How Vietnam's Colonial History Inspired My Menu

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How Vietnam's Colonial History Inspired My Menu

A lot of what people associate as traditional Vietnamese fare—things like banh mis, Vietnamese iced coffee, and even some of the spices used in curry—were all brought to the country when Europe invaded.

Imperialism really impacted Vietnam's food landscape.

A lot of what people associate as traditional Vietnamese fare—things like banh mis, pâtés, charcuterie, Vietnamese iced coffee, and even some of the spices used in curry—were all brought to the country when Europe invaded. Even the architecture of a lot of the buildings has a lot of French and Dutch influences. France colonized Vietnam for over 100 years, after all.

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Bho Kho_Credit Dan Collopy

Bho kho

I grew up eating these foods but I didn't really know about the history of each of these amazing dishes until I got older. So now that I have my own restaurant, I want to teach people about Vietnam's history—the good and the bad—through bolder spice blends, fermented foods, and straight-up umami bombs.

Imperial Rolls_Credit Dan Collopy

Imperial rolls French-Vietnamese breakfast

Still, I'm not trying to bastardize Vietnamese food—just make it less oily and more flavorful. I'm lucky that Vietnamese food is kind of hot right now. Pho is basically a staple dish in a lot of major cities; people know it or they have at least tried it. The state of Vietnamese restaurants right now remind me of sushi restaurants back in the 80s, and it is only a matter of time until it attains the same cultural status as sushi.

My grandparents fled Vietnam during the fall of Saigon by way of China, and passed along a wealth of knowledge about Southeast Asian cuisine to me, both gastronomically and culturally. Gardening with my grandpa and talking to him as my palate developed helped me understand just how complex Vietnamese food is. Growing up in LA's San Gabriel Valley, I was also very fortunate to enjoy some of the best Asian cuisine on the continent, which has unequivocally inspired my approach to cooking.

Inside_Little_Sister

Inside Little Sister Lemongrass lamb sate

However, the Vietnam war is a very sensitive topic to many, so when you bring it up to certain people, especially elders, it will make them uncomfortable. Communist rule in Vietnam really fucked up the country—a lot of families got murdered. But fleeing from all of that when it was happening during the 70s is the reason why there are so many Vietnamese-Americans and Vietnamese restaurants in the States right now. Everyone just wanted a better life, like any other immigrant who came here. Right now, Vietnam is different, but it was rough back then.

What did Vietnamese food look like before the French conquest? Think fish sauce, fresh tropical herbs, chilies, lots of rice. Basically nothing went to waste. I still practice this pre-conquest aspect of Vietnamese culture in my restaurant's salt and pepper lobster dish; we make a fried rice with the leftover lobster scraps for the diner to take the lobster-scented leftovers back home.

All photos by Dan Collopy

The French basically brought meat and bread with them, and just those two elements changed Vietnamese cuisine forever. Funny enough, I came full circle with my French roots when I became classically trained in French techniques during cooking school. Stocks, braises, you know, the stuff that is usually boring to everybody else. These things weren't boring to me at all.

As told to Javier Cabral