About Andrea Nguyen
Hello, this site was created and
maintained by me -- Andrea Nguyen. I'm an author, freelance writer and cooking teacher
based in Northern California. This site exists to promote conversation and contribution from
Vietnamese food enthusiasts -- as well as curious cooks and eaters! You don't have to be Viet to prepare and/or enjoy the foods of Vietnam.
A contributing editor to SAVEUR magazine, my work also appears in the Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury News. I've led a tour of Orange County's Little Saigon for Epicurious TV, which airs on the Travel Channel. A cooking teacher for years, I've taught classes at Sur la Table in San Francisco, the Institute for Culinary Education in New York, Ramekins in Sonoma, Draeger's in San Mateo, and Let's Get Cookin' in Los Angeles.
Cookbooks and Accolades
My debut cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen,
was published by Ten Speed Press in October 2006. A landmark
publication with over 175 recipes, the work is the first comprehensive
full-color cookbook devoted to Vietnamese food in the English language.
Leading food writers have praised the book for its attention to detail,
accessibility, and thorough research. I work to demystify Vietnamese
cuisine while bridging culinary traditions with contemporary practices.
In 2007, the book was among the select finalists for a James Beard Foundation award (best Asian cookbook) and two International Association of Culinary Professionals awards (best first book and best international book). The 2009 Slate.com food issue included me in their listing of "recipe dectectives" who excel at translating foreign flavors for American cooks.
My next book, due out from award-winning publisher Ten Speed Press on August 25, 2009, does not focus on Vietnamese cooking. The subject and title is Asian Dumplings -- one of my all-time favorite foods. In May 2009, I launched a site called Asian Dumpling Tips as a companion to the book so that we can all share information and innovations about Asian dumplings.
In between dumplings, I maintain Viet World Kitchen to further explore the Vietnamese culinary repertoire and satiate my Viet food urges.
Professional Affiliations and Education
I'm a culinary professional and member of the International
Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), Women Chefs &
Restaurateurs (WCR), and San Francisco Professional Food Society
(SFPFS). I co-founded the Asian Culinary Forum, a educational non-profit based in San Francisco, and serve on its advisory board.
I'm also a proud alum of the University of Southern California, where I earned my bachelor's and master's degrees in business and communication management. (Go Trojans!) As a Rotary International Foundation Fellow, I attended the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where I polished my Mandarin Chinese and ate lots of terrific Asian food.
My culinary training
Since the age of 10 (when I gained a certain command of English), I've been reading and studying cookbooks. I perused cookbooks, both East and West, as if they were novels. I watched PBS shows by Julia Child and Martin Yan and observed their moves and took in their knowledge. I fantasized about doing something in food but first generation immigrants 'don't do that.' I've been a bank examiner, university administrator, and communication consultant. But in the midst of those careers, I cooked and read the classics as well as new interpretations of food, trying to find cultural and culinary links between cuisines. I read Vietnamese cookbooks in English and Vietnamese, trying to figure out how to best present the unfamiliar and 'exotic' to a broad audience of cooks.
To test my determination, I cooked professionally for 1 year in the early 1990s, first at the now-defunct City Restaurant (owned by Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger) in Los Angeles, and then in catering. It was the hardest work I'd ever done. Hands down. My father offered to put me through cooking school, a bold move on his and my mom's part since they didn't initially take to me getting a university degree and wanting to work with my hands. But I demurred and figured that I'd be better off in something more conventional so I got a graduate degree and forged a career as a communication consultant for clients in education. I wrote as a freelancer on the side to hone my writing and research skills and eventually built a website and won a cookbook contract with Ten Speed Press for my first work, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. It's the book that I've been wanting to write since I was 10!
I have no formal culinary training. I never went to cooking school. My life-long curiosity about food, cooking, and culture fuels my work. At the end of the day, my aim is to (1) capture the human connections to food and (2) demystify Asian food without dumbing it down.
Feel free to send messages, post comments, and join in the fray. I look forward to 'meeting' you.
Please do not copy and re-post content from this site without getting permission from me first. That's a rights infringement and just plain bad form!
