Grandmother’s recipes inspire Thum pop-up
Work your way down the menu at Thum, and you'll get a taste of Darleen Vanmanivong's journey. This is Lao cuisine, and these are her family recipes.
Vanmanivong trained at Le Cordon Bleu, then worked her way through restaurant kitchens including Bartolotta's Lake Park Bistro, DanDan and Amilinda.
Yet when she had the chance to open her own space, it was Laos and her grandmother's recipes that inspired her.
After working with Alex Hanesakda's SapSap 11-day pop-up earlier this year, in June she launched her own operation: Thum, a four-month pop-up (through October) at Crossroads Collective, 2238 N. Farwell Ave.
For Vanmanivong, the menu is an expression of love. She skips gadgets in the kitchen, focusing on doing things by hand with a mortar and pestle to eke out every bit of flavor — just the way her grandmother taught her.
Vanmanivong lives in Wauwatosa with her husband. Look for Thum on Instagram @thummke.
Question: How did you decide you wanted to be a chef?
I've been a chef for about 10 years. I went to school in Atlanta, worked there for a year, moved back to Milwaukee. A chef of mine, Richard Blais, happened to be doing a book signing at The Grain Exchange. I had just moved here, maybe a month out of (his Atlanta restaurant) The Spence. I texted him, I see you'll be in town, do you need any help? Bartolotta had everything catered, so I was sitting with Joe Bartolotta, Maria Bartolotta, Richard Blais and Zak Baker, who asked if I wanted to stage at Lake Park (Bistro). That was in 2012.
I ended up moving out of Milwaukee for my husband's job, to Colorado Springs. I was a catering chef out there, did several pop-up events. There's a chef there, Brother Luck. He'd do these ‘knife fights' after hours at his restaurant, competitions. That's where I started branching into other areas.
I actually got into food pretty late. I was 28 when I went to culinary school. I actually was in the admissions (at Le Cordon Bleu in Atlanta). I was finding myself more excited about other people's careers in food than what I was doing. I went to school from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., then worked from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day to get my certification. It prepared me for working in restaurants for sure.
Q: Where does the name for your pop-up come from?
Thum is actually the technique used to make papaya salad, or curries. It is the pounding motion of the mortar and pestle.
Q: How did the March pop-up with SapSap and the timing of the pandemic influence your decision to launch Thum?
I was in transition. I'd helped open Ash at the Iron Horse Hotel, and it wasn't somewhere I wanted to stay. Hotel restaurants are not my favorite places. Alex had contacted me on social media. He was doing the pop-up at Crossroads …
I wanted to revisit what I was doing. I didn't know if I wanted to go back into restaurants and cook other people's food again. My husband was in transition for work, at home when the quarantine started. We were kind of sitting at home, and I was really itching to get back into restaurants. Food and restaurants are one necessity we are going to have. Let's face it, nobody wants to cook every night. We thought of it as an interesting experience, introducing something new to people. There are not a ton of Lao restaurants in Milwaukee. Q: What defines the Lao menu?
Because Laos is between Vietnam and Thailand, there are going to be influences. You'll find things like papaya salad, but we use a different kind of fish sauce, a little funkier. There is a little more kick in Lao food, not quite as sweet as Thai, a little more tart and herb heavy.
Q: If you could introduce only one Lao dish to new audiences, what might it be?
I would say laab. It is an unofficial dish of Laos. Everybody knows it. You see it eaten at every party. They make it with literally every protein. It is one of the dishes I find where the flavors are most intense. We use so many aromatics: lemongrass, ginger, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, garlic, fish sauce, lime juice, mint, cilantro, scallions, fried garlic, toasted rice powder.
Q: What do you want people to understand about Lao food?
It is a lot of times hidden under Thai or Vietnamese food, because a lot of people understand those. Another reason is Lao grandmothers don't share recipes. It is hard to replicate.
My grandmother, she actually passed away the last time I was working in Milwaukee, back in 2012. She had a stroke but was still talking. She knew she wasn't doing well, so I spent a lot of time with her. She shared a lot of recipes. I was pretty lucky to spend that time with her. I ended up starting my job at Lake Park Bistro two weeks before she passed. It was a pretty interesting timing. It has always been in the back of my head that I wanted to honor her in some way, to share the recipes.
Q: What do you want people to know about your menu and cooking?
Everything we do is fresh, everything here is cooked to order. We're not authentic Lao, we're Lao inspired. I've never been to Laos, so it is not authentic based on me going there, but I know the flavors I grew up with and my family cooked with. We're influenced by the flavors of my culture, but we're using the freshest of Milwaukee ingredients.
Q: What’s your comfort food?
My comfort food is a Lao dish called khao piak sen. The translation to that is wet rice noodle. It is the best chicken noodle soup ever. The noodles
Thum's Pun bowl with grilled chicken breast is served in salad form with sweet and sour sauce, peanuts and herbs.
are made out of tapioca and rice flour. You cook the noodles in the broth and it makes the broth very sticky and unctuous. We make the broth with just onions and fried garlic.
Q: Is it on your menu?
It is not. I am cooking alone right now. If I make it, I want to make my own noodles. We need to be busier, so I can get an employee and do more. We may start it as a special.
Q: What’s the one thing you can’t live without in the kitchen?
I use my mortar and pestle a lot. Alex from SapSap makes fun of me, “You like to work hard don't you?” Most people use food processors for those things. We use the Lao style mortar and pestle.
Q: What has preparing your family recipes taught you?
The more I make our old school recipes, the better I get. Maybe grandma's food was better because she made it for so long.
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