The Santa Clara City Library is proud to present this talk with celebrated chef, entrepreneur, storyteller, and community advocate, Chef Tu David Phu!
We will talk with him about his Vietnamese heritage, growing up in the Bay Area, his career in the culinary arts, being an advocate for voices in the margins, his favorite dishes… and so much more!
Register for this Zoom interview here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HUSzm_rnRCurzLFO_ZYuBQ
Check our website and social media for more events and booklists during Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month in May!
As Chef Tu David Phu sees it, the path to cooking his unique brand of Vietnamese-California cuisine has as much to do with his birthright as his birthplace. Phu is an Oakland, CA-born first generation Vietnamese-American chef whose family hails from the island of Phu Quoc, accredited as the birthplace of fish sauce in Asia. Chef Tu’s family has been producing small-batch artisanal Phu Quoc Fish Sauce, considered Champagne of fish sauces, since 1895.
Phu cut his culinary teeth in the kitchens of some of the nation’s top restaurants, including Daniel, Acquerello and Chez Panisse; and across a wide range of cooking cultures - from the American culinary greats to classical European traditions. But it was what he calls “the memory of taste” that pulled him back to his roots: the practices, ingredients, techniques, and flavors of Vietnamese cuisines. Revisiting his favorite childhood dishes, Chef Tu began an in-depth exploration of the cuisine of his mother’s generations-old culinary repertoire. Pilgrimages back to Vietnam were frequent and inspirational.
Chef Tu’s Vietnamese-California cuisine began garnering press and accolades, first in 2016 with his weekly pop-up dinners “AN - a Vietnamese Dining Experience.”; then in 2017 San Francisco Chronicle named him Rising Star Chef. In 2019, he was a featured contestant on Bravo's Top Chef Season 15 and invited to host ABC’s Taste Buds: Chefsgiving which was nominated for a James Beard Award.
As a first-generation, Vietnamese-American, food justice comes naturally to Chef Tu, who finds opportunities to use the medium of food as a vessel for meaningful work from cooking with incarcerated men in San Quentin; to his role as a co-executive producer for First Kitchen Media that involves storytelling, and speaking about diversity and inclusivity; to being a community ambassador in Oakland working with Asian Health Services and the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Tu’s involvement with food recovery and the Zero-Waste Movement is something else he got from his mother: During the Vietnam War, when supplies were rationed, she learned, out of necessity, that corn silk could be dried and used as a tea or toasted, deep-fried, or sautéed to serve with rice. Chef Tu not only applies these Zero Waste principles in his own kitchen but he is also a James Beard Smart Catch Leader, recognized for promoting the use of sustainable seafood options; and an avid teacher, sharing the riches and lessons of his birthright through food.
Watch his KQED Arts documentary, BLOODLINE here: http://bit.ly/cheftubloodline