Pho is a "national" dish loved by many people - Photo: Contestant Co Nhu Cau
The final round of the 2025 Pho Cooking Contest organized by Tuoi Tre Newspaper attracted the participation of chefs, head chefs, restaurant owners as well as pho lovers across the country.
The five winners of the "Golden Star Anise" award will be invited to promote pho at the Vietnam Pho Festival 2025 scheduled to take place in Singapore in October 2025 and Pho Day in Ho Chi Minh City in December this year.
A bowl of pho cooked by contestant Dao Thi Hang - Photo: NVCC
Pho is a career in a foreign land
When hearing the news that her name was in the final round, contestant Dao Thi Hang (who runs a pho business in Australia) "ran straight down to the kitchen to show everyone".
Hang studied at the University of Agriculture and Forestry in Hue, then did a master's degree in sustainable development in Adelaide, Australia. Then fate brought her to cuisine, education and agriculture through projects such as Mam Thuyen Nan and LeaderTalks.
Two years ago, she packed her bags and moved to Australia, starting a new life with her small family and starting a pho business after a year of preparation.
Hang has only been selling takeaway at home since the beginning of January 2025, but currently her shop consumes nearly 50 liters of pho broth every day. This coming November, she plans to open her first pho shop in Australia.
Dao Thi Hang said that when she came to Australia, pho became a dish that anchored her memories of her homeland. The aroma of star anise, cinnamon, and the sweetness of stewed bones reminded her of her mother and family meals.
Pho is not only a dish, but also the crystallization of Vietnamese philosophy of life and folk medicine: eat to be full, to be healthy, to be connected.
Many customers come to her pho when they are tired or sick, even buying dozens of bags of broth to store in the refrigerator so they can use it gradually on days when they don't want to eat anything else. "I realized that pho is not only a place to anchor my own memories but also a bridge connecting me to the local community," the chef said.
Dao Thi Hang is also nicknamed Hang Mam Ruoc because she loves traditional fish sauce and shrimp paste. Therefore, "Hang's pho" must have fish sauce.
But Australians are not used to the smell of fish sauce, so Hang had to remove the smell with ginger and rock sugar.
She also came up with two types of pho sauce: one based on hoisin sauce – familiar to Western palates – but incorporating fish sauce, roasted garlic, lime juice and fresh chilli. The other is pumpkin sauce, closer to Australian eating habits, but fresh and healthy.
On September 16, Dao Thi Hang returned home to participate in the 2025 Pho Cooking Contest with a new excitement and rediscover her hometown dish in another dimension.
Contestant Dao Thi Hang with a pot of freshly cooked broth and a bowl of pho in a foreign land - Photo: NVCC
Journey to find memories
Nearly 10 years ago, contestant Vu Trung Kien (Hanoi) opened a pho restaurant but due to lack of experience, he "closed it early", but his passion for pho remained intact. None of his children were interested, but sometimes Kien still lit the fire to cook pho to eat, as he said, "everyone in old Hanoi loves pho".
He told Tuoi Tre that he had to go through a period of famine to know how happy a bowl of pho could make people. Back then, only when he was sick would his brothers and he be taken to Pho Thin Lo Duc to eat. Normally, when passing by pho shops, we could only "look", so back then there was a type of pho called "pho ngo".
That childhood gift and paradise of Hanoi kids in the late 1980s was imprinted in his mind. When he heard about the contest to find the best pho cook , the nearly 50-year-old man filmed himself cooking pho with the song Remembering Hanoi's Autumn and sent it to the organizers.
Mr. Kien said that this time he was inspired by his younger sister Bui Thi Nhan, the 2022 Golden Star Anise winner, but partly he wanted to find a piece of past memory.
For Ms. Do Thi Tam, participating in Finding a Good Pho Cook is a journey back to the village with pho noodles made from Bao Thai rice - Screenshot of the contest clip
For contestant Do Thi Tam (formerly Bac Giang province, now Bac Ninh), the competition was a journey back to her village, where there is a specialty of Chu rice noodles made from fragrant, sticky Bao Thai rice. She decided to create a pho dish from Bao Thai rice grains that is "chewy, rich, unpretentious but warms the taste like memories".
