how many of you guys have watched the TV
show master of none it’s on Netflix and
it’s stars comedian Aziz Ansari so in
one Episode Aziz and his friend want to
get some lunch
but not just any lunch they want to find
the best tacos in the city and so you
can guess what happens next they go on a
mad 45-minute search on Yelp on Google
looking for the best tacos in the city
and they finally find the perfect place
and so they walk on over to the location
and they find out that the tacos are
sold out so even after all of that work
they aren’t even able to joy that food I
love this episode because it reminds me
of a similar quest that I went on when I
first came out to DC to attend business
school at Georgetown and I was missing
my mom’s home cook Hmong food and I
tried to go on a search to find
something that came close to what my mom
makes in terms of something that’s as
great as her food I failed miserably and
that moment though that experience
taught me that showed me a new
trajectory for my life it showed me
where some of the best food can actually
be found and it changed my career and
let me and led me to find foodini
and this story starts with my mom and my
dad so my parents came to this country
is a Hmong refugees after the Vietnam
War from the country of Laos and the
Hmong are an ethnic group from northern
laos known for their farming skills and
also knowledge of the mountains and as
the u.s. pulled out of the region during
the vietnam war the hmong were actually
trained by the CIA to fight a secret war
in Laos and as they pulled out the u.s.
did the Hmong were either left to die or
to flee their homes in search of refugee
camps and
Thailand and my parents they left
everything behind and they made their
way to a refugee camp in Thailand and my
three older sisters at the were just
little babies at the time my mom and my
dad my dad was 25 and my mom was just 21
years old with limited education English
the little money that they had saved up
in the camp they made their way to
resettle in Chicago and so my older
brother and my older sister were born
not too far after and I was the last of
six kids born in Appleton Wisconsin so
my mom’s name is joy and my dad’s name
is Jitsu and they’re the strongest
people that I know they sacrificed so
much to give us a better life and I’m
really excited to share with you guys
that they’re both here tonight they’re
but I didn’t see it I’m very much
growing out because they were working so
hard with multiple jobs hustling like
crazy to support us but my mom still
made time to prepare that home-cooked
Hmong food for us now if you’re
wondering what Hmong food is it’s
usually a typical meal is based on
really really fresh ingredients like
vegetables and bok choy and really fresh
meat made into different dishes like
stir-fry and soups and it’s all made to
be shared family-style
and one of my mom’s special dis of the
dishes are her egg rolls it’s the
perfect blend of glass noodles
vegetables ground pork all lightly fried
to perfection and I grew up eating this
food pretty regularly growing up and I
have my mom to thank for that but
looking back I hate to admit it but I
was actually craving McDonald’s and
Pizza Hut and I hadn’t yet realized how
special her food is and so it’s funny
because you never quite know what you’re
missing right until it’s gone and I
learned that lesson really fast when I
came to school out here in Georgetown so
in 2014 it’s just been three weeks into
going to school and I just missed the
one thing and that was her home cooking
and so I started to just search for
restaurants that made something similar
to Hmong food and I went on Yelp I went
on Google I looked for Thai food Lao
food Vietnamese food and it brought me
to the famous Eden center in Falls
Church Virginia so I went straight there
and I bought some steamed pork and egg
buns and in Hmong we call these golem
bow
and it was so ho so delicious but you
know what’s funny is that it actually
made me miss my mom’s food even more so
when I go back home I always make it a
point to make sure I eat some of my
mom’s home cooking and it cares what I’m
missing when I’m far away but as soon as
I come back to DC
that the feeling of missing her food
starts all over again so I wanted to
figure out why did I miss her food so
much and I began to really kind of
realize the answer to that question you
know pretty funny moment one of my
favorite favorite YouTube channels is
called Wong foo productions and they
created this comedy sketch called what
Asian parents don’t say and it’s a
really fun and thoughtful story about
how in many Asian cultures parents say
one thing but they actually means
something else and so a moment that
really caught me was there’s a clip
where the mother asks her son did you
eat yet and then it switches to what she
meant to say and she says I love you I
wanted to make sure you’re well-fed
because that’s how my parents said I
love you to me and I thought back to my
upbringing and I don’t think my parents
said I love you very much
but I think it’s because they didn’t
really know how to at the time but every
time I come home the first thing my
parents ask me is did you eat yet
and I met with the warm hug and a hot
plate of food on the dinner table and so
