Tell me a little about your backstory and how you arrived in Australia.

I came from Saigon—we tried to escape the country to find freedom seven times. We made it to Malaysia and lived there for three years as refugees. This was 1987, ’88, and a lot of people at the time were trying to escape the country. It was a hard life back then, each family were only allowed to have a bucket of water to shower and to cook for that day. No schools. You lived there like there was no tomorrow. But the good thing is, when I think back, sometimes when I wake up and I am breathing the air I think, ‘I am still alive.’ Over here, sometimes I notice people are too busy and they forget to breathe, so back then life was very simple. When we got to Australia in 1992, I worked and studied at the same time. I worked night shift, 9 pm to 5 am, and then in the morning I would go to uni. I studied electrical engineering and I ended up working for a company for about ten years in Sydney. 

Why did your family decide to leave Sydney and move to the Central Coast? 

The reason we decided to move here to start a restaurant was because Mum has been cooking for 30 years and had a restaurant in Melbourne. We wanted to find a new area with not much competition in terms of Vietnamese restaurants, and an area with a good future for our kids. I wanted to do my best to support my kids and give them a good life because I’ve been through all the worst.

How do you think culture is expressed through food? 

Each culture can be identified by their food and food is a way for people to experience what another culture is like. In the Entrance, we have opportunities to experience many different cultures through food; we have Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian and Lebanese. Food is our pride and our identity. We want to share with the world our Vietnamese culture through our food. It’s a good feeling when we see empty plates after a meal and people have released their stresses for the day and enjoyed what our restaurant has to offer.