On Friday morning, Ms. Trang woke up early to go to the Swiss supermarket – which specializes in supplying food to restaurants – to buy ingredients, preparing to cook pho for customers who had placed orders in advance. Standing in front of the food counter, the woman carefully selected each piece of bone and meat, ensuring freshness and quality to create an authentic Vietnamese beef pho.
After that, she went to an Asian store to buy rice noodles, cilantro, and other necessary ingredients for beef pho. Once everything was ready, she quickly drove home, cleaned and prepared the ingredients, simmered the bones, stewed the meat, and got everything ready to sell on Saturday and Sunday.
"On weekends, I cook about 100 bowls of pho, so it's a pretty busy day for business," Ms. Trang shared with a reporter from Dan Tri newspaper.
Vietnamese woman sells pho for half a million dong a bowl in Switzerland ( Video : Provided by the subject)
From logistics worker to online pho seller
Before moving abroad, Ms. Trang lived and worked in Ho Chi Minh City in the logistics (import-export) field for nearly 10 years. In early 2016, she met her Swiss husband through a friend's introduction. Later that year, they got married and moved to Switzerland. There, she continued to pursue her career in logistics.
However, this job didn't last nearly two years before the company she worked for moved its headquarters to France. This unexpected event prompted her to seriously re-evaluate her career path. After years of working in an office and feeling increasingly bored, she realized her special passion for food , which led to the idea of starting a Vietnamese food business in Switzerland.
In 2020, right when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, she officially started selling Vietnamese food. “Before that, I hardly knew how to cook. When I was in Vietnam, I only helped my mother make spring rolls; I hardly ever cooked,” Trang shared.
Without formal culinary training, she mainly learned on her own through the internet, finding recipes online, asking her mother for advice remotely, and experimenting many times to perfect her dishes. When starting her business, she chose beef pho, stir-fried beef noodles, and spring rolls as her main dishes.
Spring rolls, stir-fried beef noodles, and beef pho are the three dishes Ms. Trang chose to sell to customers in Switzerland (Photo: Provided by the interviewee).
To suit Swiss culinary habits, she adjusted the recipe: replacing pork with beef and chicken; and the beef pho was cooked with a lighter flavor, without fish sauce, the sweetness coming entirely from the bones, to make it easier for Western diners to eat.
"I didn't have too much trouble finding the ingredients, but the cost of buying them was very high. For example, 100g of cinnamon costs about 130,000 VND, and other herbs and spices are at a similar price," Ms. Trang said.
According to her, the high cost of ingredients, coupled with the average labor cost in Switzerland of 800,000 VND per hour, makes the prices of the dishes much higher than in Vietnam.
Specifically, a bowl of beef pho costs around 560,000 VND; stir-fried beef noodles cost 500,000 VND per serving, and spring rolls cost 80,000 VND each. According to Ms. Trang, these prices accurately reflect the cost of ingredients and the effort put in.
Selling pho to buy land.
In the early days of her business, her customer base was quite modest, around 10-20 orders per day. However, thanks to the consistent quality of the food, many customers tried it and recommended it to their friends. Combined with proactive promotion, the number of orders gradually increased. Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for takeout food surged, making her business more successful and helping her build a stable base of regular customers.
Currently, her food selling schedule is not fixed, focusing on Saturdays and Sundays, when deliveries are easier, there is less traffic, and her husband can help.
"In the beginning, there were few customers, but now I can sell 100 meals at a time," she said.
Her dishes are cooked in the true spirit of "eating at home, selling at home," using high-quality, fresh ingredients and prepared carefully and hygienically.
It is this meticulousness and attention to detail that makes many families, after getting used to eating pho made by her, no longer interested in pho from restaurants.
What she remembers most is that many families shared that their children enjoyed pho very much; the children, who usually don't like soup or noodle dishes, especially loved beef pho.
Pho is Ms. Trang's best-selling dish (Photo: Provided by the subject).
Running an online business allows her to have a flexible work schedule. She doesn't have to wake up early every day but can proactively arrange her schedule according to sales. Before each cooking batch, she usually notifies customers in advance, mainly on weekends. Customers place orders in advance and pick them up within the agreed timeframe, making the delivery and pickup process smooth and allowing her complete control over her personal life.
According to Trang, selling food online abroad has traditionally revolved around the Vietnamese community. However, she chose a different approach by focusing on local customers. The reason is that the number of Vietnamese people in her area is not large, while there are more foreigners who are more open to experiencing local cuisine.
"Vietnamese people tend to be thrifty and are used to cooking at home; conversely, Western guests like to try new dishes, are willing to pay more, and are less picky," Trang said.
She also emphasized that, to do business abroad, the most important thing is to thoroughly understand the legal regulations, food safety and hygiene requirements, business registration, and fulfill all tax obligations.
Besides selling food online, she also runs classes teaching foreigners how to cook Vietnamese dishes. This idea came about 1-2 years ago, when she was no longer as enthusiastic about selling but wanted to share her cooking methods so that customers could try making the dishes at home.
"I prepare all the materials in advance, so the students just have to learn and experience," she said.
After each class, she sends the students a summary of the steps involved, along with instructions on where to buy the ingredients at stores near their residence, so they can cook Vietnamese dishes again later. Regarding the cost, each class has a minimum of two people, and the tuition fee is nearly 3 million VND per person .
Besides selling Vietnamese food online, Ms. Trang also teaches cooking to foreigners (Photo: Provided by the subject).
After years of leaving her office job to sell food online, Trang says the most noticeable change in her life is her mental state.
Previously, her office job caused her constant stress and mental pressure. Switching to an online food business meant sacrificing many hours of manual labor – shopping, carrying supplies, cooking, packaging, and delivering – but in return, she no longer felt the stress and mental fatigue she experienced in her previous job.
"Initially, I started an online business just for fun, but thanks to it, I've been able to cover all my living expenses and buy land in Vietnam and Switzerland," she shared.
Besides her successful online business, Trang also enjoys a peaceful and comfortable married life with her Swiss husband. Despite being married, they respect each other's personal space and choices. Currently, they don't have children, but they don't face any pressure from family or society.
Regarding her future plans, she said she is shifting her focus to building a channel to share her life and personal experiences in Switzerland.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/du-lich/nguoi-phu-nu-viet-mang-pho-bun-bo-qua-thuy-si-ban-nua-trieu-dong-1-bat-20260203123917496.htm
Comment (0)