us growing up we didn’t have a lot we
lived on a tight budget and the food
that my mom made it was one of the
things she could share and provide for
us
the food she made to nourish us and to
care for us it’s how she expressed her
love to me in the rest of our family and
I don’t think it’s the ingredients that
she used or the notoriety of her food or
her cooking techniques that made her
food great that’s that she cooked from
her heart and that’s how we connect with
each other and that human connection is
what truly makes her food great and I
love what chef Eddie Wong says about
moms
he says moms know more about food than
chefs and I gotta I gotta say I
completely agree because moms are able
to cook not just on the level of making
food taste awesome but they know how to
pull at your heart they know how to give
you that warm and fuzzy feeling in every
bite I think sometimes you look for
great food in the wrong places I went on
a search for the best you know
multicultural foods here in DC not just
to try food were to try different things
but I was trying to cure my homesickness
and I wanted to start by searching for
that human connection instead and as the
son of refugees I know that many
immigrant or refugee communities are
often overlooked or even discarded but I
know differently I know that there are
so many talented individuals in these
communities but just lack opportunities
just like my mom she would have never
dreamed of using her cooking skills
outside of her own kitchen so that’s
where I started and one of the first
people I met was Melissa now Melissa is
known for her loud food and Thai food
and I met her through a mutual friend so
we went over to my friends house and
Melissa
it’s huge spread of Lao food and as we
enjoyed her meal together I asked her
why do you cook and she says I love to
cook because I’m able to share a piece
of myself with others in over the past
two years I’ve met with many different
emerging diaspora chefs and their
families and even though they come here
with very little there’s still one thing
that they still have and that’s their
home recipes and their food that
authentic cultural cuisine that is a
true taste of home and by talking with
him I realized that their families are
just like mine they cook to nourish and
to care for one another and I’m pretty
sure you’re not able to find that type
of food on Google or Yelp so that’s what
I wanted to put a spotlight on people
these incredible people like my mom to
create a space for them to prepare and
sell their foods their home foods or
cultural foods and their culture to
everyone and that’s the inspiration
behind foodini I wanted to build a
business based on connecting people
through food and it’s really cool
because chef melissa was our very first
chef at foodini and since then we’ve
featured and hired chefs from all
different walks of life from majid who
is from Syria to Mina from Iran to Wing
from the Philippines and Eber Lim from
Eritrea and I wanted you to take a
moment and to just imagine yourself
you’re at home and you’re getting this
meal you’re unpacking this delicious
food that you’re about to eat and before
you take your first bite you’re able to
meet the person behind your meal you’re
able to read about their story and learn
about their passions and begin to build
that human connection that personal
connection right there is what brings
the greatness out of food
so the next time you are looking for
that great meal maybe take a different
route forgo the latest meal delivery app
on your phone and search for a human
connection instead I’m pretty sure
you’re gonna find some great food made
by some pretty great people thank you
[Applause] [Music]
show master of none it’s on Netflix and
it’s stars comedian Aziz Ansari so in
one Episode Aziz and his friend want to
get some lunch
but not just any lunch they want to find
the best tacos in the city and so you
can guess what happens next they go on a
mad 45-minute search on Yelp on Google
looking for the best tacos in the city
and they finally find the perfect place
and so they walk on over to the location
and they find out that the tacos are
sold out so even after all of that work
they aren’t even able to joy that food I
love this episode because it reminds me
of a similar quest that I went on when I
first came out to DC to attend business
school at Georgetown and I was missing
my mom’s home cook Hmong food and I
tried to go on a search to find
something that came close to what my mom
makes in terms of something that’s as
great as her food I failed miserably and
that moment though that experience
taught me that showed me a new
trajectory for my life it showed me
where some of the best food can actually
be found and it changed my career and
let me and led me to find foodini
and this story starts with my mom and my
dad so my parents came to this country
is a Hmong refugees after the Vietnam
War from the country of Laos and the
Hmong are an ethnic group from northern
laos known for their farming skills and
also knowledge of the mountains and as
the u.s. pulled out of the region during
the vietnam war the hmong were actually
trained by the CIA to fight a secret war
in Laos and as they pulled out the u.s.
