Chef Nini Nguyen celebrated the launch of her cookbook “Dặc Biệt: An Extra Special Vietnamese Cookbook” at the Garden District Book Shop on Tuesday (Aug. 27) by mixing cocktails for guests before talking about the book. Nguyen says the phrase “dặc biệt,” or “extra” in Vietnamese American slang, embodies who she is, how she cooks and how she wants her food to be eaten. 

Nguyen, who was born and raised in New Orleans East by Vietnamese immigrants, said she was excited about sharing the book, which she co-wrote with Sarah Zorn, with the world. 

“This is my one shot to make something memorable and make something that I hope will last longer than I do,” Nguyen told Verite News before the event. 

“Dặc Biệt” is Nguyen’s first cookbook, but she is a veteran of the restaurant world in New Orleans and New York City, where she lived for nine years. She was a contestant on “Top Chef: Kentucky” and “Top Chef: All Stars L.A.” before she moved back to New Orleans in 2021. Her book launch coincided with the announcement of a new reality cooking show Nguyen will be competing in called “Last Bite Hotel.” 

Friends and fans of the celebrity chef packed the bookshop, sipping on gimlets made by Nguyen as Deniseea Taylor, a local mixologist, interviewed her behind the bar.

Kai Tan, who follows Nguyen on Instagram, said he came to the event to support the Asian community. 

“When I saw that she is launching this book, we were very excited, wanted to come meet her, and also purchase a book to also support other Asian people, Asian Americans,” Tan said. 

Nguyen said she hopes the book gives people a glimpse into her culture as a Vietnamese American. Every dish is accompanied by a photo that captures how Vietnamese people set the table around that dish and how the food is meant to be eaten. “Dặc Biệt” features home-style dishes, like steamed cabbage with fish-sauce egg. Others, like Southeast Asian Jambalaya, are Nguyen’s inventions infused with Cajun and Creole influences she was exposed to growing up in Louisiana. 

“I wanted to showcase dishes that you will never see at a restaurant because it’s like the thing your mom makes on a Thursday night,” Nguyen said. 

In the book, she pays homage to the fishing industry and nail salons, both of which are frequent sources of employment and business ownership for Vietnamese people in the United States, including Nguyen’s family. Her mother was a nail technician and her grandmother worked in the seafood business, shucking oysters for a living.

She also tries to convey the importance of intergenerational connection in the book while forging new pathways. She presents four different ways to make bánh cuốn, a Vietnamese steamed rice roll, with varying levels of accessibility that range from her grandmother’s traditional (and difficult) way of making the dish to her mother’s “easy” way of making it. Nguyen notes that it is important to keep her grandmother’s traditional methods alive, even if they aren’t practical to cook every day. 

Lizzie Tran, a native New Orleanian and Vietnamese American author, said cookbooks like Nguyen’s are important because they record history that would have otherwise been lost as displaced people escaped Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975. 

“They can never go back to the Vietnam that they knew, but they have food that they can make that reminds them of where they used to live,” Tran said. “Even if my parents die and I don’t remember any of their recipes, a version of someone’s experience of the Vietnamese diaspora will exist forever in this book, and that’s a really beautiful thing.”

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