ON THE PASS
You grew up in Brisbane with families who were refugees. What do you remember eating?
When we first arrived, we had our first taste of Western food. It was really interesting to see all these newly landed Vietnamese people eating cheese-and-Vegemite sandwiches for lunch and roasts and lasagne for dinner. It was so different to what I knew.
Your mother would cook pho for family and friends. Has her recipe influenced what you serve at Pho Nom?
Absolutely! My mum’s cooking inspired me to open my first Pho Nom. Her specialty is Hu Tieu Nam Vang (a rice-noodle dish in a clear chicken and pork-bone broth) – we serve it at Pho Nom, and I always strive to make mine as good as hers.
Are your parents tough judges when it comes to your cooking? Or are they just happy to be fed?
My parents still don’t think I can cook. When I’m at their house and helping them in the kitchen, I am always relegated to herb-picking and setting the table. When they do allow me to cook for them, I will only cook Western food, because I know they can’t critique it from a place of much authority.
Tell us about a dish from your Annam restaurant.
We do a braised pork-hock dish at Annam, which is an interpretation of one of my mum’s recipes. Every time she makes it, I’m reminded of when I was doing the 40 Hour Famine as a kid. Just as I started my 40 hours of fasting, mum cooked up a massive pot. She’d completely forgotten I was fasting. It was a challenge, to say the least, to live in a house that smelled like amazing pork stew. But the worst part was that my whole family polished off the pot before I could get any!
Your son inspired you to reduce plastic at your restaurants. Has he influenced your businesses in other ways?
I’ve definitely looked at our menus differently since having my son. We do a few more kid-friendly dishes (ie adding sweet potato), but not too much. My goal is not to bend the menu to my son’s tastes, but rather to open his mind to all the amazing food out there. I think parents should be doing this for all our kids where we can. Annam, 56 Little Bourke St, Melbourne, Vic, annam. com.au; Pho Nom has three Melbourne locations, phonom.com.au