did the Hmong were either left to die or
to flee their homes in search of refugee
camps and
Thailand and my parents they left
everything behind and they made their
way to a refugee camp in Thailand and my
three older sisters at the were just
little babies at the time my mom and my
dad my dad was 25 and my mom was just 21
years old with limited education English
the little money that they had saved up
in the camp they made their way to
resettle in Chicago and so my older
brother and my older sister were born
not too far after and I was the last of
six kids born in Appleton Wisconsin so
my mom’s name is joy and my dad’s name
is Jitsu and they’re the strongest
people that I know they sacrificed so
much to give us a better life and I’m
really excited to share with you guys
that they’re both here tonight they’re
but I didn’t see it I’m very much
growing out because they were working so
hard with multiple jobs hustling like
crazy to support us but my mom still
made time to prepare that home-cooked
Hmong food for us now if you’re
wondering what Hmong food is it’s
usually a typical meal is based on
really really fresh ingredients like
vegetables and bok choy and really fresh
meat made into different dishes like
stir-fry and soups and it’s all made to
be shared family-style
and one of my mom’s special dis of the
dishes are her egg rolls it’s the
perfect blend of glass noodles
vegetables ground pork all lightly fried
to perfection and I grew up eating this
food pretty regularly growing up and I
have my mom to thank for that but
looking back I hate to admit it but I
was actually craving McDonald’s and
Pizza Hut and I hadn’t yet realized how
special her food is and so it’s funny
because you never quite know what you’re
missing right until it’s gone and I
learned that lesson really fast when I
came to school out here in Georgetown so
in 2014 it’s just been three weeks into
going to school and I just missed the
one thing and that was her home cooking
and so I started to just search for
restaurants that made something similar
to Hmong food and I went on Yelp I went
on Google I looked for Thai food Lao
food Vietnamese food and it brought me
to the famous Eden center in Falls
Church Virginia so I went straight there
and I bought some steamed pork and egg
buns and in Hmong we call these golem
bow
and it was so ho so delicious but you
know what’s funny is that it actually
made me miss my mom’s food even more so
when I go back home I always make it a
point to make sure I eat some of my
mom’s home cooking and it cares what I’m
missing when I’m far away but as soon as
I come back to DC
that the feeling of missing her food
starts all over again so I wanted to
figure out why did I miss her food so
much and I began to really kind of
realize the answer to that question you
know pretty funny moment one of my
favorite favorite YouTube channels is
called Wong foo productions and they
created this comedy sketch called what
Asian parents don’t say and it’s a
really fun and thoughtful story about
how in many Asian cultures parents say
one thing but they actually means
something else and so a moment that
really caught me was there’s a clip
where the mother asks her son did you
eat yet and then it switches to what she
meant to say and she says I love you I
wanted to make sure you’re well-fed
because that’s how my parents said I
love you to me and I thought back to my
upbringing and I don’t think my parents
said I love you very much
but I think it’s because they didn’t
really know how to at the time but every
time I come home the first thing my
parents ask me is did you eat yet
and I met with the warm hug and a hot
plate of food on the dinner table and so
us growing up we didn’t have a lot we
lived on a tight budget and the food
that my mom made it was one of the
things she could share and provide for
us
the food she made to nourish us and to
care for us it’s how she expressed her
love to me in the rest of our family and
I don’t think it’s the ingredients that
she used or the notoriety of her food or
her cooking techniques that made her
food great that’s that she cooked from
her heart and that’s how we connect with
each other and that human connection is
what truly makes her food great and I
love what chef Eddie Wong says about
moms
he says moms know more about food than
chefs and I gotta I gotta say I
completely agree because moms are able
to cook not just on the level of making
food taste awesome but they know how to
pull at your heart they know how to give
you that warm and fuzzy feeling in every
bite I think sometimes you look for
great food in the wrong places I went on
a search for the best you know
multicultural foods here in DC not just
to try food were to try different things
but I was trying to cure my homesickness
and I wanted to start by searching for
that human connection instead and as the
son of refugees I know that many
immigrant or refugee communities are
often overlooked or even discarded but I
know differently I know that there are
so many talented individuals in these
communities but just lack opportunities
just like my mom she would have never
dreamed of using her cooking skills
outside of her own kitchen so that’s
where I started and one of the first
people I met was Melissa now Melissa is
known for her loud food and Thai food
and I met her through a mutual friend so
we went over to my friends house and
Melissa
it’s huge spread of Lao food and as we
enjoyed her meal together I asked her
why do you cook and she says I love to
cook because I’m able to share a piece
of myself with others in over the past
two years I’ve met with many different
emerging diaspora chefs and their
families and even though they come here
with very little there’s still one thing
that they still have and that’s their
home recipes and their food that
authentic cultural cuisine that is a
true taste of home and by talking with
him I realized that their families are
just like mine they cook to nourish and
to care for one another and I’m pretty
sure you’re not able to find that type
of food on Google or Yelp so that’s what
I wanted to put a spotlight on people
these incredible people like my mom to
create a space for them to prepare and
sell their foods their home foods or
cultural foods and their culture to
everyone and that’s the inspiration
behind foodini I wanted to build a
business based on connecting people
through food and it’s really cool
because chef melissa was our very first
chef at foodini and since then we’ve
featured and hired chefs from all
different walks of life from majid who
is from Syria to Mina from Iran to Wing
from the Philippines and Eber Lim from
Eritrea and I wanted you to take a
moment and to just imagine yourself
you’re at home and you’re getting this
meal you’re unpacking this delicious
food that you’re about to eat and before
you take your first bite you’re able to
meet the person behind your meal you’re
able to read about their story and learn
about their passions and begin to build
that human connection that personal
connection right there is what brings
the greatness out of food
so the next time you are looking for
that great meal maybe take a different
route forgo the latest meal delivery app
on your phone and search for a human
connection instead I’m pretty sure
you’re gonna find some great food made
by some pretty great people thank you
[Applause] [Music]
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