Latest / The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen / 480 - Can You Scale Culture Without Losing Authenticity? - Viet Nguyen

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480 - Can You Scale Culture Without Losing Authenticity? - Viet Nguyen · The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen

0:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the Vietnamese podcast.
0:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Today, I am at Qua to restaurant here in Orange County in Little Sagan, and I am joined by Key Concepts Founder.
0:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Viet, welcome to the Vietnamese podcast today.
0:13
[SPEAKER_02]: very honoured to be here, you know, you see again.
0:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, good to see you.
0:16
[SPEAKER_02]: You've been on a few times and every time it's, um, it's a wild ride with you.
0:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And we started today talking about, uh, you know, just our private conversations we're talking about.
0:26
[SPEAKER_02]: The changing landscape of the economy, uh, as it relates to the US and to China,
0:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And I sometimes feel pessimistic about labor and the direction of young people in the world today.
0:45
[SPEAKER_02]: But before we get to all of this stuff, I think we're going to get to this recognition of your James Beard, semi-finalists award and congratulations for even finding yourself in the James Beard ecosystem.
1:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, that was very surprising to me to be honest for the last 23 years putting my hat down to work.
1:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I have heard about James Beer.
1:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard about all of the accolades.
1:14
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, obviously most people would know in Michelin.
1:17
[SPEAKER_00]: But I've heard about all of these arcades.
1:18
[SPEAKER_00]: So what I never really brought myself to fully understand.
1:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was very funny because that morning when I woke up, I see a lot of texts from friends, from family that will see register call and let's say, do you know that you know and it to James Beard?
1:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, oh my god, I'm, you know, very thankful and on that.
1:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the moment I hung up the call, I was like, okay, let's just look what James was all about.
1:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So I actually did not fully understand, I didn't grasp the concept.
1:50
[SPEAKER_00]: So I went on Google and I searched for James beer and took me the whole day to really fully understand how big of us.
1:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it was also like, which category, right?
2:00
[SPEAKER_00]: But the category I was in was Best Chef, California, which is.
2:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, one of the, and this is for NEP, the restaurant, one of the, one of the, yeah, NEP Cafe, one of the restaurants that very surprised.
2:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
2:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
2:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah.
2:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah.
2:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So after, um, that whole day toward the end of the day, I was like, okay, this is actually pretty big, you know, and, and not any other chef in California, uh, Vietnamese chef I've ever gotten this before.
2:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, all right.
2:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, so I finally, this is a big deal.
2:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
2:28
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when I, I fully grasp a concept and, you know, thinking my team, um,
2:33
[SPEAKER_00]: and it just kind of show the dedication of the team and the people that got me here.
2:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this kind of validates.
2:46
[SPEAKER_00]: this country in a sense where if you put your head down you work really hard and the people to help you get there, you know like this is not my win, right?
2:57
[SPEAKER_00]: This is to show that you know all of the people to trust it, my vision and help me get here and this all their work, they're doing the real work every day, right, and just here you know, gluing them together as a team, you know, so this is what I'm
3:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's inspiring because I've been at NEP and you've actually opened up your doors at NEP for our film events and, you know, for the Vitt International Film Festival at Vala.
3:23
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's inspiring to see James Beard put you on the map with this.
3:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's also a win for a little segment.
3:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, you know, being that category is one thing.
3:39
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the highest category, but then you also putting, you know, this is Nick Cafe, but they pick and found out, right?
3:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of everybody, we're just good.
3:48
[SPEAKER_00]: So now we know, found out, get one, right?
3:51
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a more congratulation team.
3:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Congratulations, thank you.
3:55
[SPEAKER_02]: We're sitting today at your newest restaurant.
3:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
3:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
3:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I'd love to hear how you've,
4:02
[SPEAKER_02]: developed into this concept because it's a Chinese concept.
4:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're right in the heart of Little Sagan, and to have a Chinese restaurant led by you, which your name is Viet.
4:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and to have a Chinese restaurant concept here.
4:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's a beautiful space as people can see.
4:20
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a gorgeous restaurant.
4:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it is, the build out on this one, the total investment is the way exceeding a million dollars.
4:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's really, really a big investment.
4:31
[SPEAKER_00]: people ask us all the time to like why you're here in the little middle of a little sion, you know, spending this much money, but in this plaza alone, like we have spent way more than, you know, as close to $20 million as possible, total investment of all over the restaurant that we have in here.
4:49
[SPEAKER_00]: But that kind of speaks to our commitment to the community, whereas I think
4:57
[SPEAKER_00]: As investment, we talked a little bit about private conversation.
5:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Investment does not come into little say on anymore.
5:03
[SPEAKER_00]: But people would have made money here and now start to invest.
5:05
[SPEAKER_00]: That was aware.
5:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So how do we pull investment back into little say on it?
5:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And I follow to the sting philosophies.
5:16
[SPEAKER_00]: The first one would be, obviously, you're going to get back to,
5:21
[SPEAKER_00]: the place or the people or the community that get you here.
5:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, I mean, with that little segment, I wouldn't be here today.
5:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I have to somewhat feel obligated to give back and to stay back here and why everybody's venturing out, you know, if everyone is investing elsewhere, who's going to be investing here.
5:46
[SPEAKER_00]: but we cannot forget that Vietnamese people in the US is very, very successful.
5:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's also 2.2 million of us that live in the US, and this is the capital of it, right?
6:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And not to say that in the next 25 years or so, the WHO already envisioned Vietnam would be the top three,
6:09
[SPEAKER_00]: GDP country in Southeast Asia.
6:13
[SPEAKER_00]: The largest top 10 economy in Asia in the next 25 years.
6:18
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a hundred million people there.
6:20
[SPEAKER_00]: The economy right now is about 420 million dollars GDP or so.
6:26
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to get to 3 trillion by the year 2050, 550.50.
6:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So knowing that that country are going to 6x the GDP in the next 25 years.
6:36
[SPEAKER_00]: What are we doing here?
6:37
[SPEAKER_00]: What are we doing?
6:38
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's just that, but like.
6:41
[SPEAKER_00]: They are looking to invest elsewhere.
6:44
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not going to just hold a VND forever.
6:46
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to want to hold USD.
6:48
[SPEAKER_00]: They want to be investing in all of the world, obviously.
6:52
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think one of the safest way for them to park all of the asset in the future is also Europe, in the euro and in the US.
7:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And so having
7:03
[SPEAKER_00]: a capital of the largest Vietnamese group outside of Vietnam, being very strong and prosperous, is a way to go.
7:12
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you keep this going when it's clearly on a downtrend?
7:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And Vietnam is on an up swing, right?
7:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And the temptation for, I think business people is to say,
7:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Vietnam's growing, you know, by 2045, you know, currently throw them once to make it like blow past Singapore, right?
7:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
7:35
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you, how do you, as a business owner, with multiple restaurants, with the restaurant group so strong in Little Saigon, say, I'm going to stay here and I'm going to build it until they bring the VND to invest here.
7:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Like how do you have the courage to to maintain that strength to
7:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, I followed the different philosophies there, but though the first one I Ray explained is that we need to be the bridge, right?
8:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And if anybody don't want to come here and invest, you know, there has to be a company that is trusted, that is, you know, publicly, you know, um,
8:14
[SPEAKER_00]: being reviewed often and having a name in a community.
8:18
[SPEAKER_00]: To bring it back, let's bring it back to this breadth of Chinese cuisine.
8:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And why you made that?
8:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'll see that too.
8:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, would love to hear why you chose to bring this beautiful restaurant that's based in Chinese cuisine here in to Little Saigon.
8:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it has, it has a personal story for me because
8:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Volvo last name came to Vietnam in the eighth century, long time ago, and obviously they landed in high fall and had you in that area, and they created that low.
8:54
[SPEAKER_00]: That's technically one of the first few children in Vietnam.
8:58
[SPEAKER_00]: The Minhung Group, right?
9:00
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the long Chinese people are called.
9:03
[SPEAKER_00]: But then specifically, if you have a last name for Volvo, that's Chinese.
9:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, from the 8th century, they kind of like there and, you know, for, for, for, for centuries, they live there and so my grandma already has a, a Chinese last name.
9:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So take this to technically Chinese.
9:26
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't really mean this right.
9:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And obviously after night in 1975, she moved to the south and, um,
9:36
[SPEAKER_00]: My dad grew up there, and I just happened to grow up in the largest Chinese quarter Chilong.
9:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
9:42
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's Chilong.
9:43
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just like where it's kind of sprung.
9:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
9:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
9:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's actually covered.
9:47
[SPEAKER_00]: This is five, it's just six.
9:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
9:48
[SPEAKER_00]: 10 and 11.
9:50
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's pretty big.
9:52
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people didn't know, but, you know, at that time, the Chinese Quarter, which is sort for Quah, Chinese Quarter, China Town, or Quah is also overcome, but, you know, so I grew up in District 11.
10:08
[SPEAKER_00]: but I go to school in district five.
10:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and I kind of hang out in that area.
10:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, grow up, I eat more Chinese food than 90, Vietnamese food.
10:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So, it's just like a very personal thing for me.
10:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And I always think, you know, I wanted to do Chinese.
10:26
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's just the hardest cuisine for us.
10:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And so from our point of view in the human history, if you really look back into all the cuisines, there's only a few that really define who we are.
10:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And Chinese is the longest running, right?
10:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Over 4,000 years old Scripture being found.
10:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So longest running in human history.
10:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I thought that was very important.
10:52
[SPEAKER_00]: for us to understand and master.
10:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And people keep asking out of the time, like, why do you keep doing all random cuisines?
10:59
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not a random, we pick them for a reason.
11:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
11:02
[SPEAKER_00]: For Western side, the Italian cuisine has been the bedrock of the Western civilization.
