During my ISP, I was lucky enough to be able to spend time at Ancient Hue Restaurant and Gallery. The restaurant was built in 2005 to showcase the royal cuisine. The owner of Ancient Hue also wanted a place to preserve and display traditional Hue art and architecture so traditional wooden houses were constructed next to the restaurant. Chefs at Ancient Hue use modern cooking techniques, like gas stoves, and a variety of ingredients to prepare their version of the royal cuisine for customers. They also incorporate traditional aspects of the royal cuisine such as decorative carvings to preserve the food’s royal appearance.
Tuyet - Ancient Hue Carver
It is 11:00 a.m. and two chefs are busy in the kitchen slicing squares of pale yellow homemade bean curd, which is on today’s menu. One woman is sitting alone at a metal table off to the side of the kitchen, surrounded by an assortment of small knives and root vegetables. Below the table is a bowl filled with three orange goldfish, carved from a pumpkin, that look like they are swimming. This woman is the carver. Tuyet is one of two chefs at Ancient Hue that specializes in carving decorations to adorn the plates of guests.
Three years ago, when she was 21 years old, Tuyet learned how to carve from another chef at Ancient Hue Restaurant. She occasionally still uses reference books like, The Complete Practical Book of Fruit Art Carving, which gives instructions on how to carve different fruits, but mostly does everything from memory. Each dish has a specific plating element and the name of the dish often corresponds with the decoration attached, like phoenix salad. The majority of tour groups and customers order from pre-set menus so the chefs and carvers know exactly what to prepare for the day. Many of the dishes feature the same basic decorations, like flowers carved from carrots, so they can be reused on dishes later in the day. The decorations are meant to be viewed, not eaten, and are almost all disposed of the same day they are created.
In front of Tuyet is a white turnip carved in the shape of the head of a bird. The beak is crafted from an orange carrot and black peppercorns adorn the eyes. Tuyet works quickly, switching tools to carve feathers down the phoenix’s neck. Each day she works eight-hour shifts, carving the entire time. In one day she usually makes twenty small and two big carvings. The large carvings, like the phoenix, can take around one and a half hours. She uses white turnips, carrots, melons, green papayas, pumpkins, tomatoes, and cucumbers to carve animals like dragons, crabs, fish, shrimp, and swans. She also carves flowers and famous architecture from Hue like bridges, pagodas, and dragon boats.
At the end of each customer’s meal, Tuyet goes to the guests’ table with a carrot, turnip, and some small knives. She starts by carving the carrot while the guests try to guess what it will be. In a matter of seconds an orange prawn appears. She then demonstrates how to make a rose out of the turnip to the delight of the customers who “ooo” and “ahhhh”, taking out their cameras to record the food art.
Tham - Ancient Hue Head Chef
Tham was twelve years old when she became interested in cooking. She learned how to prepare some Hue traditional recipes, like bun bo Hue (beef noodle soup) from her mother. Tham was born in Hue, but completed a three-year cooking course in Hanoi after finishing high school. Now at age 47, she has worked for a total of 27 years in the restaurant industry. When I interviewed her, she was in her third month at Ancient Hue Restaurant.
As head chef, she decides what will be on the menu and how it is plated. In the past, the menu was more dependent upon the season since chefs had to grow their own ingredients. She remarked that with the presence of supermarkets and outdoor markets it is much more convenient to purchase out-of-season ingredients. Also, it is easier to buy imported ingredients, like alcohol and cheese. She said tourism has made the royal cuisine more famous, though it is not exactly the same as it was during the time of the Nguyen Dynasty, which can be attributed to the variety of ingredients that were not available during the emperors’ reign. Recently available products such as chicken powder and MSG enhance and add a different flavor to the royal cuisine dishes that could not have been achieved before.
To plate each dish, she considers the meaning of each dish and how to symbolize the stories on the plate. The phoenix and dragon represent the queen and king respectively and are a typical garnish used to distinguish the royal cuisine from common food.
Huong - Ancient Hue Assistant Chef
Huong sits at a small table outside the kitchen peeling a large bowl of shallots. She has worked for 12 years in the culinary field after her initial career as a photographer. She did not go to university, but learned all her cooking knowledge from working in restaurants. Cooking at Ancient Hue, Huong remarked that the menu is catered to tourists. The chefs use of ingredients distinguishes the tourist food from the dishes cooked for local Hue people. Even though the chefs are preparing royal cuisine the food is still cooked with less chili and spice at the restaurant than what they would cook if they were home. When cooking, Huong looks at recipes for the list of ingredients, but estimates and tastes the dish to decide on the correct proportions.
Inside the Dining Room
The entire experience that customers have at Ancient Hue is meant to transport them back to the time of the Nguyen Dynasty, with modern conveniences to make customers more comfortable. The waitresses wear red and gold ao dai’s, the traditional Vietnamese dress, which symbolize the colors of the royal family. Each dining room is adorned with plush upholstered chairs and hand crafted wooden tables. The air conditioner is on high as easy listening music plays in the background. Each customer who orders from the fixed menu is presented with a paper menu, outlining the order of the dishes written in Vietnamese and English. In the large a la carte menu, the menu prices are written in U.S. dollars, catering to tourists. The restaurant also accepts payment by U.S. dollars, Vietnamese dong, and the Euro.
The fixed menu lists seven dishes: three appetizers, one main dish, two side dishes, and a dessert. On November 21, the menu included vegetable soup, deep fried bean curd, rice paper rolls with grilled pork, royal stewed red snapper in ginger sauce, sauteed bok choy with oyster sauce, steamed rice, and sweet taro mousse with coconut ice cream. The fried bean curd was plated with a carving of a vase of flowers, the rice paper rolls had a carrot flower, and the red snapper was served with a fish carved from pumpkin on a piece of ginger. The waitresses cleared the plates after each course and swiftly replaced them with the next dish.
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| Fried Bean Curd |
None of the dishes were very spicy or over seasoned. Instead, each of the ingredients were balanced so that they complemented and enhanced the flavor of the entire dish. The fried bean curd had a crispy breading surrounding the silky smooth filling. It was paired with a tangy dipping sauce to offset the mellow flavor of the bean curd. The ginger sauce added a peppery, sweet taste to the red snapper. The bok choy added a contrasting crisp texture to that of the soft fish and the fresh flavor prevented the ginger sauce from overwhelming the dish. For dessert, the taro mousse had a texture similar to pudding. The taro mousse was bitter, but the scoop of cold coconut ice cream on top added just the right amount of sweetness to balance the dessert’s flavors. During the meal, the front of house manager came around to make sure everything was going smoothly and at the end Tuyet came to demonstrate her carving skills. It was a meal fit for an emperor.
