Trinh Diem Vy, also known as Ms Vy is an iconic chef in Vietnamese cuisine and a restaurant mogul in Hoi An. Started as a cook in her parent‘s local restaurant, she now own 10 restaurants and cafés, a cooking school as well as a hotel. Recently, you can buy her spices, coffee, tea and medicinal herbs in a store called “The Spice Route”. The store is located in a heritage house that was a maternity clinic during the Vietnam War, where she and her siblings were born.
She was the first to run a restaurant in Hoi An that appealed to foreign tourists with an English menu. I still remember our visit to her first restaurant back in 2015, when she was still in the kitchen herself and her husband looked after the guests in the restaurant. Even then, the small restaurant was regularly full and it was difficult to get a table.
When she was 10 years old, her parents opened a local Vietnamese restaurant. According to her own statement, she already loved the noises and pressure in a kitchen back then, “When I'm in the kitchen, I'm in a zen place”. When she turned 14, her mother had a baby brother or sister. So she had to help out in the restaurant and her cooking career began.
She opened her first small restaurant “Mermaid” in the early 90s and it was the first time she catered for foreign guests. At that time, she served ready-prepared food that was not cooked to order. At that time, electricity was only available for a few hours. She also had no menu. Due to the trade embargo, Vietnam was cut off from the rest of the world at that time and there was hardly any information about other countries. Back then, she had learned a lot from the few tourists about their tastes. “Mermaid” became very popular with tourists. Once, when a group of tourists ate standing in the rain, she felt so bad that she decided to open a second, larger restaurant. This is how the first “Morning Glory” was born (yes, like my blog, the name is dedicated to the vegetable). The “Mermaid” has since closed and other sub-types of “Morning Glory” restaurants have sprung up.
When she visited Australia in 2000, she learned how much Australians love their coffee shops and so she opened a café offering cakes and western cuisine, the “Cargo Café”. The cooking school came about because guests kept asking her how her dishes were prepared. This gave her the idea to open Vy's Market Restaurant, which is modeled on a local food market with food stalls. Customers can watch the various dishes being prepared at the open stalls. The cooking school is also housed here.
During COVID, like everyone else, she was forced to close her restaurants. Instead of fretting, she took on renovations and improvements that she had always wanted to do but couldn't while the business was running. She also used the time to reflect on her personal and business life. During this time, she developed the concept of her new wellness brand “Ancient Remedy” with products focused on health, wellness and beauty. To this end, she recruited an R&D team of nutritionists, doctors and pharmacologists who developed alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails made from organic herbs. This resulted in “The Herbalist Bar”, which is now integrated into several restaurants.
We met her in person at a dinner at Vy's Market Restaurant. She takes turns visiting her restaurants every evening and is not above helping and serving guests herself when she sees the need.
Her credo of combining local agricultural products with taste and health is very successful which is impressive.
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