Luke Nguyen and Vietnamese cuisine

The best Vietnamese cookbook in Asia
 
On a sunny day in Hoi An, a couple of teenagers wander through the street collect plastic bottles, selling postcards or lottery tickets. Mostly foreign tourists and locals shoo the youngsters away but Luke Nguyen is different. Rather than ignore the kids, this 32-year old Vietnamese-Australian makes a bee-line for them.

“Can I talk to you?” he asks. Born to Vietnamese immigrants in Thailand and raised in Australia, Luke’s family worked tirelessly to get by. But he always had a dream to cling to.

After juggling work and studies throughout his childhood, Luke went on to open an award-winning restaurant. Success breeds success and since then he has gone from strength to strength. Last year he published his own cookbook Songs of Sapa, a vibrant visual essay of a journey through Vietnam featuring stories and recipes from Sapa in the far north down to the Mekong Delta in the south.

Previously, with his elder sister Pauline, he also co-wrote a book called Secrets of the Red Lantern, which weaves family recipes with a candid account of his colourful but challenging upbringing.

He is also the TV presenter of his own show Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam, a gastronomic guide to Vietnam in which Luke prepares classic Vietnamese dishes in locations that represent the “real Vietnam” (filming of the second series starts in May).

In short, he’s an incredible success story, which perhaps makes it all the harder for him when he sees the kids of Hoi An struggling through life without a glimmer of hope.

“I felt sick to the stomach – thinking of all the times I spent $100 on a meal, a pair of jeans or a pair of shoes. It just isn’t right,” says Luke. “They have no money, no education, and no opportunities.”

“But I was lucky enough to come to Australia and to be educated, to have choices and opportunities.”

A watershed moment

Previously, Luke and his production crew travelled to the historic town of Hoi An to film two episodes for Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam. These trips changed his perspective in life.

“Giving them some money wouldn’t make it any better or change the situation. I realised I needed to go back to Vietnam to give these youths opportunities.”

When Luke returned to Sydney along with his partner Suzanna Boyd, he set up the Little Lantern Foundation to raise funds with the intention of setting up a hospitality training centre in central Vietnam. They plan to start vocational training programmes this year so underprivileged youth can learn the necessary skills for a career in the restaurant, hospitality or tourism industries.

“I don’t know how to teach math, biology or history so I can’t set up a school there. What I can do with my expertise is to set up a hospitality training centre,” says Luke, who is also the consulting chef for the Sydney Star City’s newly-opened Fat Noodle bar.

“For me it is a moral issue. A lot of hotels are being built right now in the area. I want the hotels to hire local people to keep employment in Vietnam, to give locals an opportunity and to keep the money in Vietnam.”

Under an agreement with the Melbourne-based Chisholm College, Luke will employ the school’s internationally-recognised courses in the hospitality and tourism industry to teach disadvantaged youth in Vietnam. Upon completion, the trainees would have a diploma in hotel management.

Hard times

“My childhood was a failure because I did not have one. I worked hard. I was very unhappy but it benefitted my future,” says Luke.

Born in 1978, Luke was the third of four children. His parents Lap and Phuong Nguyen were restaurateurs who shared a love of cooking and good food. He was still a baby when the family came to Cabramatta, a suburb in southwestern Sydney. The parents worked tremendously hard to secure a future and provide an education for the children.

While his mother looked after the toddlers, his father Lap started out working on the Sunbeam production line, as a driving instructor and as a kitchen hand before his entrepreneurial spirit took over. First, the family opened a billiards hall and a coffee shop, where even four-year-old Luke would pitch in.

“He ran around with a plastic bucket, helping to empty ashtrays or make sandwiches, or he’d ask customers ‘What would you like to eat, to drink? Would you like some chili, pepper or salt?’” says Lap.

Later, the Nguyens opened an ice-cream parlour, and two more businesses: a video library and Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Cay Du. Luke and his three siblings worked in the restaurant before and after school, scrubbing floors, clearing tables, making coffee, running to the shop for bitter melon or bok choy and standing on a milk crate to skim beef broth. Luke’s father was a stern disciplinarian. The children not only had to work in the café after school but perform well at school otherwise they would be punished.

