About
Lan Thai, aka Chef Lando’s story begins in a refugee camp in Thailand, where she was born to parents fleeing the communist takeover of Vietnam. Growing and cooking food was not a luxury in her early life, but a precious necessity; she literally doesn’t remember learning to use a knife–it was as much a part of her developmental experience as learning to walk or speak. It’s difficult to overstate the fundamental role that food, its production, and its preparation played in her life, just as its difficult to overstate the visceral connection that she developed with cooking as a result. The potential of food and culinary tradition to sustain, connect, and lift up families and communities is a chief contributing factor in her view of cooking and eating. This deeply-layered perspective shines through in the cuisine she creates, which manages to be both grounded and elevated, an achievement born of a life lived through food.
“We elevate food through nutrition.” – Chef Lando
