Lao and Proud: Chef inspires others to embrace their heritage and history through food

Transcript

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Geoff Bennett: Food can be a tangible and accessible way to understand and connect with different cultures. One chef has led the movement to bring traditional food from her home country of Laos to diners across the country.

Laura Barrón-López reports for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Seng Luangrath, Executive Chef and Owner, Thip Khao: Thank you so much for coming in.

Laura Barrón-López: For chef Seng Luangrath dinner here at her Thip Khao restaurant in Washington, D.C., is about more than the food.

Seng Luangrath: I saw you order (INAUDIBLE). I was like, ooh, I got to go to that table.

MAN: It’s amazing.

Laura Barrón-López: It’s a chance to highlight the rich heritage and culinary artistry of Laos, a country she fled in 1981 at age 12 with her mother, uncle, and two brothers, after her father was taken to a labor camp.

Seng Luangrath: We have to cross the Mekong River at 3:00 in the morning through a small, tiny boat. Then we have to walk about our chest height of water to the other side of the riverbank in Thailand.

Laura Barrón-López: Some 300,000 people fled the landlocked country in the years after 1975. That was after the failure of both the Vietnam War and the massive covert nine-year bombing campaign in Laos led by the U.S. known as the Secret War.

Seng Luangrath: When we get to the Thai border, we heard gunshots. So we heard people trying to escape, either people trying to escape after us, or they just shoot up in the sky when they saw us.

Laura Barrón-López: Many temporarily settled in refugee camps in Northern Thailand. That’s where Chef Seng, as she’s now known, learned to prepare dishes from across Laos that are still reflected in her cooking today.

Seng Luangrath: I have a stronger flavor profile because of what I had learned in refugee camps, and also when I came to America, and also meet different people from all over Laos.

Laura Barrón-López: Once she settled in the U.S., her love of food grew. But she only cooked Lao food for her family and people who were already familiar with the flavors and strong aroma.

Seng Luangrath: I grew up like having — like have to hide. My parents would say, if you eat Lao food, don’t eat in front of your friends.

I was doing that to my son too. I packed food for him, and I said, just be careful because we don’t want your friend to smell. It’s like something that we were hiding. Like, we — why we should be hiding?

Laura Barrón-López: In 2010, she became a professional chef, buying her first restaurant, Bangkok Golden, in nearby Falls Church, Virginia. But her friends and family discouraged her from serving Lao food.

Seng Luangrath: They were like, well, you’re not — is — I don’t think you should do it, because Thai is very — is marketable. Lao is not marketable. Nobody knows where Laos is.

And, of course, in my mind at the time, I used that as my inspiration, as my motivation. People come for Thai buffet, and then we will ask, are you here for the buffet or are you here for Lao food? A lot of people were shocked. They’d never heard of that. They were like, what is Lao food? So then we start educating people about Laos, Lao food.

Laura Barrón-López: You just have to talk about it.

Seng Luangrath: Talk about it and teach how to eat it, because Lao food is very — it’s very pungent. It’s a lot of padaek, which is fermented fish sauce. And it’s also a lot of different exotic ingredients like spice and also like a lot of fresh herbs.

So we also taught people how to eat it with rice, instead of eating with lettuce or by some — like a salad. So we taught people how to grab sticky rice and roll it up in the ball and eat it with larb.

Laura Barrón-López: She renamed Bangkok Golden in 2017 to Padaek, the very sauce she was taught to hide.

This D.C. location, Thip Khao, is a nod to the rice baskets that serve sticky rice, an integral part of Lao cuisine and culture. Although many Americans are familiar with Thai papaya salad, she showed me how it’s used in the Lao version, known as thum mak hoong.

It has a spice.

Seng Luangrath: I like it.

(Laughter)

Laura Barrón-López: I can’t embarrass my family. I got to handle the spice.

Seng Luangrath: You did good.

Laura Barrón-López: Her recipe for success has won over diners from all different backgrounds, including Lao Americans.

Brittney Sooksengdao, Thip Khao Diner: I remember bringing my parents here for the first time, and seeing non-Lao people eating Lao food was incredible. I think my parents were about to cry. I think I was about to cry. It was really special to get to move to a new city and then have a place that felt like home.

Sarika Rao, Thip Khao Diner: I knew of Laos as a region, but I have never tried the food. It’s really important to recognize where people are from and what made them who they are.

Laura Barrón-López: Chef Seng now runs four restaurants in and around the Washington area and hosts frequent pop-up events like this recent backyard barbecue and market in Arlington.

She’s also become the godmother of what’s known as the Lao food movement that encourages chefs to embrace their heritage and history.

Seng Luangrath: I think it’s so important to learn the culture, to teach people. The only way that I would say I thought about teaching people where Lao is, put Laos on the map, the only way I can do is through food.

Laura Barrón-López: Lao restaurants have popped up across the U.S. in cities big and small in recent years, including Morganton, North Carolina, Rockford, Illinois, and Wasilla, Alaska, many run by chefs Luangrath helped mentor along the way.

Jeff Chanchaleune, Chef and Owner, Ma Der: She gave me some advice on what to do and to follow my instincts, follow my gut, follow my palate.

Laura Barrón-López: Chef Jeff Chanchaleune opened his restaurant, Ma Der, in Oklahoma City in 2021 after spending more than two decades working at Japanese restaurants there.

Jeff Chanchaleune: I wanted to go back to my roots to do Lao food because I was kind of ashamed and felt terrible about abandoning my culture for so long.

Laura Barrón-López: The restaurant has won critical acclaim in national press. And, like Chef Seng, he emphasizes teaching through food.

Jeff Chanchaleune: I’m trying to make up for that now by learning as much as I can. I’m learning every day. And as I’m learning, I am hopefully training and educating my staff so that they can educate the diners. And those diners, you can spread the word, because, with this food and with this culture, a lot of it kind of spreads by word of mouth.

Laura Barrón-López: Keeping that history alive is what keeps Chef Seng going.

Seng Luangrath: It’s also bring me a happiness, bring me, as a person, a better person. I’m proud of who I am, proud of my culture. Now I can seem out loud. I’m loud, loud and proud.

Laura Barrón-López: You can scream it.

(Laughter)

Seng Luangrath: Yes.

Laura Barrón-López: For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Laura Barrón-López in Washington.