Monday, January 30, 7:00 pm
Members $90, guests $115

The clanging of gongs and the pop of thousands of firecrackers announce the arrival of Tet, the seven-day celebration of the New Year in Vietnam. In preparation for the festival, families clean and repaint their houses and decorate them with peach flowers and kumquat trees. In each town, a bamboo cay neu is set in a prominent place and decorated with red paper for good luck. Everyone indulges in sugar-coated fruit, the holiday’s traditional treat. We’ll be celebrating as well at the Beard House this January when Lan Tran Cao of TriBeCa’s VietCafé comes to prepare a New Year’s feast.

Since VietCafé opened in late 2004 next door to Cao’s Gallery Vietnam, it has received attention and acclaim from area critics. VietCafé’s combination of food and art, New York magazine wrote, is “the best way to experience a culture.” New York Resident critic Sheldon Landewehr praised VietCafé’s “excellent” food, which “serves as an introduction to genuine Vietnamese fare or an in-depth exploration of the cuisine for those who already know it.” In the New York Post, Andrea Strong highlighted dishes such as steamed jicama rolls filled with scallions, sweet sausage, and hoisin sauce, and rice crêpes with ground pork, shiitake mushrooms, bean sprouts, and mint.

Although Cao’s career path has been varied, food has always been her touchstone. Born in Hanoi and raised in Saigon, she cooked for her large family and began an apprenticeship at Saigon’s Café Bodard at age 12. While studying for her master’s degree in commerce in Sydney, Australia, Cao helped open two Vietnamese restaurants. Her next move was to the United States, where she worked in finance and technology for many years, ultimately holding the position of chief technology officer for Deutsche Bank. In 2000 she opened Gallery Vietnam, which showcases Vietnamese art and antiques. After she began teaching cooking classes at the gallery on the weekends, she developed a loyal following, which became the inspiration for VietCafé.