"Then we'd go home and do chores: vacuum, hang out clothes, make our own dinner. We also had to score top grades at school. We didn't have a normal childhood,” says Luke.
Lap says he worried a lot, that’s why he was so strict.

“Whenever I drove them to school, I would ask them ‘Look, do you want to be that rubbish collector? Or do you want to become a doctor like my friend? So keep studying hard,’” says Lap.
From an early age it was apparent to Lap that Luke was destined not to stray to far from the kitchen.

"From very young, Luke often asked me, 'What did you put in it, Daddy? When? Why?' He wanted to know how to cook. At the age of five, Luke could cook rice and noodles.”

“Was it difficult?” Lap raises the question. “No. We had little time for them. They had to learn to care for themselves. Our children were very mature before they left home. That’s why they have a good life now.”

After Luke had finished high school he took a tourism and hospitality course at TAFE NSW (Australia’s largest vocational education and training provider).

Then, he worked as a barista, waiter and restaurant manager for five-star hotels and restaurants in Sydney, where he discovered fine Vietnamese food providers fell short.

When Luke opened his own restaurant, the Red Lantern, the philosophy was to serve traditional Vietnamese food augmented by a serious approach to presentation, ambience and wine.

A dream comes true

At the age of 11, Luke had enough industry experience to ‘design’ the restaurant he would own when he grew up. “I told one of my best friends what it [the Red Lantern] would look like, right down to colour, textures, mood, everything,” says Luke. “My friend was shocked when I invited him to the Red Lantern because the restaurant looked exactly like what I had told him”.

“When I saw this building – an old terrace house that is heritage listed – it had a lot of the character that I saw at home in Hoi An or Hanoi, very old and colonial,” says Luke. “It was perfect for my restaurant – small, warm, homely and inviting. It was lucky that it did not cost me a lot of money to set up the restaurant. I had no money.”

The eatery has been well received, earning numerous awards including the New South Wales/ Australian Capital Territory’s Restaurant and Catering award for excellence for four consecutive years since 2006.

A new mission

Even though he could open another 10 restaurants throughout Australia and earn millions of dollars more, Luke’s heart and mind have returned to Vietnam.

“From my trips to Vietnam and other developing countries, I found out that people, no matter how hard they work and how little they earn, they are so happy. They are the happiest people I have met,” says Luke.
“Having a successful business is great but you need to enjoy your life as well. You do not need much money for happiness.”

“I will be satisfied when I see Little Lantern successful [so] I can help 40 young Vietnamese grasp an opportunity in the future.”

A proud Viet

Luke came to Vietnam for the first time in 2001. The trip to visit relatives turned out to be the beginning of a non-stop journey to discover the ancestral home. Everytime he comes, he is blown away by the energy of Vietnam.

“So much life, so much energy! At 10pm, if you walk down the streets, wow! The food, the drinks, the people, laughs, music, the energy is so high. You can eat anywhere, anytime, and anything you like. It is so fantastic,” Luke says.

“I have travelled to many countries, but year after year, Vietnam lures me back – I love the vibrant colours of its landscape and the hospitality of its people, and each time I discover more about its diverse regional cuisine.” One of the factors that helps Luke grasp the beauty of his ancestral home is his fabulous Vietnamese.

“I was born in Thailand, and raised in Australia but I am still very, very Vietnamese.” “When I was younger, my father would always smack me on the back of the head every time I would speak English in the house, he would always say to me, ‘You are Vietnamese, speak Vietnamese – don’t lose your heritage!’” says Luke.

”I never appreciated it until now. My father and mother really made me keep my language, my culture and my heritage,” says Luke, revealing he could speak and understand up to 90 per cent of Vietnamese.
“Being able to speak the language has allowed me to discover more about my culture and has given me such a unique travel experience in this wonderful country.”

Check out Luke’s website www.littlelanternfoundation.org 

Source: Time-out