Gordon Ramsay ‘falls in love’ with Vietnam’s simple dishes

British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has hailed Vietnam as one of the world’s top culinary destinations. Here are five dishes that have impressed him the most during his trips to the Southeast Asian nation.

Hu tieu, a southern Vietnamese noodle soup, appeared on the US reality TV competition cooking show MasterChef in 2013. As a judge on that year’s show, Ramsay tasked his five contestants with making bowls of Vietnamese hu tieu. On a previous trip to the Mekong Delta’s urban centre of Can Tho, Ramsay devoured a bowl of hu tieu prepared by a woman on a small boat at the Cai Rang floating market. “This bowl of hu tieu, a wonderful, delicious slow-cooked Vietnamese pork noodle soup, was the best thing I’ve ever had,” Ramsay said.

During a trip to the Mekong Delta in 2012 to film the second season of his travel documentary series Gordon’s Great Escape, Ramsay had the chance to try the famous Mrs. Hai’s dish of bun rieu. “It’s so good,” Ramsay exclaimed after just one spoonful. “I love it!” Bun rieu (tomato and crab soup) is a noodle dish with a tomato-based broth simmered from pork or chicken bones. Unlike pho or bun bo hue (Hue beef soup), which add sliced ​​meat, the main protein in this soup is a crabmeat mixture made from freshwater crab, pork, and eggs. It’s almost like a soft, dark crab cake floating in your soup.

Ramsay once drove his motorbike from Hanoi to the idyllic mountain town of Mai Chau, about three hours from the capital. Mai Chau is famous for its small ethnic minority villages, and Ramsay traveled there to learn how to make banh cuon (Vietnamese steamed rice rolls) in their traditional style.

“Thank God I wasn’t born in Vietnam, I’m just a terrible cook here,” Ramsay said while clumsily attempting to make Vietnamese steamed rice rolls.

“Thanks for teaching me how to make thin rice cakes, but I’m too hungry to use the subtleties,” he told the locals.

Steamed rice rolls, or banh cuon, are a traditional Vietnamese dish that’s easy for tourists to overlook because they’re often overshadowed by banh mi and pho. For this dish, a thin rice roll is steamed on a thin cloth over a pot of boiling water. It’s typically served with minced pork rolled in between soft, chewy “rice cakes” like a burrito (or a spring roll), with a sweet dipping sauce on the side.

Ramsay visited Khoa Ngan Restaurant at 77 Hai Ba Trung Street, Hanoi, where he learned how to make roasted duck with sweet and sour sauce as part of the 2011 season of “Gordon’s Great Escape.” This restaurant has a 30-year history of specializing in marinated duck grilled over charcoal and open fire. During this visit to Vietnam, Ramsay was amazed by the marinade the chef used to flavor her duck. He tried asking for the recipe for the sweet and sour sauce several times but was only met with a silent and gentle shake of the head.

Ramsay also learned how to make goi cuon (fresh Vietnamese spring rolls) on another Great Escape trip to Vietnam. Rice paper is wrapped around pork, shrimp, herbs and rice noodles, and is best eaten with a sweet and sour fish sauce or a thick peanut sauce. Goi cuon has become a popular snack in the southern regions of Vietnam. After witnessing fresh Vietnamese goi cuon firsthand, Ramsay shared his recipe for making delicious and soft shrimp goi cuon in a video posted to his YouTube channel.

In 2019, CNN praised Vietnam’s fresh spring rolls in its list of the world’s 50 most delicious foods. Gordon Ramsay, arguably the world’s most famous working chef since the death of Anthony Bourdain, is known to US television audiences for his caustic commentary on “Master Chef” and “Hell’s Kitchen.” He has also been named top chef in