Chef Vo Quoc is quite well known although he is not any restaurants’ chef cook.
Excellently
graduated from Vietnam cooking class at Tourism and Hospitality of Saigon
tourist in 2001, Vo Quoc earned a scholarship of advanced training from Belgium
at Saigon tourist. After that, he received another scholarship from the famous
Raffle restaurant in Singapore since he was the first in class. He took Food
stylist course in Singapore and after receiving Food expert certificate from
Asian Chefs Association, he chose to be a food designer and general editor of 3
magazines: Vietnamese Delicious in both Vietnamese and English version, and
Family in the Kitchen.
His
story started 10 years ago but he felt it as fresh as yesterday. He said, “I
still remember the very first period of my cooking training, there were rare
students who chose Vietnamese cuisine. Most of my classmates chose Western
cuisine for their future choices. Vietnamese cuisine class seemed to fit for
small family restaurant only. No matter what, I determined to follow my choice
and my ability. For those who eat Vietnamese food everyday should be the best
cooking Vietnamese food.
But after classes
about Vietnamese food, you became a food stylist, not a chef?
I
still cook for cultural exchanging festivals but I can’t be a chef because of
my temper. When the restaurant gets crowded and the chef can’t keep a cool
head, definitely he will screw all the food. Therefore, I decided to be a food
stylist, which was a really new and cash cow job at that time.
Being a leisure food
stylist then you’ve changed your career as general editor (Ed) for culinary
magazines. Seems like you prefer difficult paths?
Food
stylist is a leisure choice but you have to invest all your time on it. You
have to understand culinary cultures and the nature of ingredients in order to
design eye-catching and useful food. I have to drag myself to all bookstores to
look for culinary books in order to update my knowledge.
When
wandering many bookstores, I realized that Vietnam had not had any good
culinary magazines. What’s a pity for our abundant cuisine! So my friends and I
decided to launch Vietnamese Delicious
magazine. Working in communication field is much harder because you must
devote most of your time and mind for it but it’s worth all the hard work. I
feel lucky that I own a somewhat-well-known culinary magazine so that I’ve
learned a lot from experts all over Vietnam. I was known in the world because
of those magazines and they also brought me chances to participate many food
festivals in the world.
“Food has erased
language barrier and pulled people close to each other”.
Which faith did make
you Vietnamese culinary ambassador?
Well!
That’s such a scandal tittle. 4 years ago, to prepare for Young Chef
International contest in Vietnamese, World Chef Association looked for a young
chef who had communication skills to be Cultural and Culinary ambassador. The
Saigon Young Chefs Club nominated me to that position. However, that idea got
critical reaction from Saigon Professional Chefs Association because at that
time, I did not belong to any association nor firm restaurants. I was a member
of World Street Food Association and a judge of International Young Chefs as
well as working in my business so I really did not have time for other groups.
Some of my foreign friends thought it was ridiculous if saying Vietnamese
culinary ambassador must be a member of Chef Association, which was like saying
Mercedes-Benz brand ambassador must work in the firm.
And how did you react
against the disagreement?
I
did not react. I just recommend the news should have checked their sources before
publishing.
Why does a scientism
and artistic You choose cooking as your career?
All
is because of faith. My family has a good reputation with Chemistry that most
of my siblings are doctors or pharmacists. I am good at chemistry, too but I
also love drawing. I took exams to go to architect school but I failed
relentless 3 years. I am the youngest son, of course I’m spoiled and I love to
rock. I broke my hands in a motor race and couldn’t draw anymore.
During
days of being at a loose end, I usually hid in my godmother’s house, happened
to be the most famous chef of Viet Nam, Nguyen Dzoan Cam Van. She saw my
ability and asked me to learn cooking in day while studying academic Marketing
at night. My mother and oldest sister love me too much to stop me while my
father and other siblings intensely protested. Being at Asian Young Chefs 2001
in Beijing, China was an honor but I couldn’t tell my family, except my mother
and oldest sister. Until I won the first prize, the rest of my family has still
refused to look at cooking career in a different way.
For how long have you
finally earned agreement of your whole family?
Just
recent. Before that, even though I opened my own company and launched my own
restaurants but they had not come to visit.
Have you ever
regretted for not following your family tradition?
I
never regret what belongs to the past. Because of the accident, I stepped onto
cooking career and after that I could juggle pans by both hands. I think we
should be good to ourselves first so I always think positive, be happy, and do
not hate. When I decided to take cooking as my career, I told myself to be
satisfied with whatever came, as the worst or the best.
I’m
not a very pleasant looking guy but who knows me loves me. I’m willing to yield
to keep relationships. Even a guy whom I treated as my younger bro took my
seafood restaurant or an architect took my idea and tools in my restaurant, I
don’t blame them. I try to put myself in others’ shoes.
What did bring you to
success in both your career path and contests?
All
is luck. I’m really passionate and honest in my career so I’ve got all the
luck. I never gave bad comments about food. If it’s good, I devour it; if it’s
not very good, I will take it slow and think of how to make it better. I have
an easy mouth and an open heart, especially when I can cook for my love ones. I
take control of my job and quickly improvise. For example, at the Asian Young
Chefs contest in Beijing, I thought I couldn’t compete with experienced chefs
there. At that time, I was a total newbie. I created my own way. I chose simple
dish - fried rice - but I cooked it differently. With a bit of creativity, I
surpassed over 50 competitors from 13 Asian countries to won the contest.
That’s because of luck. And I’m not the best in town.
