my name is Thomas when I’m a co-founder
of a South African restaurant group here
in Houston Texas anybody had South
African food before yeah a little bit
okay so my goal here is to tell you
about how my life has changed because I
know what you’re thinking that doesn’t
even sound appetizing right most of you
probably never heard of South African
food yeah I get it
I’ve heard it all no one really knows
what it is but I’m gonna tell you about
how it’s changed my life so in order to
do that I’m gonna talk to a little bit
about my background and shed some light
on how I got to this point so for me I
was born in Chicago I’m an only child
and my family and I’ve lived in Katy
Texas suburb Houston since 1979 and back
in the 80s and 90s there weren’t a lot
of Asian families in Katy you know in my
high school class there were about eight
Asian kids or at least it felt that way
and through no one’s else’s fault but
mine I didn’t have a lot of friends I
was a loner in high school I was it was
really difficult for me to fit in I was
socially awkward I was really shy if I
had a pickup best friend
high school is probably my mom you know
which is not a knock against her she’s
really cool I just had a really hard
time fitting in and because of that I
thought that the answer would be for me
to maybe be surrounded by other agents
that was I was thinking that’s the
solution so after I graduated high
school I went to the University of Texas
at Austin and I had an opportunity to
co-found an Asian fraternity so from
that all of my friends were agent all
that all the parties I went to all the
groups that I joined where Asian
interests and I finally found a place
where I felt like I fit in all right so
growing up my mom would only cook
Vietnamese food so I grew up eating
Vietnamese Chinese Korean when I thought
adventurous I’d eat sushi
my palate was really limited I mean if
you had asked me at that time if I was
okay with eating only Asian food for the
rest of my life I would have told you
yes absolutely and believed it kind of
sad right
in hindsight so I graduated undergrad
and went to law school UT came out
practice for three years and not the age
of 27 after now I have a lot of friends
now if they know to find someplace to
fit got a great education had a
promising career but at the age of 27 I
was feeling really unfulfilled and
unmotivated and and unhappy I mean how
did this happen I thought I had
everything that I wanted but then I
didn’t so fortunately for me I had a
really good friend a fraternity brother
one of my partners Michael Tran he had
actually convinced me to leave law after
I worked so hard to get it and leave law
and together we would find a business
that we could be passionate about and
along the way we met this amazing South
African chef Paul Freeman and together
the three of us would open our very
first restaurant in 2009 now if I had if
I thought introducing a new cuisine no
one’s ever heard of in 2009 in the
suburbs in a city that has over 10,000
restaurants if I thought it was easy I
was delusional it was crazy
nobody wanted I couldn’t pay people to
eat our food the first year it was that
that I literally would be in front of
our restaurant on the weekend begging
people to try our food no one wanted to
hear it it was especially difficult for
me because I’d never worked in a
restaurant before I never opened I never
had my own business either so one of my
favorite stories one of my failures this
is a true story by the way I one day I’d
spent about 20 minutes I met this group
of really sweet older lady and I had
convinced them that we’ve got to try the
suit it’s amazing
they got excited let’s do it this sounds
fantastic they walk into the restaurant
they get seated five minutes later they
get up and they leave how did that
happen
I go over to my server and Marie I said
Amory what what happened I never forget
to let you out of her face she said
Thomas all I did was try to take the
appetizer order and the lady said it
wanted dumpling I said ma’am we don’t
serve dumpling say what kind of rush
what kind of Chinese restaurant doesn’t
serve dumpling right so for me I’m like
is hopeless no one’s gonna give a
about South African fries and especially
not from an Asian guy right really
defeated really angry really discouraged
and the problem wasn’t with the food the
food was actually really good the
problem wasn’t with people the problem
was me I was not able to connect to
people about South African food because
I didn’t really understand what it meant
you know South African food as I learned
you know South Africa’s known as a
rainbow nation and what makes it unique
is it’s there’s so many so much variety
of cuisine and people and cultures that
make up South Africa there’s a Dutch
influence Indian British Portuguese the
surrounding African country it created
this melting part of this diversity of
people and cultures that’s what makes
South Africa so unique and special I
mean much like Houston much like this
amazing country that we live in they
it’s the diversity of people and
cultures that makes it special and it
took me a while to understand that so as
I got into it I started eating more
curry and you know all these different
pies and all these traditional foods
milli pop board biltong really
traditional authentic South African
Indian British foods I started
developing an appetite for more ethnic
cuisine you know started eating Filipino
food Pakistani food
Venezuelan one of my favorite dishes
became goat chops of
things from this wonderful Pakistani
restaurant here in Houston called Agha
my favorite show became Bizarre Foods
with Andrew Zimmern of all things you
