Why BIPOC Chefs Are Rolling Their Eyes When You Demand Substitutions

Born in a Thai refugee camp, Hmong American chef Yia Vang sticks to his roots and his parents’ treasured recipes — so please don’t ask him for vegan sausage.

Don’t bother looking for “Hmong-land” on a map, because this nomadic ethnic minority group doesn’t have a home country. Many of them were living in the mountains of Laos when the Vietnam War forced them into the conflict. The CIA recruited soldiers by promising citizenship to those who fought for the U.S., and while many of those promises were eventually broken by our government, some Hmong managed to flee to refugee camps and make their way to the United States. There are now more than 300,000 Hmong Americans in this country, mostly living in Minnesota, Wisconsin and California. From there, this particular story moves from the historical to the personal. Two of those refugees were Nhia and Pang Vang, who settled in the upper Midwest to raise a family of seven children. One of their sons, Yia, has gone on to found Minneapolis’ Union Hmong Kitchen and to be nominated for multiple James Beard awards.

In this Voices in Food story, he tells Julie Kendrick about being ashamed of his mom’s cooking when he was a kid, yearning for Lunchables and SunnyD, and finally coming full circle to tell the story of his parents and his people through their traditional recipes.