Another
example is at the International Street Food festival 2014 in Singapore, I
wanted to cook Hai Phong rice noodles in crab soup but in the last minutes, the
custom didn’t allow fresh water crabs to get in for safety reasons. I immediately
came up with fake crabs from grounded shrimps. The final dish was delicious and
pleasant, which won the prize of the most favorite food.
I’m
always proud of my homeland’s cuisine. I realized that our country has
plentiful and diverse food sources. It’s not only the taste - southern food is
fat and sweet, central food is salty and spicy while northern food is mild and
transparent – but also each region has its own spicy/herbal leaves. After a
long time enjoy local food all over Vietnam, local specialties did open my eyes
for subjective and general ideas of how different regional tastes and flavors
are. That is food, which erases language barrier and pulls people close to each
other.
“I’m always proud of
my homeland’s cuisine. I realized that our country has plentiful and diverse
food sources.”
You think what is the
most remarkable line of Vietnamese cuisine?
It’s
spicy and herbal leaves. They’re so diverse and they make regional food unique.
For instant, sour soup of each area has different flavors, which the South’s is
garnished with ngò gai, ngò om; the
central is with spring onion, rau răm, lá
é; and the North’s goes with dills. Moreover, the same type of herbal
leaves can be different tastes and smells, depending on their regions. I prefer
Northern and central herbs because the soil there are arid, leaves are small so
the essences are much tenser. Soil in the South is fertile, good for sweet
vegetables.
One
interesting geography point of Vietnam is that the distances from rivers to the
oceans are just about 2 hours. Brackish areas between are homes of unique
seafood, such as eel fish, naked catfish (Bagridae), or anh vũ fish (Semilabeo notabilis). Shopping in fresh market is
another interesting and typical activity of Vietnamese. When arriving a new
land, domestic or foreign, my first stop would be markets. I can find typical
recipes of local food there from buyers and sellers. I’m nurturing a book about
Vietnamese markets that I’ve been collecting for years. I hope my books can
contribute to open the narrow viewpoint of the world about Vietnamese cuisine.
“The narrow viewpoint
of the world about Vietnamese cuisine”, would you please explain it?
The
world has known of Vietnamese cuisine through phở, chả giò (fried rolls), and gỏi
cuốn (spring rolls). In addition, some of the faces who introduced phở to the world have depreciated the
true value of the dish. Recently, an American chef who has Vietnamese origin –
one has cooked for Hollywood celebrities – instructed a way to cook phở by pressure cooker. I was so
disappointed watching that clip going viral on the Internet. Foreigners do care
in details, especially cooking. They will admire Vietnamese phở if they know beef bones must be
cooked over 12 hours to get the best broth.
In
my meetings around the world, I realized that the world adores our food. The
issue is people who have been make Vietnamese food popular have limited
knowledge of their homeland cuisine. King of chef Christine Ha, Vietnamese
American in Los Angeles, California, or Luke Nguyen – Vietnamese Australian has
not lived in Vietnam for a very long time. They do not really have Vietnamese
food daily so the consequence is that their taste must change, little or much.
They can cook from Vietnamese recipes but I think their food hardly delivers
the true Vietnamese flavors.
Essence
of a dish comes from every single step of processing. Once I went to France in
a ceremony of 40 years Vietnamese & French cultural exchange, fortunately I
meet an old lady from Hue royal family and learned how to make delicate royal bún bò Huế. She said that in her time,
only rich families could enjoy good food while normal household just had enough
to fill their stomachs. Therefore, only high-class knew the taste and how to
cook good food. Real bún bò Huế must
have aromatic pork shank, crunchy and lemongrass-flavorful joint, and perfectly
mixed broth from Hue shrimp paste, lemongrass, oiled garlic chili, and boiled
pork with onion broth. Too much of any single scent could screw the whole pot.
Especially, bún bò Huế must be hot
and spicy. Diners must feel their lips running, not their tongues. Former prime
minister of Singapore, Ly Quang Dieu, used to praise my bún bò Huế with robust aroma of shrimp paste.
“In my meetings
around the world, I realized that the world adores our food. The issue is
people who have been make Vietnamese food popular have limited knowledge of
their homeland cuisine.”
Such a special
chance! When did he have your bún bò Huế?
I
participated in a conference of Yahoo in Singapore, 2007, as a chef who
introduced Vietnamese food. Other Asian chefs cooked their traditional dishes,
too. I was asked to eliminate shrimp paste out of the dish and reduce chili
potion so that all foreigners could have it. I told them that without shrimp
paste and spicy chili, it’s no longer bún bò Huế. Finally, my true bún bò Huế
was totally enjoyed by Ly Quang Dieu and visitors. After the party, Ly Quang
Dieu asked me to come and cook many more times for his supreme parties.
Foreigners seem to
love Vietnamese street food?
They
do. Very much. But they’re afraid of hygeine. The same happens to mắm. Mắm
(fermented fish/seafood) is not ordorous or dirty as they think. In fact, mắm is a spectacular spice of Vietnam
and it needs a proper procession to be well preserved. In the ceremony of 40
years Vietnamese – French relationship, I had a chance to present types of mắm in dishes of all 3 Vietnamese
regions. I showed them that mắm was
totally not ordorous or dirty like they used to think. It’s the way we joke
that makes people misunderstanding our food. I can joke everything but not
food. Our basa fish (Pangasius bocourti) got boycotted because of jokes saying
that basa fish was fed with weighting
compound. You can see, a joke can harm the whole economic field. Sometimes I
strongly react at graceless jokes about my food. People can think of me as high
temper person but that’s just my way to respect the food.
Thank you for your
interesting sharing.
Writer: Xuan Loc/DNSGCT
Artist: Hoang
Tuong