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The meeting between an Italian chef and the owner of a Vietnamese pho restaurant.
About 10 years ago, while taking her driving lessons, Thu Trang (currently the owner of two restaurants in Thao Dien, Thu Duc City) stopped at a pho restaurant near the school and was impressed by the flavor of the broth. Curious, she expressed her desire to learn how to cook pho, and the owner agreed. So she packed her bags and went to Cu Chi to learn how to cook for about a month, then returned to open her first pho restaurant.
Some time later, through friends, she met Manuel Sponton. Knowing he was having some difficulties in a foreign land, Trang invited him to work as a kitchen assistant, thinking it would be interesting to see a foreigner cooking pho, she recalled with a laugh.
On his first morning at work, Manuel arrived at the restaurant at 4:30 a.m., backpack slung over his shoulder. At that time, the restaurant still used a charcoal stove to cook the broth, and he was responsible for lighting the fire and doing the hardest work. Trang's neighbors often said they had never seen a foreigner as hardworking as him. The diligence and honesty of the foreign chef gradually endeared him to Trang. From just helping out for a few hours in the morning, he stayed longer, and eventually moved into the restaurant. Their relationship developed over time. Naturally, they became companions on the culinary journey of the small restaurant called "Pho Ong Tay" (Foreigner's Pho), a relationship that continues to this day.
Thu Trang and Manuel Sponton have been together for over a decade now.
Pho Ong Tay restaurant is located in Thao Dien district, Ho Chi Minh City, with views directly overlooking the Saigon River and Landmark 81.
Now, after more than a decade together, overcoming difficult periods due to road construction, the COVID-19 pandemic, embankment renovations, etc., that small pho restaurant still lights up every morning. There, amidst the flavors of Vietnam, an Italian chef has found something greater than his profession - a home, love, and a peaceful life in a foreign land.
When an Italian chef cooks Vietnamese pho with love.
Manuel Sponton said that his love for his Vietnamese girlfriend was the biggest motivation for him choosing to stay in this country all these years.
Driven by his passion for exploring world cuisine, in 2015, Manuel chose Vietnam as his next stop on his Asian journey. The moment he landed at Tan Son Nhat airport, amidst his ravenous hunger, the first bowl of pho he ate left a deep impression. When he had the opportunity to cook pho at Ms. Trang's restaurant, he considered it a special connection with pho.
Pho is Manuel's favorite dish, and also the most difficult for this Italian chef to cook.
"Cooking Western dishes only requires a few spices like salt, pepper, butter, and garlic. But when I saw more than a dozen ingredients in the pho pot—cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, onions, ginger…—I was truly bewildered," Manuel said with a laugh.
Since he returned, the kitchen has gradually been simplified, retaining only basic seasonings like salt and pepper. He wants to preserve the natural freshness of the ingredients, instead of relying on MSG or flavor enhancers. Therefore, the restaurant's pho cooking method has also changed: the broth is simmered with beef instead of bones, combined with vegetables for a sweet, non-bitter flavor, and without the need for MSG.
But Manuel didn't stop there; he also created a stir-fried pho with egg dish – a variation of traditional pho with a layer of fried egg on top. At first glance, it's hard to believe it's pho, but the flavors blend surprisingly well: the pho noodles absorb the slightly sour sauce, combined with the rich, creamy, and subtly sweet egg.
This unique stir-fried pho with egg dish was created by chef Manuel.
Meanwhile, the chef shared that language was a major barrier for him in accessing Asian cuisine. Having lived in Ho Chi Minh City for 12 years, he didn't speak much Vietnamese. To this day, he still communicates with the restaurant staff using body language. "I don't understand how they still work so well together, as if they've created a new language that I can't possibly understand," Ms. Trang said with a laugh.
Italian flavors blended with Vietnamese cuisine.
Not content with just pho, Manuel Sponton has incorporated the essence of his homeland's cuisine into his restaurant's menu. With over twenty years of experience as a head chef at numerous 5-star hotels, he has created a menu of over 50 Italian dishes, including salads and pasta.
Among them is risotto, a signature rice dish typically made from short-grain rice that has been air-dried for 3 to 12 months before serving. The rice is cooked with broth, butter, and Parmesan cheese to create a smooth, creamy texture, with the rice grains feeling half-cooked. However, here, the risotto is cooked slightly more than the original version to suit Vietnamese tastes. This is a dish that requires considerable skill, and even Manuel sometimes can't achieve the flavor he desires, and sometimes customers "don't like" this half-cooked rice.
Italian risotto is a dish where the rice grains are cooked until they are half-cooked, separated, and held together by a substance released from the rice during cooking.
This restaurant is popular among the expat community with its menu of nearly 60 types of pasta and a variety of noodle styles, from flat and round to spiral, served with tomato sauce, cream sauce, meat, vegetables, or seafood.
The restaurant offers a variety of Italian pasta types for customers to choose from.
In particular, in their pasta dishes, Manuel uses guanciale – a type of cured pork cheek marinated in Italian salt and spices for six to twelve months – instead of regular bacon. This ingredient is imported directly from Italy by Ms. Trang. “Not many restaurants dare to use this type of meat because of its high cost, but the restaurant accepts it to maintain the most authentic Italian flavor possible,” Ms. Trang explained.
Manuel Sponton with guanciale cured meat - a type of cured meat imported whole from Italy.
However, disagreements were inevitable during their collaboration. As a businesswoman, Trang always had to consider costs and profits, while Manuel, with the habits of a professional chef, prioritized quality and sourcing of ingredients. Sometimes, just because of a type of imported cheese or cold cuts, they would sit down and discuss for a long time to find a balance. But it was precisely these differences that helped refine the restaurant's menu, maintaining Italian culinary standards while also catering to the tastes and budgets of Vietnamese diners.
Located at 16/9 Nguyen Van Huong Street, in the tranquil Thao Dien area, Ong Tay Pho restaurant is a familiar meeting place for many foreign residents in the area. The restaurant boasts a rustic ambiance with iron tables and chairs, and warm yellow light filtering down from a roof covered in vines. From the veranda, diners can see the gently flowing Saigon River and the majestic Landmark 81 building during the day, sparkling with lights at night – a scene that allows them to relax while enjoying their meal.
Landmark 81 shines brightly with lights on the Saigon River bank as night falls.
95% of the customers at the restaurant are foreigners.
Having left his homeland many years ago and worked in various countries, Manuel no longer intends to return to Italy to live. He believes that he may still travel extensively in the future, but only for tourism. The place he wants to settle down for life is Vietnam – the land he considers his second home. “Here I have my girlfriend and my favorite dish, pho. For me, that’s happiness,” Manuel said.
