DINING
The New Taste of Saigon
FROM LEFT: Esta Eatery in Saigon's
District 1; a dish of lobster claw, beef tendon and ruby pomelo; chef Francis helms the kitchen of Esta.
Stepping out of the shadows of French fine dining, a new guard of visionary young chefs is capturing the city's culinary zeitgeist. BY CONNL A STOKES. PHOTOGR APHS BY MORGAN OMMER ago, a cosmopolitan cuisine was simmering in pots and pans all across Saigon—but it wasn’t in the kitchens of the swankiest French eateries, where colonials and émigrés from the Third Republic were eating generic staples made from canned goods. No, it was far from the city’s genteel boulevards that Vietnamese and Chinese chefs, armed with fish sauce, spicy peppers and indigenous ingredients, were gamely tinkering with French fare to satisfy the tastes of their Asian clientele. And now? The old colonial outpost, once billed as “Paris of the East,” is a teeming multicultural city where local chefs, more inspired than ever, are redefining the finedining scene smack in the heart of downtown District 1. “We’re not hiding in the back of the kitchen anymore,” says Le Viet Hong, the 27-year-old Saigonborn head chef of The Monkey Gallery, a sleek, minimalist-look three-floor restaurant where you’ll find a fashionable set of regulars selecting their favorites from a MORE THAN A CENTURY
FROM TOP: Chef Hong at The Monkey Gallery; art on a plate at the restaurant.
signature menu, if not embarking on a seasonal 15-course degustation. After training in Paris, at A.T. restaurant under Chef Atsushi Tanaka and La Marine with Chef Alexandre Couillon, Hong worked in Tokyo before repatriating in 2018 to explore his hometown’s leading high-end restaurants. “I thought, ‘Where are all of the Vietnamese head chefs? Isn’t it about time we show the world what we can do?’” Hong, whose cuisine can be described as characteristically multilayered, with French, Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese flavors and ingredients, took the issue of representation into his own hands, training up a team of earlytwentysomething Saigonese for The Monkey Gallery’s launch last year. On my visit, Hong’s global influences come to the fore. An ethereal “fat-free” duck consommé features a dim sum–style dumpling as well as abalone from New Zealand; a fermented shrimp sauce
and beetroot ravioli accompanies a slender Iberico pork cheek; foie gras, cured in miso and matcha for three to six days, arrives with flecks, strokes and dabs of wasabi, pineapple jam, frutti de cappelo, white-chocolate sauce and yuzu gel, underscoring Hong’s eye for aesthetics. “We have no paintings on the walls,” he says. “The art in this gallery is here on your plate.” Dovetailing with Hong’s arrival on the scene is that of an old colleague of his, Francis Tran, who last year opened Esta Eatery, an intimate, modern venue that showcases the 31-year-old’s own multicultural sensibilities. “When I think of new ideas for dishes, I close my eyes and see a map of the world and imagine the spices and tastes that might come together in a single dish,” he says. These imaginings are no doubt inspired by his stints in Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Danish and French restaurants here in Saigon, and by his expeditions
to Thailand and the Everest Base Camp with the globe-trotting pop-up restaurant One Star House Party. Like the city around his home, his single-page menu is everevolving, but you’ll always encounter contemporary, eclectic compositions. You could start with a moreish smokey eel pâté with a dollop of tare sauce and a hint of wasabi at its heart and house-made sourdough by its side, or grilled Hokkaido scallops with braised shiitake and a truffle, soy and yuzu mustard. Meanwhile, mains prepared in the wood-fired grill—say, duck breast with blackgarlic puree, or rainbow trout with burnt orange beurre noisette—reveal Francis’s fondness for flame-licked flavors and intense reductions. Having worked with acclaimed Australian-French chef Julien Perraudin at Quince Saigon (outpost of a Bangkok pan-national dining stalwart), Francis cites “Melbourne cuisine” as one of his biggest influences. In that, he’s not alone.
TR AV EL ANDLEISURE ASIA .COM / FEBRUARY 2020
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