Chef Thùy Dung – Far From Home, Missing the Family Table

As the head chef of Miên Saigon, Thùy Dung spends each day experimenting, searching, and combining ingredients to create flavors that feel fresh and vibrant. Yet beneath all the innovation, what she continues to long for most is the familiar aroma of her family kitchen — a place filled with simple, steaming meals made with love. The sound of rice simmering and the fragrance of freshly cooked grains, woven into her childhood memories, have now become emotional sustenance for a daughter living far from home.

Missing the Aroma of Freshly Cooked Rice

“Living in the city, it’s rare to properly cook a full meal for yourself,” Dung said. Our conversation that day revolved almost entirely around family meals. Because for a chef living far from home, despite preparing countless beautiful dishes for guests every day, what she misses most is still the scent of rice cooking and the sight of a home meal complete with rice, meat, fish, soup, and vegetables. In her hometown of Bảo Lộc, fresh greens are abundant, so every meal came with vegetables in generous portions. Her family also grew rice, allowing her to experience the entire journey of a grain — from the scent of young rice fields to the softness of a freshly steamed bowl.

The smell of cooked rice has a way of awakening an almost irresistible hunger. As the pot begins to boil, steam rises carrying the sweet, comforting fragrance of rice. It is not merely the aroma of grains swelling open in heat, but the scent of family itself — the feeling of safety that comes from knowing you are still sheltered beneath a loving roof. The rice Dung cooked for us that day was prepared in a cast-iron pot, with slices of pumpkin laid gently on top, making the fragrance feel even warmer and more intimate.

Thùy Dung shared that her grandfather was an excellent cook. Her parents, too, loved taking turns in the kitchen, carefully tending to each dish. At home, no one would begin eating until every family member had gathered around the table. What she remembers most vividly is that atmosphere of togetherness — people passing food to one another, a simple gesture that carried immense affection.

Having grown up helping out in the kitchen and surrounded by memories of family meals, Dung gradually developed a love for caring for others through food. Most of her time is devoted to cooking, and even her personal interests revolve around it: visiting markets, traveling to learn about regional culinary cultures, reading books about food and ingredients.

In the book “Món yêu thương” (roughly translate: Meals Made with Love), there is a passage that roughly says: “In memories of family, food is the most powerful vessel. My memories begin with food, and they leave through food as well. For years, I have grown used to sharing rented apartments with others — occasionally crossing paths, but mostly remaining alone in my room like a frog at the bottom of a well, clinging to dreams as motivation to move forward… When the hunger becomes unbearable, all I want is a bowl of steaming rice with a little minced meat. This is truly the final fortress a lonely person builds with food when facing the loneliness of the world, using recipes from a distant homeland to force homesick tears to flow like spring water.” Perhaps no sentiment captures Thùy Dung more accurately than this.

Women and Their Choices

Dung said that, at this point in her life, she chooses to remain single in order to focus entirely on her career and passion. She may appear slender and soft-spoken, yet beneath that exterior lies a fierce determination — the kind required to survive the demanding world of professional kitchens. Meanwhile, her older sister chose a more traditional path: building a family, raising children, and finding fulfillment in caring for loved ones. The two choices may seem to belong to entirely different worlds, yet both were nurtured under the same loving roof, where every story was once shared around the family dining table.

There is, perhaps, an endless amount to say about women, kitchens, and the choices women make in contemporary society. Cultural anthropologist Nir Avieli once argued that, in the past, the kitchen existed at the boundary between “nature” and “culture” — a place where women transformed raw ingredients into cooked food, turning nature into culture, yet the labor itself was often dismissed as invisible domestic work of little value. Today, however, the kitchen has become a centerpiece of the modern home, fully equipped and intentionally designed, and that transformation reflects a broader shift in the position of women themselves. From the image of women squatting over fires — associated with submission and invisibility — to standing confidently in modern kitchens as a symbol of agency and elevated status. Beyond preserving warmth within the family, women have also stepped outward, turning culinary skill into a profession capable of generating economic value and social recognition.

Sometimes, when Dung sees her sister devoting all her time to family while forgetting herself in the process, she simply wants to cook her a beautiful meal and say, “Today, let me take care of everything. You should rest.” Yet deep down, Dung understands that her sister is genuinely fulfilled in her roles as a daughter, wife, and mother — just as Dung finds fulfillment in being a head chef, creating dishes marked by her own identity and imagination. As women, perhaps any path is valid, so long as it feels aligned with our own understanding of happiness.

Braised Pork Ribs in Fish Sauce

Ingredients
500g pork spare ribs
4 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1–2 chilies (depending on spice preference)
2 tablespoons good-quality fish sauce
1/3 tablespoon sugar (palm sugar may be used for extra fragrance)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon seasoning powder
1 tablespoon cooking oil

Method
Cut the pork ribs into bite-sized pieces. Blanch the ribs in boiling water for 2–3 minutes to remove impurities, then rinse and drain well. Marinate with fish sauce, sugar, seasoning powder, and pepper for 20–30 minutes.
Heat oil in a pot and sauté the shallots and garlic until fragrant. Add the ribs and stir until lightly seared. Pour in a little coconut water, just enough to nearly cover the ribs. Lower the heat, add green peppercorns and chilies, then braise for 20–25 minutes until the ribs become tender.
When the liquid has nearly reduced, increase to medium heat. Stir continuously until the sauce thickens and coats the ribs evenly. Adjust seasoning to taste, then finish with chopped scallions and freshly ground pepper.

Stir-Fried Squid

Ingredients
300–400g fresh squid (tube squid or cuttlefish)
1 onion
½ bell pepper (red, green, or yellow for color)
3 cloves garlic, minced
Scallions
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon rice vinegar (or tamarind juice)
1½ tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Method
Clean the squid and remove the ink sac. Slice into rings or score the surface in a crisscross pattern. Prepare the sweet-and-sour sauce by combining ketchup, vinegar, sugar, fish sauce, and pepper.
Sauté the garlic until fragrant. Add the squid and stir-fry quickly over high heat for about 20–30 seconds, then remove from the pan.
Stir-fry the onion and bell pepper until just tender. Return the squid to the pan. Pour in the sauce and toss everything together. Add the cornstarch mixture to slightly thicken the sauce. Finish with scallions, turn off the heat, then add freshly ground pepper and a few pieces of chopped Chinese celery.

Crab Soup with Sweet Leaf and Sponge Gourd

Ingredients
200–250g freshwater crab paste (or pre-ground crab)
1 bunch sweet leaf greens
1 sponge gourd
1–2 shallots, minced
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon seasoning powder
½ teaspoon shrimp paste
Freshly ground pepper, scallions

Method
Combine the crab paste with about 500ml water and a pinch of salt, stirring well before straining to extract the crab liquid.
Pick the sweet leaf greens from their stems and gently bruise the leaves by hand. Peel the sponge gourd and cut into diagonal slices or rounds. Finely mince the shallots.
Pour the crab liquid into a pot over medium heat. Stir gently at first, then stop once the crab roe begins to rise to the surface. Scoop the crab roe into a separate bowl.
Sauté the shallots in a little oil until fragrant. Add the crab roe and stir gently, seasoning with shrimp paste and seasoning powder.
Return the sautéed crab roe to the pot. Add the sweet leaf greens first and cook for 1–2 minutes. Then add the sponge gourd and cook for another 1–2 minutes before turning off the heat.
Adjust seasoning with salt or seasoning powder to taste. Finish with freshly ground pepper and scallions if desired.