We Are What We Eat

“All of us already have a common connection to food, at least for most of us who have the privilege of having family dinners or gatherings. These foundational experiences are a great way to connect simply through the fact that most of us already grew up connecting through food. Food was the main point of why we gathered together.”
Richard Văn Lê

Growing up in a Vietnamese household, my childhood consisted of many special moments in the kitchen and around the dining room table. My grandmother was an amazing cook and always knew what ingredients could be missing with just a taste off her finger. She knew how to cook everything– Thịt kho, Bánh xèo, Bún riêu, Bánh hỏi, Bánh bao, Chả giò (to name just a few). Each week, my entire family would flock to our house to eat as a whole and always left with more for their next visit. These cook-ins were integral to the bond of our family; the adults would chit-chat and catch up while the kids enjoyed each other’s company. I grew up watching my mother help my grandmother prep ingredients, and as we all got older, my mother would take charge and I would be the one to help. Whether it was sharing a meal or helping in the process, the best connection often occurred during these moments and between. Seeing how food was so incredibly vital to strengthening bonds, I wanted to further investigate this relationship outside of the home. Because I grew up amidst many cultures that shared the same relationship with food, I already had an existing curiosity about food being a vessel for cultural exchange and understanding, as well as a great marker of identity and a reminder of home. For more insight, I decided to head towards the Alberta Arts District to speak with Richard Văn Lê, who co-owns the Vietnamese-American fusion brunch restaurant, Mémoire Cà Phê, and ask about  his perspective of food being a channel for human connection and exchange. 

As it turns out, Richard was my “rec leader” (‘rec’, as in ‘recreational’) leader for the San Jose City Parks and Recreation Department when I was a young student at Summerdale Elementary in San Jose, California. He was a part of a handful of adults hired to supervise children of working class families after school. I had reached out to Mémoire not knowing he was who he was. Prior to this interview, the last he had seen me I was still learning my time tables, and quite frankly, was a bit of a brat. But, who isn’t in 3rd grade?

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Sarah: How would you describe your role at Mémoire?

Richard: My name is Richard Văn Lê. I’m the chef and co-owner of Mémoire. I made the savory food program here.

Sarah: Both of us come from San Jose, known to hold one of the largest Vietnamese populations out of Vietnam. Do you notice any differences in the community here versus the one we grew up in San Jose, whether it’s the food we eat or the different tastes?

Richard: The main difference is the accessibility for Vietnamese food. Obviously it is much higher in San Jose, whereas in Portland it’s still growing. I’m very privileged in the sense that I get to be a part of this new wave of Vietnamese businesses. 

The benefit of growing up in San Jose is that we were exposed to so much Vietnamese culture, almost so much so that it was hard to find our own identity. Because we were so immersed in all of it, it was hard to be even sure where you could fit into all of that. When I moved to Portland, I was able to find a better sense of my identity because I was able to see that there wasn’t a huge community of Vietnamese people here. That gave me the ability to see how fortunate I was growing up to have a large Viet community and how important it was to my upbringing. Having that as a base layer was really profound, even in finding my own brand and figuring what that model was going to be and what Mémoire would be. Those building blocks helped build my overall identity. 

Sarah: Your menu has a variety of many different ingredients that people familiar with Vietnamese cuisine may recognize. What do you hope people would take away from their dining experience here?

Richard: The goal with the menu here is to really just highlight those familiar ingredients. It’s not necessarily that we make Vietnamese food, it’s more that we make Vietnamese-American food where we can tie in together the diaspora of being American and having these Vietnamese flavors come through regardless of what vessel it’s put in.

For example, we do breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches and all that stuff, but all the flavors are still inherently Vietnamese. We want that essence to shine through our dishes.

Sarah: Are there any family recipes that inspire the items on your menu?

Richard: Definitely. The fish sauce bacon we make here is actually a rip off of Thịt Kho.

Sarah: Oh okay! Nice.

Richard: Yeah, I grew up making that, and I was taught by my family. My family’s own recipe is tied into the fish sauce bacon here. I also do a shrimp omelet that’s my mom’s recipe. She used to make that when I was growing up. Tomato, eggs, shrimp. I ate that a lot…

For the most part, we try to keep things real close to home. Mémoire as a business is built around paying homage to our lost parents. All three of the owners here have lost a parent. We keep ties to a familial connection.

Sarah: I’m so sorry, my condolences. Do you have any personal memories of food bringing people together in your life and do those memories influence your approach to Mémoire?

Richard: Yeah, I think here we make it a point to make it feel like you’re eating at someone’s house, as opposed to a restaurant. You want it to feel lively and fun. The music is a big part of that, and we try to make it feel like a house party. That’s the energy we want to bring! It’s a fun way to have the feeling of being in someone’s home but also pushing forward really fun food. 

Sarah: Last Thanksgiving, I saw that you provided cooked meals to those in need, no questions asked. What inspired you to use food as a tool for building connections between communities?

