Restaurateur eager to explore cuisine of Vietnam’s 54 ethnicities

Running a restaurant chain featuring locations across Vietnam, Linh still travels to many regions of the country, joining locals to cook, eat, and uncover treasured ethnic cooking recipes.

As a chef and founder of Ech Xanh, a frog meat restaurant chain with venues in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Hai Phong, Quang Ngai, and Gia Lai, she says her appetite for discovery remains unsatisfied.

After nearly two decades of cooking and cuisine exploration across more than 50 countries, she describes cuisine as ‘an endless fascination.’

Still, what lingers for her is not the cuisine of faraway places, but the food traditions of Vietnam’s 54 ethnic groups — an untasted world that inspired her to set out on this journey.

Since mid-2023, Linh has traveled across the country, cooking and eating with ethnic communities from the Khmer and Cham in An Giang Province to the Cho Ro and S’tieng in Dong Nai Province, as well as the Chinese-Vietnamese community in Ho Chi Minh City.

She has also visited the Ba Na in Gia Lai Province, the E De in Dak Lak Province, the Brau in Quang Ngai Province, and the Bru–Van Kieu in Quang Tri Province.

She arranges the trips herself, staying with families and joining their daily life, from foraging in forests to preparing traditional meals.

So far, Linh has cooked and shared meals with more than 20 ethnic groups in Vietnam.

“I’ve only reached the central region, so this journey will continue until I’ve met all 54 ethnic groups,” she says with a smile.

“I combine the ingredients of one ethnic group with the cooking techniques of another, blending them into the dishes with my own spirit of cooking, always making sure they fit the tastes and dining style of my guests.”

Spreading beauty of Vietnam’s ethnic traditions

Despite running a busy restaurant chain, Linh makes time to stay with each community for days on end.

Linh says her travel revealed ingredients she had never known, like wild lemon grass seeds, richer in oil and aroma than common stalks.

Each trip brings back new flavors and techniques that she weaves into fresh dishes for her restaurants.

One best-selling dish at her restaurant — frog patties hand-pounded in a mortar — came from an idea inspired by the Khmer and refined with techniques from other regions.

But the trips are about more than food. She goes into the forest, farms, eats, and sleeps with locals, documenting her experiences in about 20 videos that have won attention online, even from international friends who now want to join her on the road.

Some young people she met on her journeys now work at her restaurants, with a few rising to key management roles.

Others, once forced to drop out of school, have returned to class with the help of their own wages and Linh's support.

For Linh, each journey is more than collecting recipes, as it is primarily meant to keep traditions alive and bring the taste of Vietnam's ethnic heritage to a wider audience.