Top Chef alum and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Tu David Phu dedicated his debut cookbook, The Memory of Taste (4 Color, Sept.), to his parents, refugees from Phú Quôc, Vietnam, who settled in the Bay Area.
“We were poor,” Phu says. “They were paid under the table. They weren’t literate except in their own languages. What they taught me about food was fucking valuable. This book is my attempt to celebrate them and their generational knowledge—that wealth that isn’t always appreciated or cherished.”
In Madame Vo (Abrams, Oct.), Jimmy Ly and Yen Vo, the married duo behind the New York City noodle spot of the same name, honor their southern Vietnamese ancestors and also consider the next generation. “Growing up, I tried to assimilate, tried not to be Vietnamese,” Vo says. “I now have children who are so excited to be Asian—so confident and proud of their nationalities.”
Ly adds, “It was really important to do this for the culture.”
These books are two among several forthcoming titles by Vietnamese diaspora authors, all deeply rooted in personal understandings of culture and cuisine.
Đac Biêt
Chef, cooking instructor, and two-time Top Chef alum Nguyen, with food writer Zorn, fuses Vietnamese and New Orleans cooking to exemplify the culinary concept of dac biêt, or “something special, distinctive, or fancy.” Amid the recipes, which include a Viet Cajun seafood boil and pho “with everything,” are guides to entertaining—e.g., how to throw a make-your-own goi cuôn (spring roll) party—and stories of the Vietnamese community in New Orleans.
Đi An
Nguyen, aka TwayDaBae (674K followers on TikTok), owner and chef at ĐiĐi in West Hollywood, encourages her Gen-Z audience to integrate Vietnamese dishes into their repertoire, beginning with primers on Vietnamese pantry staples and recommended kitchen tools. One chapter, “Internet Famous,” details Nguyen’s viral recipes, including lemongrass chicken and fish sauce wings.
Healthy, My Way
The creator behind the My Healthy Dish social media accounts (4.7 million followers on TikTok) follows her 2016 cookbook of the same name with a collection that leans more heavily into her second-generation Vietnamese American identity. The more than 100 recipes include Asian-influenced dishes such as vermicelli bowls with grilled shrimp and pickled vegetables, Vietnamese pork tenderloin, and chicken-veggie pan fry with glass noodles.
Madame Vo
Married duo Ly and Vo, with culture writer Dao, adapt their restaurant’s double-fried chicken wings—“drive-straight-from-the-airport good,” according to veteran New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells—and southern Vietnamese pho, as well as their family’s favorites, like Tê.t noodles and bánh kep lá dúa (pandan waffles).
The Memory of Taste
Phu, writing with San Francisco Chronicle cultural critic Ho, offers 85-plus recipes inspired by his coastal Vietnamese roots and his Oakland upbringing, including bánh canh cha cá (fish cake and tapioca noodle soup), a Phú Quôc island specialty, and mì xào toi nam cuc (truffled garlic noodles), a San Franciscan/Viet American dish. Interspersed are guides to seafood and fish sauce, and explainers of Phu’s no-waste, fin-to-gill cooking style.
