Artist Statement
I make food to remember—to imagine new futures rooted in ancestral knowledge. Drawing from my Vietnamese lineage, folk medicine, and years working on farms, my practice, Bé Bếp, uses seasonal ingredients as both material and metaphor. I’ve long observed how industrialized ingredients have replaced generations of time‑honored techniques, separating us from the true vitality of plants. In response, I grow and cook with seasonal and foraged ingredients, experimenting to reassemble flavors that predate colonial and industrial forces. My performances and gatherings invite participants into this ongoing homecoming. In the absence of my mother, Vietnam is the motherland that guides me: each return to her soil is both an act of study and healing. Through Bé Bếp, I honor the strength of those who came before me, forging a living bridge between past and future, land and table.
Grief ephemeral, grief eternal culinary performance at Mews, 2025