know now I’m not gonna lie to you some
of the foods that I tried not crazy
about but we never try it again but but
a lot of the foods that I did try so
good you know there are so many
seasonings and spices and marinades and
flavors that I was like it took me 30
years to try this stuff geez
where have I been I mean I felt like
what we’re doing it totally changed my
perspective on food and then something
unexpected happened to me simply because
I was forcing myself to eat outside of
my comfort zone right for me you know
eating outside of my comfort zone it
eating things that made me feel
uncomfortable
eating things that were even scary to me
it helped burst the this bubble that
I’ve been living in all my life
and I realize that when you live in this
little bubble that you’ve created you
only know what you know you know that
the things that you can taste experience
and you are actually really limited and
you know for me this these last few
years have been a totally different life
for me I’ve been able to accomplish
things that I’ve never thought were even
possible because my mind is now more
open to trying new things and meeting
new people learning about other cultures
and exploring things that are outside of
my comfort zone you know for me I’ve
finally been able to bungee jump like
skydiving I’ve been able to complete two
Ironman triathlons
I’ve run 50 miles for fun I’ve been in a
Chuck Norris commercial I’ve even
started my own nonprofit and it’s all
because I finally realized that there’s
a so much bigger world out there than
what was around me simply because I was
exposing myself to other cultures by
eating their food so
I’m gonna leave you guys with one thing
we’re gonna have a little experiment
okay
we’re I’m I’m gonna help you figure out
whether or not you just wasted ten
minutes of your life listening to me or
whether this is going to have some
positive impact on your life okay so
this is what we’re gonna do right think
about a restaurant that you’ve never
wanted to eat it because of the cuisine
think about a food that you’ve never
wanted to try even if it’s nasty to you
think about what it is and after after
this talk or in this video go out and
try it
just try it for yourself to go out there
and just try it and and understand it
acknowledged that you might totally hate
it you may hate me for making you try it
but what I’m hoping is that it’s going
to be the first step of many for you to
start eating outside of your comfort
zone and start experiencing this world
around us you know I’m convinced that
there’s a lot of unnecessary hate in
this world because people will make
judgments on things and on people and on
cultures without ever really giving it a
chance of really exploring it for
themselves don’t be one of those people
thank you guys
[Applause]
of a South African restaurant group here
in Houston Texas anybody had South
African food before yeah a little bit
okay so my goal here is to tell you
about how my life has changed because I
know what you’re thinking that doesn’t
even sound appetizing right most of you
probably never heard of South African
food yeah I get it
I’ve heard it all no one really knows
what it is but I’m gonna tell you about
how it’s changed my life so in order to
do that I’m gonna talk to a little bit
about my background and shed some light
on how I got to this point so for me I
was born in Chicago I’m an only child
and my family and I’ve lived in Katy
Texas suburb Houston since 1979 and back
in the 80s and 90s there weren’t a lot
of Asian families in Katy you know in my
high school class there were about eight
Asian kids or at least it felt that way
and through no one’s else’s fault but
mine I didn’t have a lot of friends I
was a loner in high school I was it was
really difficult for me to fit in I was
socially awkward I was really shy if I
had a pickup best friend
high school is probably my mom you know
which is not a knock against her she’s
really cool I just had a really hard
time fitting in and because of that I
thought that the answer would be for me
to maybe be surrounded by other agents
that was I was thinking that’s the
solution so after I graduated high
school I went to the University of Texas
at Austin and I had an opportunity to
co-found an Asian fraternity so from
that all of my friends were agent all
that all the parties I went to all the
groups that I joined where Asian
interests and I finally found a place
where I felt like I fit in all right so
growing up my mom would only cook
Vietnamese food so I grew up eating
Vietnamese Chinese Korean when I thought
adventurous I’d eat sushi
my palate was really limited I mean if
you had asked me at that time if I was
okay with eating only Asian food for the
rest of my life I would have told you
yes absolutely and believed it kind of
sad right
in hindsight so I graduated undergrad
and went to law school UT came out
practice for three years and not the age
of 27 after now I have a lot of friends
now if they know to find someplace to
fit got a great education had a
promising career but at the age of 27 I
was feeling really unfulfilled and
unmotivated and and unhappy I mean how
did this happen I thought I had
everything that I wanted but then I
didn’t so fortunately for me I had a
really good friend a fraternity brother
one of my partners Michael Tran he had
actually convinced me to leave law after
I worked so hard to get it and leave law
and together we would find a business
that we could be passionate about and
along the way we met this amazing South
African chef Paul Freeman and together
the three of us would open our very
first restaurant in 2009 now if I had if
