After 17 years in eating and drinking businesses in Hanoi and continuing to expand the business to Ho Chi Minh City, international cook Bobby Chinn considers Vietnam his home and shares his dream of advertising and popularizing Vietnamese dishes with international friends.
The first weekend in May, on the occasion of opening a new restaurant in HCM City, the cook who was born in New Zealand and has both Chinese and Egyptian blood, Bobby Chinn showed his ability in cooking Vietnamese dishes. He performed 68 degree Celsius - boiled eggs served with cabbage and Hanoi beef noodle to the admiration of many people. Almost any dish he also flavours with fish sauce – a familiar sauce in Vietnam which many Westerners hesitate to use.
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Bobby Chinn - Source: B.C |
He can speak only English, but when being asked about Vietnamese dishes, Bobby can read the menu in Vietnamese perfectly, loud and clear. He stretched his hand to point out his favourite dishes: bánh cuốn (steamed rolled rice pancake), bún bò (beef noodle), phở (noodle soup), chả cá (fried fish), bánh xèo (rice pancake folded in half and filled with shrimp, meat and soya bean sprouts), nem (meat roll), cua sốt me (crab saucing with tamarind), miến gà (chicken and vermicelli), đậu phụ sốt cà chua (soya curd and tomato sauce), phở cuốn (rice noodle rolls), xôi gà (sticky rice and chicken), chả giò (spring rolls), etc.
The story of the fervid love of this foreign cook for Vietnamese food is a long story, beginning with the chance but passionate, obsessive and unforgettable impressive meeting.
In 1994, Bobby Chinn from the US first went to Vietnam, with the historical hallmark about the war printed in his mind. Bobby told that he had known about Vietnam through the photo of a girl burnt by a bomb running and screaming from the attack. "When reading books, I think Vietnamese people were very steadfast just to have overcome the war. Thus, curiosity urged me to go to particular land," Bobby recalls the strange relation between him and Vietnam.
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Bobby Chinn in clothes of a cook in the restaurant – Photo: B.C |
Arriving Hanoi and HCM City, the cook then was conquered by the friendly, enthusiastic, hospitable Vietnamese people. "I was a stranger, but they treated me warmly, like family," he said. Bobby recalled that one night he stood under the sky full of stars in the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City and looked the coloured lights from District 1 leaving the trail through the dark, and found such a peaceful, familiar land. Vietnam made him remember his childhood in Egypt. Since then, the land has had a hold on him.
However, the thing that makes the foreign cook love Vietnam is not the history or peaceful airspace. Bobby admitted he felt extremely impressed with street vendors with melodious chants and wonderful street foods. He did not forget to say that he has been almost absolutely conquered by the unique sauces of the country.
Bobby confided that he was crazy about Vietnam’s fish sauce but cannot take it during foreign trips because he was stopped by customs and it was taken. During an interview in the US, he expressed his feelings with the audience. Not long after that, a business gave him some exported Vietnamese fish sauce. "Now I can take it anywhere. For me, fish sauce is more delicious than a spice because it not only gives food a charming and unforgettable flavour, but also provides plenty of protein," he said.
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The cook with artist style in the evening of May 5th
Photo: Lam Pham |
Cultural and language barriers and minor accidents such as having all his money stolen in Hanoi didn’t discourage Bobby Chinn. Conversely, he was that much more determined to stay in Vietnam. In 1996 he opened his own restaurant in Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi but the luck did not smile on Bobby. Within a year and a half, the cook had to change business locations three times because the business premise was taken back.
"Then I felt very tired. But the love I spend for Vietnam has helped me not to give up and I have been responded to. In 2001, I opened a restaurant in Hanoi and now in Ho Chi Minh City, to thank people loving me," he said.
With a warm voice, Bobby told that in the childhood he studied in Britain and then he studied at a university and lived in San Francisco, USA. Despite a Bachelor of Economics degree and having worked for New York Stock Exchange, he is not enamoured with figures.
Giving up the financial sector to study comedy acting in Los Angeles, he ultimately found that gastronomy is the greatest passion of his life. "When I went to Vietnam 17 years ago, I just thought I would be here one year. But then I found the passion for the culinary culture of this country, I chose this country as home, a peaceful place to return after long trips," he said.
When cooking and designing his menus, Bobby always wants to impress follow diners by local materials. During 15 years of studying about culture, people and cuisine of Vietnam, he wrote and published the book "Wild, Wild East", later reprint and renamed "Vietnamese food". This book also teaches how to cook Asian and Vietnamese dishes and it has been given the International World Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2007.
"I have been in more than 30 countries and studied culinary art in many parts of the world but I just have a strong attachment to and spent more time with Vietnam’s cuisine. My dream is to promote Vietnam’s food to the world by classic style mixed with modern one," Bobby Chinn shared.