In the contest clip, Ms. Tam confided that she dreamed of a dry pho village, where villagers not only preserve their craft but also produce clean, convenient dry pho that can be taken anywhere. So that wherever Vietnamese people living abroad can still open it, take a breath and remember their homeland.
"My hometown's dry pho does not change Vietnamese pho, but it is the way I tell about my hometown through a bowl of pho cooked from the heart," she said.
Contestant Nguyen Anh Hao's Pho Xa Xi dish - Photo: NVCC
Pho is also fine dining!
That is the sharing of contestant Mai Minh Vu (25 years old), working at a luxury hotel in Phu Quoc. This young chef believes that for many people, pho is a popular dish, but as a chef, he understands the sophistication in each step, from choosing bones, simmering broth to combining spices, showing that pho has the foundation to become a fine dining dish.
"If we are creative in presentation, combining new ingredients while keeping the essence, pho can completely appear at fine dining parties and still make international diners admire," said Vu.
In his entry, Mai Minh Vu used the old Hanoi beef pho recipe combined with premium Japanese Wagyu beef. He also added sea worms and Phu Quoc fish sauce to make the pho more delicious and flavorful.
Beef noodle soup combined with premium Japanese Wagyu beef - Photo: NVCC
Clearly not only providing a high-class experience, pho is a dish that can be easily transformed to bring about surprising and equally interesting effects.
For contestant Nguyen Anh Hao (Lam Dong), pho is a speech for his homeland. He sent to the contest a dish called Pho Xa Xi, inspired by the cuisine of the Central Highlands, in which notable ingredients are wild pepper, wild celery, some typical leaves of the Ede people such as Xa Xi leaves, Ele leaves... The presentation in bamboo tubes and banana leaf rafts is also imbued with local flavor.
Ngoc Linh ginseng pho is also the choice of many contestants when submitting their entries to the organizing committee such as Bui Van Chung (HCMC), Nguyen Chi Quang Duc (Quang Ngai)...
"Pho is the quintessence of Vietnamese cuisine, each region brings its own nuances. I was born and raised in Kon Tum, where Ngoc Linh ginseng is a rare herb considered a "national treasure". I want to combine this medicinal herb with traditional pho, creating a combination of national identity and health value," said Nguyen Chi Quang Duc.
The search for a good pho cook is getting more and more dramatic.
According to Mai Minh Vu, the fact that the contestants passed the preliminary round and competed directly in the final round "made the competition more dramatic, because everyone brought their best pho dishes and had more time to focus on the final round instead of spending a lot of time and effort on the qualifying round. We had the opportunity to perform directly in front of the judges and the audience. The feeling of suspense was more," he said.
28 candidates passed the preliminary round
Instead of organizing a qualifying round, the contestants who pass the preliminary round of the 2025 Pho Cooking Contest will compete directly in the final round taking place from September 18 to 19 at the Royal Poinciana Hall of Van Thanh Tourist Area (No. 48/10 Dien Bien Phu Street, Thanh My Tay Ward, Ho Chi Minh City).
* List of finalists:
1. Doan Truong Son; 2. Nguyen Tran Quoc Dat; 3. Yung Thuy Burden; 4. Luong Tien Dat; 5. Dao Thi Hang; 6. Mai Minh Vu; 7. To Thanh Tung; 8. Nguyen Thanh Phuoc; 9. Vu Dinh Khai; 10. Vu Trung Kien; 11. Bui Van Chung; 12. Nguyen Chi Quang Duc; 13. Phan Duy Thanh; 14. Huynh Chinh; 15. Pham Vu Nguyen; 16. Do Viet Hoang; 17. Nguyen Gia Huy; 18. Co Nhu Cau; 19. Le Trung Tu; 20. Nguyen Duc Tong; 21. Nguyen Huu Phat; 22. Nguyen Anh Hao; 23. Dao Vien Huy; 24. Nguyen Thi Thu Diem; 25. Le Ngoc Huong Giang; 26. Do Thi Tam; 27. Huynh Tuan Anh; 28. Vuong Van Tung.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/di-tim-nguoi-nau-pho-ngon-nam-2025-tim-ban-sac-am-thuc-viet-hien-dai-20250912090217672.htm
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