For Doris Hồ-Kane, baking means more than just making beautiful desserts. “It’s always been very important for us to pass on our culture,” says the owner and founder of Brooklyn-based Vietnamese-American bakery Bạn Bè. “The easiest way to do that is through food.”
Any day, Bạn Bè’s signature snacks include colorful pandan waffles, mooncakes, Vietnamese bread, her signature butter cookie jars, or thạch rau câu, a fruit jelly that Hồ-Kane makes using the techniques of her grandmother. Sometimes she makes the jelly with agar, a gelatinous substance extracted from seaweed, and layers it up to make rau câu dừa lá dứa, a chewy dessert made with alternating layers of pandan leaves and coconut milk shaped into the shape of a flower. If you’re lucky, you’ll also see her concoction of cà phê thạch rau câu flan, which features layers of jelly and agar jelly infused with Vietnamese coffee, perfectly molded into a doughnut shape.
Hồ-Kane’s desserts are inspired by the culinary heritage of her family, who immigrated to the United States as refugees from Vietnam. “They came to America with nothing. The things my family cherishes are memories, and those memories are all about the desserts my grandmother loved to eat,” she explains. In 1980, the family settled in Dallas, where ingredients were in short supply. “There were no Asian grocery stores at home, but she would make do with what she had.”
Over the years, as the Vietnamese American community grew, specialty grocery stores began importing ingredients like rice paper, palm sugar, fish sauce, and fermented fish paste, all of which the family had always craved. With agar agar on the shelves in Dallas, Hồ-Kane’s mother was finally able to make one of her favorite dishes: thạch rau câu. Agar gives these colorful jellies their unique springy texture.
Hồ-Kane eventually moved to New York, where she attended art school and worked as an archivist and fashion designer. Like her mother and grandmother, she found solace in her new home making her childhood desserts. Drawing on her experiences, Hồ-Kane began developing her own unique dessert recipes, fusing Vietnamese desserts with the Western desserts she loved. “My life as a Vietnamese American is like a hyphen,” she says. “I drew on my experiences growing up as a refugee child and being an American who loves mac and cheese.”
One of her first creations was a series of butter cookies that paid homage to the Royal Danish butter cookies she loved as a child. Her version incorporates some of her favorite Vietnamese flavors, like purple yam, sesame, and tamarind. The cookies were so popular among her friends and family that in 2020, she knew it was time to share her creations with more people. “I’ve been in New York for 21 years, and I’ve never seen a place that specializes in Vietnamese desserts,” Hồ-Kane says. “So I started thinking about opening my own space.” In February 2021, she launched Bạn Bè, which means “friend” in Vietnamese.
Today, the bakery’s menu changes daily, offering sweet and savory options inspired by Hồ-Kane’s upbringing. Her keen eye for aesthetics is reflected in the bright colors in her desserts, but at the heart of it all is Hồ-Kane’s journey to explore her dual identity. Cooking the dishes of her family and ancestors is a healing experience for her, she says, and her work reflects that. “I think everything I do is an extension of myself, and it’s important for me to showcase and spread our stories and voices.”
Hồ-Kane’s work is at the forefront of a nationwide trend for Vietnamese desserts. In this movement, a new generation of chefs are inheriting deep-rooted cultural recipes for the sheer joy of cooking and sharing good food, while also incorporating unique styles. “A lot of people come to the bakery and feel very touched,” Hồ-Kane says. “These are all about memory, nostalgia, and representation. Refugees have always had a rich history of surviving. But I think these Vietnamese-American desserts embody creativity and maybe even represent thriving rather than just surviving.”
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