Shaking Beef with Watercress Salad (Bò Lúc Lac). Peggy Cormary/photo; Lisa Cherkasky /food styling, for The Washington Post Nini Nguyen is loudly and proudly embracing her Vietnamese culture now more than ever before. The Vietnamese American chef, who grew up in New Orleans and moved to New York City to further her career, gained national exposure as a contestant on “Top Chef” in 2018.
“I’ve always been inspired by food from all over the place. But when I moved to New York, I think what made me most unique is that I’m Vietnamese and from New Orleans,” Nguyen said on a video call from her home back in New Orleans. She “really tapped into that” as she competed against contestants from all over the country.
After the season aired, Nguyen said, lots of people got in touch wanting her to write a book, but she didn’t want to simply write about her experience on the Bravo cooking competition show. “If I were to put out a book, I wanted it to be something meaningful. And I wanted it to be a driving force toward something.
” More recently, her desire to preserve and share Vietnamese recipes, language and culture and how various aspects came to be has grown even stronger. Even as a first-generation American, it was a lesson that took her a while to learn. “I can only imagine the next generations not understanding as much because they’re not as close to the root.
” Now this mission has resulted in her debut cookbook, “Dac Biet,” written with Sarah Zorn..