On Vietnamese Culinary Philosophy and History

At Madame Vo, we find a balance between traditional—many of our dishes are prepared as they have been for generations in our families—and modern, in that we use higher-quality ingredients with an emphasis on service and presentation that’s informed by my experience as a New York City diner. To make the most of this cookbook, it’s worth getting to know some of the cultural principles and geographic factors that have shaped Vietnamese food throughout history.

Perhaps some of the most defining traits of Vietnamese food are colonialism, resilience, and adaptation. Before the era of French colonialism in the nineteenth century, Vietnam spent a millennium resisting, succumbing to, and rebelling against the Chinese to the north. It is believed that Vietnam was under some form of Chinese rule—with rebellions interspersed throughout—between 111 BCE and 938 CE. Some forty percent of the Vietnamese language uses words borrowed from Chinese.