A Plant-Forward Evolution for Andrea Nguyen
- by bonappetit
We were thrilled for the chance to chat with Andrea Nguyen, our 2025 partner for AAPI Heritage Month, about her evolution as a cookbook author, and what led to her most recent vegetable-centered book, Ever-Green Vietnamese. Enjoy this in-depth Q&A, and dive into a few of her enticing, just-published recipes here.
What led you to your career in teaching people about food and writing cookbooks?
I was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and came to the United States as a refugee immigrant in 1975. I was a lucky chubby kid who liked to eat. Putting my food interests to good use, my mom had me helping her in the kitchen. By the time I was about 10 years old, my English was alright, so I started checking out cookbooks from the public library. I watched PBS shows by Julia Child and Martin Yan, and my family let me experiment on them with my cooking.
I fantasized about working in a food-related field but first-generation immigrants ‘don’t do that’ – especially those of us who come from Asian families. That’s why I’ve been a bank auditor, university administrator, and communication consultant. But in the midst of those careers, I cooked and read the classics as well as new interpretations of food, trying to find cultural and culinary links between cuisines.
I read Vietnamese cookbooks in English and Vietnamese to determine how to best present the unfamiliar and ‘exotic’ to a broad audience of cooks. My overarching goal was to advance Asian Pacific American foodways. People didn’t know much about them in the 1980s and 90s.
In particular, Vietnamese food was presented as exotic, requiring lots of ingredients, a trip to an Asian market or voyage to Asia to fully appreciate. In the mid-1990s while working in higher education, my side hustle was freelance food writing. No one was covering Asian food from an AAPI perspective, so I saw an opening. I eventually built a website, Vietworldkitchen.com, and won a contract with Ten Speed Press for my first cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen (2006), which went on to be a finalist for three awards.
I have no formal culinary training. I never went to cooking school. I read, researched, practiced, and made many mistakes along the way. My life-long curiosity about food, cooking, and culture fuels my writing and teaching. People from all over the world take my cooking classes, which I now teach virtually.
At the end of the day, my aim is to capture the human connections to food and demystify Asian food without dumbing it down. There’s no reason why more people shouldn’t include great homemade Asian food in their rotation.
Can you describe your inspiration for Ever-Green Vietnamese, and how does it differ from your other cookbooks?
Up to now, my prior books stuck close to tradition. Ever-Green Vietnamese (EGV) is my most creative book. It includes modern hacks like oven-fried crispy rice paper rolls, vegan fish sauce, and grilled rice paper “pizzas”.
All the recipes are built on solid Viet foundations of flexitarian eating and no-waste cooking. Vietnamese food has long been crafted by scrappy, resourceful cooks who did the best with what’s harvested from land and sea. In America, our food traditions have veered more toward meaty, overly processed interpretations.
I enjoyed that meaty Viet food experience for decades. Then in 2019, I had a midlife health scare and needed to change my diet. Most advice for healthy eating points to the Mediterranean Diet but as much as I enjoy olive oil, it could never rule my world.
Like many other Americans, I live cross-culturally and want to cook healthily too. Sticking to one flavor profile or set of ingredients wouldn’t be doable for me.
To resolve my health problems, I turned to what I knew best, Vietnamese food. I developed healthier habits by:
- Doubling down on vegetables, but not giving up animal protein altogether
- Revisiting my favorite Vietnamese dishes to craft new vegetarian, vegan, or low-meat renditions
- Developing exciting recipes that are extra healthful, satisfying, and flavorful
Throughout that journey, I was cooking celebration dishes, not deprivation dishes. It was delicious food that was hấp dẫn (“exciting” in Vietnamese). No one wants to eat boring healthy food!
I also realized that the food I was making reflected the enduring, evergreen philosophy of Vietnamese cooking, which has always been rooted in the plant kingdom with some seafood and a little meat playing co-starring roles. And because that flexible, plant-based philosophy is also sustainable – committing to more plants and consuming less meat does a lot of good for the planet – the recipes became Ever-Green Vietnamese.
How do you approach adapting classic Vietnamese dishes with a plant-centered lens?
I have several strategies. For instance, I’ll do a protein swap and make sure to build in umami notes and interesting textures so you don’t miss the meat. Tofu is the star protein in Ever-Green Vietnamese. I use many types, from silken tofu for a vegan mayo and extra firm tofu for crispy pan-fried slabs, to super-firm tofu for awesome umami crumbles that fake ground pork. EGV employs no alt-meat products because they’re overly processed and engineered for Western dishes like burgers.
You can’t do a simple 1:1 protein swap and get the same results. For example, whereas a dish such as a Vietnamese chicken curry relies on chicken to bring on the umami, Ever-Green Vietnamese’s Tofu-Mushroom Curry recipe relies on richly browned fried onions plus aromatics, tomato, spices, and mushrooms to build superb flavor that the tofu sucks up. (Find the recipe here!)
Sometimes, it’s simply about letting a vegetable shine bright. For instance, EGV’s grilled eggplant with garlic and green onion sizzle tastes fatty and rich, kind of like pork belly. Char siu cauliflower has the chew and sweet-savory edges of the iconic Cantonese barbecued pork. The super easy, spicy oyster mushroom and lemongrass stir-fry is slithery and tender, kinda like cooked oysters!
It’s also about combining vegetables in a particular ratio to bring out their natural umami notes. Shallots, walnuts, and spices create the savor and looks of EGV’s liver pâté for awesome bánh mì. It’s easier to make and tastes as good as Viet-style pâté, which it’s modeled after. The vegan noodle soup broths are knockouts too.
There are also instances where animal protein and vegetables join forces to create lighter yet still excellent renditions of Vietnamese icons. Combining chicken thigh and trumpet mushrooms, which Viet people call “chicken drumstick mushrooms” and simmering them in caramel sauce with fish sauce and ginger yields a dish that’s not as dry as the original called kho. Mixing tofu with ground beef for grilled lá lốt (wild betel) leaf rolls results in juicier results; my 90-year-old mother is totally sold on the tofu-meat combo.
For the sweets chapter, I showcased ingredients cultivated in Vietnam. Spices play a major role in dishes like pho so I took that notion to develop a Vietnamese American spice-citrus marble cake. Viet spices and lime zest define the gorgeous cake. It comes together as a dump-and-stir recipe!
Once you seek out to intentionally and thoughtfully put more vegetables on your plate, the animal protein is less important. Vegetables are endlessly fun too, which is why this book is packed with fresh ideas.
Where can our readers find out more about you and your work?
Folks can visit my website or better yet, sign up for my newsletter, Pass the Fish Sauce at Substack. I publish new recipes and tips weekly.
Where can our guests purchase Ever-Green Vietnamese (and your six other cookbooks!)?
Ever-Green Vietnamese is available wherever books are sold. If there’s an indie shop you like, support it! Cookbook shops are among my favorite places to spend time and money. There are a handful of them scattered all over the country. All of my books are listed at my publisher’s website.