What made you want to become a chef?

"When we were young, my father would take me and my five younger brothers and sisters out to all the best restaurants in Saigon--Chinese, French, Vietnamese--and to the coastal town of Vung Tau, where I ate my first crab, and these enormous lobster-sized prawns, with giant roe.... He liked to entertain, and exposed us to all kinds of delicacies. Growing up in Saigon, we also got to eat the best street food in the world. One guy will make perfect egg noodles, and only that, at his cart, so you know where to go to eat the very best."

Is everyone in your family a great cook?

[Blushes.] "Well, they all love food. Yen, my sister, once dated the son of a very famous Hong Kong chef--maybe for his food? [Laughs.] Yen doesn't cook, though."

How long have you been cooking?

"Eight years, professionally. When relatives hear I own a restaurant and am a chef, they are shocked. 'You couldn't even cook rice!' they say. I think I had a latent interest in cooking, but never cooked growing up. When I married and had my own children, though, I started cooking, because I love to eat. I would take a traditional Vietnamese dish and kind of add a twist by making it with something different than the typical ingredients. Crabmeat in the spring roll--nobody does that. You put ground pork in spring rolls. That upsets some Vietnamese people."

Really?

"Well, it's just not what is typical. 'This isn't Vietnamese food!' they say. But I have heard we make the best tamarind soup in town... that's because I use fresh tamarind, not powdered stuff or substitute. It's more expensive, but it makes all the difference. I go down to the market myself every morning, and pick out the freshest and best produce. That's the only way to get the produce I want."

What do you eat on your days off?

"Pizza, American food--anything non-Asian. And I don't cook."

Interview by Rachel Kessler