Hmong have a rich history in the Central Valley. Over 80,000 call the region their home, with vibrant communities in Fresno, ...

You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email. Yia Vang never wanted to be a chef. His siblings received postgraduate degrees, while Vang just ...

Khushbu Shah is a writer and contributing editor for Food & Wine, having previously been the magazine’s restaurant editor. Her debut cookbook, AMRIKAN: 125 Recipes from the Indian American Diaspora ...

Yia Vang has a set of classic stories he loves to tell. He's just told me the one about the guy who comes up after a Hmong cooking demonstration, cups Vang's big right hand in both of his, looks up ...

Chef Yia Vang was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and moved with his family to the U.S. when he was 5. They eventually settled in Minnesota, where his family was part of the large Hmong community ...

After his family fled Laos for America, Yia Vang was at first embarrassed by his family's home cooking. Then he learned to embrace it, and found... Yia Vang grew up in a family of storytellers. When ...

Our 2025 Restaurant of the Year served its first dinner several months after its 2024 opening, said Raphael Brion in Food & Wine, but it “has always seamlessly blended Diane Moua’s experience as a ...

“I believe that Hmong food isn’t a type of food, but it’s a philosophy of food,” says chef Yia Vang of Vinai in Minneapolis. “It’s a way of thinking about food. It tells the story of our people.” The ...

When we recently met chef Yia Vang at Hmong Village Shopping Center in St. Paul for an interview, our profile story (see related story) morphed into a second story we weren’t expecting. We asked what ...

This video follows the preparation of traditional Hmong food in Laos, filmed in a setting that creates an immediate cultural contrast: cooking inside an old American missile shell. The focus stays on ...

In the mountains of Laos, we discovered a truly surreal sight - locals cooking traditional Hmong food inside the shell of an old American missile. This video explores the creative and resourceful ...

Yia Vang grew up in a family of storytellers. When he was a child, his father used to regale him and his six siblings with war stories from his native Laos. His mother would read verses from the Bible ...