I thought introducing a new cuisine no
one’s ever heard of in 2009 in the
suburbs in a city that has over 10,000
restaurants if I thought it was easy I
was delusional it was crazy
nobody wanted I couldn’t pay people to
eat our food the first year it was that
that I literally would be in front of
our restaurant on the weekend begging
people to try our food no one wanted to
hear it it was especially difficult for
me because I’d never worked in a
restaurant before I never opened I never
had my own business either so one of my
favorite stories one of my failures this
is a true story by the way I one day I’d
spent about 20 minutes I met this group
of really sweet older lady and I had
convinced them that we’ve got to try the
suit it’s amazing
they got excited let’s do it this sounds
fantastic they walk into the restaurant
they get seated five minutes later they
get up and they leave how did that
happen
I go over to my server and Marie I said
Amory what what happened I never forget
to let you out of her face she said
Thomas all I did was try to take the
appetizer order and the lady said it
wanted dumpling I said ma’am we don’t
serve dumpling say what kind of rush
what kind of Chinese restaurant doesn’t
serve dumpling right so for me I’m like
is hopeless no one’s gonna give a
about South African fries and especially
not from an Asian guy right really
defeated really angry really discouraged
and the problem wasn’t with the food the
food was actually really good the
problem wasn’t with people the problem
was me I was not able to connect to
people about South African food because
I didn’t really understand what it meant
you know South African food as I learned
you know South Africa’s known as a
rainbow nation and what makes it unique
is it’s there’s so many so much variety
of cuisine and people and cultures that
make up South Africa there’s a Dutch
influence Indian British Portuguese the
surrounding African country it created
this melting part of this diversity of
people and cultures that’s what makes
South Africa so unique and special I
mean much like Houston much like this
amazing country that we live in they
it’s the diversity of people and
cultures that makes it special and it
took me a while to understand that so as
I got into it I started eating more
curry and you know all these different
pies and all these traditional foods
milli pop board biltong really
traditional authentic South African
Indian British foods I started
developing an appetite for more ethnic
cuisine you know started eating Filipino
food Pakistani food
Venezuelan one of my favorite dishes
became goat chops of
things from this wonderful Pakistani
restaurant here in Houston called Agha
my favorite show became Bizarre Foods
with Andrew Zimmern of all things you
know now I’m not gonna lie to you some
of the foods that I tried not crazy
about but we never try it again but but
a lot of the foods that I did try so
good you know there are so many
seasonings and spices and marinades and
flavors that I was like it took me 30
years to try this stuff geez
where have I been I mean I felt like
what we’re doing it totally changed my
perspective on food and then something
unexpected happened to me simply because
I was forcing myself to eat outside of
my comfort zone right for me you know
eating outside of my comfort zone it
eating things that made me feel
uncomfortable
eating things that were even scary to me
it helped burst the this bubble that
I’ve been living in all my life
and I realize that when you live in this
little bubble that you’ve created you
only know what you know you know that
the things that you can taste experience
and you are actually really limited and
you know for me this these last few
years have been a totally different life
for me I’ve been able to accomplish
things that I’ve never thought were even
possible because my mind is now more
open to trying new things and meeting
new people learning about other cultures
and exploring things that are outside of
my comfort zone you know for me I’ve
finally been able to bungee jump like
skydiving I’ve been able to complete two
Ironman triathlons
I’ve run 50 miles for fun I’ve been in a
Chuck Norris commercial I’ve even
started my own nonprofit and it’s all
because I finally realized that there’s
a so much bigger world out there than
what was around me simply because I was
exposing myself to other cultures by
eating their food so
I’m gonna leave you guys with one thing
we’re gonna have a little experiment
okay
we’re I’m I’m gonna help you figure out
whether or not you just wasted ten
minutes of your life listening to me or
whether this is going to have some
positive impact on your life okay so
this is what we’re gonna do right think
about a restaurant that you’ve never
wanted to eat it because of the cuisine
think about a food that you’ve never
wanted to try even if it’s nasty to you
think about what it is and after after
this talk or in this video go out and
try it
just try it for yourself to go out there
and just try it and and understand it
acknowledged that you might totally hate
it you may hate me for making you try it
but what I’m hoping is that it’s going
to be the first step of many for you to
start eating outside of your comfort
zone and start experiencing this world
around us you know I’m convinced that
there’s a lot of unnecessary hate in
this world because people will make
judgments on things and on people and on
cultures without ever really giving it a
chance of really exploring it for
themselves don’t be one of those people
thank you guys
[Applause]
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