About

I am originally from Saigon, Vietnam–a metropolitan city in Southeast Asia. I was raised with an uncompromising attitude towards food; every morning at 5 a.m. my mother would ride her motorbike to the market for fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, and fish, for the meals we would eat that day. At the market she only selected the best ingredients, going so far as to choose individual bananas from different bunches and carefully cradle them home.

My older sister and I c. 90s Vietnam. We peaked early.

France's influence in Vietnam stems from its 19th-century colonization, and winds throughout its culture and cuisine; from language to architecture, and coffee to banh mi. I started learning French at age 5, and first visited France as an exchange student at age 10. At 17 I moved to Fontainebleau full-time to study at the University of Paris. These were formative years for me, as I learned to live and cook on my own surrounded by European culture.

A few years later I moved to the United States, where I split time between NYC and Arizona while attending graduate school. Along the way I met a Canadian-Italian boy and fell in love. Shortly after we met my (now husband) was diagnosed with Celiac disease, and since then it's been a learning experience for both of us in what it means to cook and bake gluten free.