‘The one dish I would have to make anyone who hadn’t had Vietnamese cuisine before is pho,’ Thuy Pham tells me as we sit down to talk in her Islington restaurant, The Little Viet Kitchen. ‘The technique is ever so simple, but when you give someone this clear broth that looks a bit like water and they taste that first spoonful, you can see the amazement in their eyes. All those flavours all coming out at the same time, perfectly balanced so you can’t single them out – it’s something I love.’
I think most people will remember the first time they tasted pho – I certainly do. The intense, deep, aromatic flavour from something that looks pretty ordinary is one of the reasons the noodle soup is so popular. Nowadays there are restaurants all across the UK serving Vietnam’s national dish, made with beef, chicken or pork at a surprisingly low cost. Perhaps that’s why Vietnamese cuisine has gained a reputation for being cheap and cheerful; you get a lot of flavour for your money. But Thuy isn’t just knocking out the same old broth as anyone else – she’s taking the intense, fresh flavours and vibrant colours of her childhood and using them to prove just how good Vietnamese can be.
Thuy moved to London from southern Vietnam when she was just eight, but her parents were adamant she didn’t lose her roots. ‘My father always had a rule – in the house, we would always speak Vietnamese and eat Vietnamese food,’ she says. ‘It was so frustrating – surely I should be learning English so I can do things like talk to my teacher? But no, every Saturday Dad would spend three hours teaching us Vietnamese and every month we’d write a long letter to our grandparents back home. I just didn’t understand why; I could see kids playing outside but we were stuck in the house learning. But it’s only now that I understand why he did this, and I’m so thankful for it.’
