Chef explores vegetarian fare of Vietnam
Travel, experimentation and a little diplomacy help chef learn
For chef and Canadian ex-pat Cameron Stauch, the best part of writing his first cookbook was the research.
While he and his wife, Ayesha Rekhi, a Canadian diplomat, were based a few years ago in Hanoi in northern Vietnam, Stauch, always a curious traveller, made several trips to central and southern Vietnam, toting a camera and notepad to delve into the unheralded vegetarian cuisine that flourished in those regions.
“I love meeting new people, connecting through food, learning more about their culture and them learning a bit more about me,” says Stauch, whose sumptuous book Vegetarian Viêt Nam (W.W. Norton) was released this spring.
“That’s the real gem of it. I think that’s why I like doing it,” says Stauch, 44, whose last cooking gigs in Canada included stints working for a succession of Canada’s governors general at Rideau Hall in Ottawa between 2002 and 2012.
Stauch, who learned to speak basic Vietnamese before his wife was posted, would wake up early to attend 6 a.m. breakfasts at Buddhist monasteries. He would also arrive at markets when they opened and immerse himself in the fine points of what people were buying, what vendors were preparing and what vegetables were especially popular and plentiful.
Stauch learned to plan his trips according to the lunar cycle, so he’d arrive a few days before the new moon and full moon. At those times, southern Vietnam’s lay Buddhists eat as vegetarians and dishes feature emulations of meats and seafoods. Stauch, who’s not a vegetarian, would eat the meaty dishes and then their meatless counterparts and begin to figure out key differences and substitutions.
Then, back at home in Hanoi, Stauch worked to re-create the dishes he ate, “trying to get them as I experienced or trying to even make them better,” he says.
The result of his efforts is a lavish 326-page collection that’s an engrossing read for armchair cooks and also immensely practical. It contains about 100 detailed and lucidly educational recipes divided into such categories as pantry staples, tofu and seitan, street snacks, salads, soups, noodle bowls, rice, drinks and sweets. The recipes are surrounded by evocative anecdotes and insight into Vietnamese culinary culture. The book’s glossary of ingredients is long and definitive and there’s even a section of tips for vegetarians travelling to Vietnam.
Stauch says he’s happy with the book, which was about three years of work from idea to publication. “Writing the book is a lot harder than cooking for me,” he says. “I’m trying to get those writing skills and that writing memory, like my knife skills and stuff. Those are all second nature.”
When Stauch worked in the kitchen at Rideau Hall, his specialty was creating dishes for dinner guests who were vegetarians or vegans, or people who had dietary restrictions.
“It was my job to try to make their plates look and taste as close to the meat and seafood dishes, so they didn’t stand out when they were at the table,” Stauch says.
That experience aligned with the work he did for Vegetarian Viêt Nam. In his Hanoi kitchen, Stauch tested recipes and served the results to his family’s Vietnamese nanny and housecleaner. “I would cook for them these vegetarian Vietnamese dishes because they ’d never experienced vegetarian Vietnamese food because they’re from the north,” Stauch says.
“If I saw their eyes light up, and they very quickly said, ‘It’s very tasty,’ I knew that I’d hit it on the mark. If they were just silent and didn’t really say much, I knew I had to work on it again.”
Stauch now lives with his family in Bangkok, where his wife works at the Canadian Embassy and where he has begun working on a vegetarian Thai cookbook.
This summer, Stauch will return to Canada. Cooking events and book signings are in the works for Kitchener, Ont., where he grew up; nearby Stratford, where he trained as a chef; as well as Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.