice noodles, aromatic spices, and thinly sliced beef, accompanied with fresh herbs and vegetables.
It was these delicious and comforting bowls of phở that brought dispirited strangers closer, quickly becoming a tight knit community who commiserated together while enjoying a taste of home. My aunt would spend all day and late into the night cooking a huge pot of phở stock — simmering bones, marrows, charred onions, and ginger — for many hours. No matter how deep into a conversation her guests were with each other, as soon as my aunt’s steaming bowl of aromatic phở arrived on their table, everyone immediately stopped talking. Everything came to a silence as they stared at this bowl of phở, politely waiting until their turn. But I could tell, all they wanted to do was to dig into that bowl of umami goodness.
My aunt told me years later that she did it more for the joy of connecting with our refugee people. The extra money she made was a necessity, but not her motivation. It was the joy of cooking a familiar, comforting dish that brought so much joy to people, and gave them a sense of belonging together that she said was so important for our immigrants’ well-being at the time.
That lesson of the power of food as nourishment not just for the body but also the soul always stuck with me. And after many years of being so burnt out working in the corporate world, I’m now finally able to follow my passion of cooking and connecting with people through my pop-up dinners.
My food, VIGLO (Vietnamese with global influences), is about creating innovation in cooking while honoring classic recipes of the past. So when my guests eat my food, and learn more about the ingredients and history of that dish, it helps them understand my culture and people better. This lesson of the power of food from my aunt helped bring clarity to my goals when I became a chef: To use food to connect people and bridge the gap of understanding between cultures.
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Surviving the Fall of Saigon in 1975, Chef Mimi Lam immigrated to the States as a young child with her family. Hardship taught hard work, which motivated her to begin her journey as an award-winning boutique marketing owner for 15 years. After retiring the business and finally following her passion of cooking, Chef Mimi started her VIGLO (Vietnamese with global influences) pop-up dinner series.
Chef Mimi completed staging under two of the best restaurants in the world — three-Michelin starred restaurant “Per Se,” and two-Michelin starred restaurant “Gaggan Anand.” Her goal is to elevate Vietnamese cuisine and to bridge the gap of understanding between cultures.
Find more of Chef Mimi’s work: @thetastecurator on Instagram and Clubhouse, and online at Taste Curator.
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