Taste - from family meals to Michelin star restaurants

Hanoi From the day it opened until receiving its Michelin star, Tam Vi has maintained its menu with fried eggs, water spinach, pickles, and "innocent and sincere" service.

Located on a small street in Yen The, Ba Dinh district, Tam Vi family restaurant, one day after winning a Michelin star, a prestigious global culinary certification, has not changed much from the outside.

The restaurant is a quiet two-story wooden house with about 20 tables, serving about 100 diners at a time. The walls, ceiling, floor, stairs, old tables and chairs, and bamboo chopsticks all recreate an ancient house. The decorations are gentle and in harmony with the nostalgic style. The restaurant has a small yard with lots of trees, suitable for sitting on cool days.

Front of the restaurant. — The facade of the restaurant. Photo: *Giang Huy*

The “sudden fame” has left the restaurant’s phone ringing nonstop, with reservations already booked for the next few days, said Mai Anh, 27, the restaurant’s founder. Receiving a Michelin star is “beyond my imagination,” something she “never dared to believe.”

Tam Vi opened in 2019, with the name combining the name of Mrs. Tam, Mai Anh's mother, and "Vi", meaning taste. The idea of opening a restaurant for the mother and daughter came from the desire to serve traditional Vietnamese meals to family members. Mai Anh's grandmother has 9 children, Mai Anh's mother has 5 children. The large family makes cooking sometimes a "big deal", requiring meticulous care.

The people who started Tam Vi were simply passionate about cooking, none of them had any expertise in restaurant business or cuisine. Their simple wish was to open a small shop, serving the everyday popular dishes of Vietnamese people. The first menu only had 3 trays of rice with about 30 traditional dishes such as fried eggs and boiled morning glory.

The first four months, the restaurant encountered many difficulties when starting to manage and arrange an operating chain system with kitchen, tables, service... They had to try many ways, make mistakes and then do it again. After a period of being affected by Covid-19, the restaurant started to get back on track. The advantage of Tam Vi is that there is no pressure on profits, and then they met more passionate people, the direction of the restaurant is still in line with the original wishes of the family members.

Some dishes include crab soup, snails with banana and bean, braised ribs, pickled vegetables. — Some dishes include crab soup, snails with banana and bean, braised ribs, pickled cucumbers and eggplants. Photo: *Giang Huy*

What makes Tam Vi different from other Michelin-starred restaurants in Vietnam this time is that it does not emphasize the importance of any single chef. For Tam Vi, the success or satisfaction of diners today does not belong to an individual. "It is the selflessness and sincerity, coming from the dedication of the whole team, from the people who go to the market, choose the ingredients every day, from the waiters, the kitchen assistants, the people who stand in the kitchen. Those are the things we are always grateful for and feel satisfied with," Mai Anh said.

As a young generation, Ms. Mai Anh knows and understands the value of Michelin stars in global cuisine. But Ms. Tam has never heard of the Michelin Guide. When Michelin representatives first contacted her to invite her to the awards ceremony on the evening of June 6, she refused. The next two times Michelin called, she still refused because she thought "it was an advertising program". Only after many discussions with her daughter, and her children confirmed that this was a reputable brand, did Ms. Tam feel secure.

"My mother doesn't know anything about the award. To her, the restaurant is simply a daily family meal," Mai Anh said.

Mai Anh, at a press conference after receiving a Michelin star, on the morning of June 7. Photo: Michelin Guide — Mai Anh at a press conference after receiving the Michelin star on the morning of June 7 in Hanoi. Photo: *Michelin Guide*

Currently, Tam Vi's menu has more than 100 dishes, the most popular of which are still braised fish, fried eggs, fried tofu, boiled water spinach, shrimp and gourd soup, braised pork and eggs, pickled vegetables, cabbage rolls with meat... The menu changes seasonally, but does not deviate from traditional Vietnamese dishes. Currently, the restaurant is managed by Ms. Mai Anh, Ms. Tam only supports her daughter.

Ms. Thu Binh, a regular customer of the restaurant, said that Tam Vi's food is "true to mother's cooking", with traditional Vietnamese dishes that are all delicious. However, the prices are higher than average, about 250,000 to 300,000 VND per person per meal.

After receiving the Michelin star, Ms. Mai Anh knows that she may face more pressure when the restaurant is crowded, leading to not being able to serve customers properly. But she is confident that the restaurant will always serve customers with "innocence and sincerity".

"So far, we have not had any other plans. No one in the family has thought about doing anything new or different after being awarded a Michelin star. Diners will have higher expectations, and we will only hope to improve small things, always putting customer satisfaction first," said Ms. Mai Anh.

Linh Huong - Phuong Anh

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