Pastry chef Le Tran Thien Hanh at The Monkey Gallery Dining & Dessert Bar in HCM City has been elevating French desserts for the past six years. She has offered unique flavors to dessert dishes by switching from classic European ingredients to Vietnamese ones. 

Meanwhile, after 15 years of living and working in Vietnam, CEO of Lacàph Espresso Bar Timen Swijtink, said that the taste of Vietnamese coffee has appeared in many parts of the world. However, Vietnamese farmers need to focus on the quality of raw beans instead of yield. Thus, the role and value of Vietnamese coffee in the field of food and beverage service industry (F&B) will be enhanced. 

“Many Vietnamese restaurants have appeared in Tokyo, New York or Amsterdam. What needs to be done is to attract tourists to Vietnam, let them enjoy delicious coffee, specialty coffee, and create curiosity of international guests through cuisine," he said.

Thien Hanh and Timen Swijtink's interest in F&B shows the great potential of domestic cuisine. Earlier this year, the famous US travel site Travel and Leisure honored Vietnam as Asia's best culinary destination in the Bucket List Places in Asia 2023. Statistics from iPOS estimates that Vietnam has about 338,600 restaurants/cafés.

The development of the domestic culinary field entails the need to diversify ingredients and exchange quality products from other countries.

For example, the first Bread Festival in Ho Chi Minh City last weekend attracted 120 restaurants, bakeries, domestic and foreign suppliers .

At the "Taste of Korea" week on March 16-29 at MM system, a rich source of food from South Korea was introduced to Vietnamese customers, aiming to promote cultural and culinary exchange between the two countries.

For F&B, ingredients and culinary products exchanged between countries is also increasingly popular. For example, every month, New Zealand manufacturer SHOTT Beverages provides about 3,000 bottles (1 liter) of concentrated fruit juice and coffee syrup to restaurants, hotels and bars in Vietnam. 

Meanwhile, Fonterra, one of the world's largest dairy food manufacturers, has expanded its list of ingredients to Vietnam such as Anchor dairy products.

Sanford, a large and long-standing New Zealand seafood company, has exported Vietnam fresh salmon and lobster of sustainable origin from the Pacific Ocean and Highford offers a wide range of lamb, beef.

New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam Tredene Cherie Dobson said the country's premium ingredients combined with Vietnam's rich and traditional cuisine will bring domestic cuisine to new heights.

"With a unique taste and feel, I believe food ingredients from New Zealand will create greater Vietnamese dishes that are already famous," she said.

Tran Chung