Richard: Before Mémoire, we had a food cart called Matta and we were already giving out meals during COVID and holiday seasons. We figured that if we were going to get back to the feeling of community, a good way would be to give back in times of need to those who need company around the holidays, especially for those who are in scarce situations. It’s a great way for us to re-engage with our community. We’re not here to always make money. 

As a business of course, making money is part of the game, but at the end of it all,  we’re blessed that we’re even able to do this. So, a nice way to show our gratitude is to make food and serve it in hopes of making someone’s day. 

I’m a transplant so I know what it feels like to not have anybody around during the holidays, so it’s a cool way to get everyone together, even for a short moment in time. So we try to keep that same tradition here Mémoire.

Sarah: That’s beautiful! I want to know, how has the local community embraced Mémoire? How have you connected with them aside from providing free meals?

Richard: I would say that because all three of us owners already have their individual businesses, we already built a large community around us to begin with. When we announced this project, even as a pop-up, we immediately got a huge response because people were just excited we were doing stuff together. The other owners—Kim and Lisa—they’re like my sisters. So we just spent a lot of time together to begin with and in a way that has translated into how people experience us as a business. Mémoire feels more like hanging out with all three of us.

Sarah: Do you think fusion cuisine plays a unique role in fostering understanding between different cultures?

Richard: I think there’s definitely a cool way to use fusion as a vessel in helping provide a new, yet not new, way of interpreting food. I think the food we do here is tied to aspects that are very inherently Vietnamese but there’s also certain aspects where you could have a very simple thing like a breakfast sandwich. 

For instance, we have fish sauce in almost everything aside from the mushrooms we serve. It gives people the ability to try something that’s maybe a little unfamiliar in a vessel that is approachable and can open up to a bigger dialogue later. 

Sarah: Have you noticed any moments where customers learned something new about Vietnamese culture through your food?

Richard: The biggest thing we heard the most excitement about is accompanying chili oil or Thai chili hot sauce to our food. Normally here, people are thrown back by the Thai chilis. They get a little thrown back, like “ooo, too spicy”, but the idea we try to bring across is that we find balance between all of these flavors. We try to market them to create a more open understanding. They learn that you can put these things on anything and it’ll make it taste better. That’s kind of what we’re trying to get across there.

Sarah: What do you think makes food uniquely powerful in bringing people together?

Richard: All of us already have a common connection to food, at least for most of us who have the privilege of having family dinners or gatherings. These foundational experiences are a great way to connect simply through the fact that most of us already grew up connecting through food. Food was the main point of why we gathered together. 

If someone in my family was bringing in a big pot of Phở or Bún bò Huế, my whole family would come over and cycle through eating that big pot. In the same way we had that growing up, we have the same mentality here. We make a bunch of food and draw people together in a common space.

Sarah: Is there anything that you haven’t tried yet that you’re hoping to do in the future?

Richard: Yeah, I think Mémoire is still at its infant stage, so we’re still figuring out long staying items. For the most part, our items currently on our menu have been well received. I think the next step is to figure out how to scale it outside, because the space we’re in is really small. We’re eventually going to have to get a bigger space, and then maybe we’ll venture out with making stuff like Baos and the things most Viet kids grew up eating.

Sarah: Are there any local Vietnamese grocery stores that you shop at?

Richard: Hong Phat.

Sarah: Have you been to the new large one?

Richard: I haven’t yet. I’m so used to going to the small one. It’s my favorite. It just feels so much like home when I go there. It feels like San Jose when I go. Whenever I’m there it feels like I’m transported back to the hometown and I feel at ease. I know where everything is and how to get around, and they know me there too now, so it’s super cool to be able to immerse myself there.

Sarah: Wow, well thank you so much for your time. I think that’s all the questions I have for you. Thank you so much.

Richard: Thank you. Nice to see you again.

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Richard Văn Lê is the chef and co-owner of Mémoire Cà Phê, a vietnamese-american brunch experience. He hails from the city of San Jose, CA, where he was immersed in a vast and eclectic Vietnamese community. Being exposed to that world allowed him to explore both sides of his identity. This space to explore allowed him to find the niche and introspective parts of Vietnamese and American food, creating bridges between the two and bringing projects such as mémoire to life. The food revolves around childhood memories, and some parts of it are homages to family and their impact on his life.

Sarah Luu is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and barista. She gravitates towards photography, ceramics, zines and print-making. As a first generation Asian American, her work has touched on themes of her mixed Vietnamese-Chinese identity, intergenerational trauma and tradition. She explores themes outside those topics by pulling inspiration from her lived experience growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area surrounded by a vibrant arts and music culture. She holds a BA in Studio Art, Preparation for Teaching from San Jose State University and is currently studying for an MFA in the Art and Social Practice program at Portland State University. She describes herself as “interdisciplinary in life”, having backgrounds in not only art but also dance, theater, music, community service, baking and coffee. Her favorite food at the moment is Bánh Canh and she can roller skate backwards.