Josie Chang doesn’t fit the profile of a Vietnamese chef. She’s not Vietnamese—she was born in Taichung, Taiwan. And she doesn’t speak Vietnamese apart from a few words and phrases. But her Taiwanese-Vietnamese fusion restaurant, 小夏天 petit été, is a hit in her hometown.
Over the past 15 years, Chang has been taking regular trips across Vietnam to learn the nuances of the Southeast Asian nation’s cuisine. And on Sunday (February 15), she will lead a Vietnamese cooking workshop at LunarFest Vancouver headquarters (1111 Union Street). This is one of many LunarFest Vancouver events welcoming the Year of the Horse.
“The soul of Vietnamese food is fish sauce,” Chang tells Pancouver. “Once you learn how to use fish sauce and fresh Vietnamese herbs, like lemongrass, you are halfway there.”
Chang will bring 10 bottles of different fish sauces from a variety of countries, including Italy, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam. She encourages attendees to bring fish sauce reflecting their distinct cultures if they want to create their own personalized dipping sauces.
This helps explains the name of the workshop: Breathe New Life into Multicultural Cooking.
“In the workshop, we’ll make a Taiwanese salt-and-pepper chicken/Vietnamese vermicelli salad,” Chang promises. “It’s Taiwanese and Vietnamese fusion.”
She will also teach participants how to prepare a Taiwanese-Vietnamese hot pot with lemongrass. In her version, she creates a dipping sauce by mixing Taiwanese satay and soya with fish sauce.
“It makes my customers very happy,” Chang says. “Every year when winter comes, they tell me: ‘Please serve Taiwanese and Vietnamese hot pot for us.’ ”
Chang recognizes that food brings people together
As a teenager and young adult, Chang never expected to become a restaurateur. She enjoyed hanging out in bubble-tea shops with her friends in high school in Taichung. After enrolling in university in Taipei and majoring in journalism, she worked part-time at a restaurant.
“There were a lot of western foreigners in Taipei learning Chinese,” she recalls. “I met a lot of these people at the restaurant, which brought back those good feelings from high school.”
It dawned upon her that food brings people together. But she still wasn’t ready to commit to a career in this industry. Instead, Chang went to work at a bank after completing her studies.
“It was very stressful,” she says. “So on the weekends, I would be in my rented apartment and just cook to relieve the stress. In the process of cooking and eating, I was making connections with international students who were my roommates.”
One day, a roommate from Vietnam asked why Taiwanese people didn’t want to make friends with people from her country. According to this student, the Vietnamese people felt this amounted to discrimination.
That prompted Chang to reflect on stereotypes that some Taiwanese people might carry about Vietnamese immigrants and international students from Vietnam. Then, Chang decided to do something about it.
“I quit my job at the bank and decided to open a restaurant and use it as a platform,” she says. “I wanted to let Taiwanese people know more about Vietnam and Vietnamese people.”
Growing Vietnamese pride in Taiwan
Back in those days, most Taiwanese looked upon people from Japan, Korea, and the West with great respect. But Chang says that some Vietnamese women were stigmatized because they had lower socioeconomic status and had moved to Taiwan for marriage.
“For some Taiwanese, this situation was not very traditional or acceptable,” she notes. “All humans are equal, so we should treat people that way.”
Chang often takes Taiwanese people with her on her culinary trips to Vietnam. She likes staying for two or three weeks in each location.
“What’s important is knowing how these Vietnamese people from different regions live their lives in each place and what they eat,” Chang says.
Over the years, she has taken countless photographs as she has visited different Vietnamese houses to learn how they cook. Her restaurant produces zines and recipes but so far, she hasn’t taken up a publisher’s invitation to author a book. Chang says that she’s too busy.
Since opening her dining establishment, she has noticed growing pride within Taiwan’s Vietnamese community.
“I have met people who come to the restaurant who have half-Vietnamese and half-Taiwanese ancestry,” Chang declares. “They will proudly say this is my heritage.
“This is a big change from what I experienced in the past,” she adds. “So, it’s evident that the Taiwanese government’s efforts to promote multiculturalism has had some effect.”
Josie Chang spoke to Pancouver in Mandarin. Pancouver associate editor becky tu translated her comments into English.
Event details
LunarFest Vancouver will present Josie Chang’s Breathe New Life into Multicultural Cooking workshop from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday (February 15) at LunarFest Vancouver headquarters (1111 Union Street) in Vancouver. For tickets and more information, visit the LunarFest Vancouver website.
In addition, Josie Chang will present uniquely styled Taiwanese-Vietnamese fusion dishes at an event called Old Songs, New Year. It will also feature Taiwanese Canadian singer Van Lefan performing Mandarin songs from the 1970s to 1990s, including folk and Mandopop classics. Old Songs, New Year will take place starting at 6:30 p.m. on Friday (February 27) at Performance Works. Tickets are available on the LunarFest Vancouver website.
LunarFest Vancouver is presented by Crispers. Follow Pancouver on X @PancouverMedia and Instagram @PancouverMedia.