11:17
[SPEAKER_00]: The Italian introduced wine, cheese making, all of the pastas.
11:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's particularly all of the Western cuisine that you know about it.
11:25
[SPEAKER_00]: The French, later on, after the revolutions are really poor, so they're like, all right, we're going to create using the brigade system, which will train chef that way in a military side of things.
11:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to take all the knowledge of the Italian cuisine and we spread across Europe, right?
11:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the French really master it and standardize it.
11:45
[SPEAKER_00]: As Scott Fierre was the guy who really standardized it and really take it and bring it to the world.
11:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And then on the eastern side, obviously in Chinese seasons along it's running, and then the Japanese really master.
12:01
[SPEAKER_00]: If you really look at all the cuisine that we have, you'll see that, right?
12:04
[SPEAKER_00]: It all in, you get the Chinese, you got French, and you got the Japanese, we picked those four for a reason, because understand those four, you got the bedrock of everything.
12:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the bedrock of whole entire human civilization.
12:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And from there, then you can go into more distinct cuisines and then you learn more about it.
12:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the next frontier for us, probably going to be Indian, right?
12:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Understand.
12:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So even before understanding like Thai or Cambodian on it, you have to understand India with that.
12:36
[SPEAKER_00]: So China is what we're doing right now.
12:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're learning it, but once you understand India, then you understand the trade routes, right?
12:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
12:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And all of the countries in the middle and how it developed.
12:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
12:47
[SPEAKER_00]: all of their cuisine and so little known facts to most people like you know what is the number one restaurant group in the U.S. and a lot of people would say McDonald's McDonald has the most I think it's like 13 or 20 something thousand restaurants but Panda Express not
13:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, restaurant in a whole Chinese Chinese cuisine.
13:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
13:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Chinese cuisine is actually D number one.
13:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know that ramen.
13:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
13:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Dominate the whole entire U.S.
13:27
[SPEAKER_00]: The total amount of restaurant including panes for us including pick up sticks and including all of the Chinese restaurant.
13:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of people don't really fully understand this.
13:37
[SPEAKER_00]: But when we say that Dintai Feng is one of the most
13:46
[SPEAKER_00]: of pop.
13:48
[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't get there by mistake.
13:51
[SPEAKER_00]: For the last century or so, Chinese people has layout of groundwork.
13:58
[SPEAKER_00]: across US.
13:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Everywhere you go, people will know what Chinese cuisine is.
14:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Some might never try sushi before, but I have tried Chinese.
14:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's the fun facts about it.
14:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And so as Chinese being the number one, I would say minority cuisine in the US.
14:18
[SPEAKER_00]: outperforming Italian and make it outperforming all of them.
14:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
14:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not know.
14:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
14:24
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a little known.
14:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
14:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
14:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So, but that's not why we do that.
14:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you say Chinese food is the hardest food?
14:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, first of all, it has over 60 different regional cuisine.
14:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So the variety is immense, and they have like 1.5 billion people out there, and it's a crazy to really think about it, but every single region is different.
14:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And they have eight mains, right?
14:58
[SPEAKER_00]: They have eight main cuisines, which right now we're trying to capture them all, but really they have to over 60 plus.
15:06
[SPEAKER_00]: regional cuisine.
15:07
[SPEAKER_00]: How much do we have?
15:08
[SPEAKER_00]: We have like three.
15:10
[SPEAKER_00]: North, middle, and southern.
15:12
[SPEAKER_00]: We're already struggle with like representing them.
15:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And so...
15:16
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, representing a culture like that, it's very difficult, and that's why right now I think most of us do do not understand what it requires all about.
15:26
[SPEAKER_00]: We're doing our self-opening.
15:28
[SPEAKER_00]: We're just going to take a while for us to kind of get through this self-opening, and we're going to reintroduce ourselves into the grand opening, and then have people to come in and really fully understand what we're trying to do.
15:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is massive.
15:40
[SPEAKER_00]: This is an experiment.
15:41
[SPEAKER_00]: It is an experiment.
15:42
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a huge concept.
15:43
[SPEAKER_00]: It is
15:44
[SPEAKER_00]: a whole entire experiment, every single concept has been an experiment, yeah, you really think about it.
15:50
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's the way we go back to Chinese food and how it relates to
15:57
[SPEAKER_02]: the direction, right?
15:58
[SPEAKER_02]: There's so many different, like we said, different lanes, but how do you vote?
16:02
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you, in your mind, how do you decide on what dishes that you're going to include?
16:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't, don't.
16:07
[SPEAKER_00]: The customer do decide.
16:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So you, you push out as much as you could.
16:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
16:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Customer will vote with their dollars.
16:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you just go back to the
16:20
[SPEAKER_00]: you'll double down on a high seller and you keep running your marketing on the top sellers.
16:26
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
16:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So empirically on data and numbers, what are the top cuisine Chinese wise?
16:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, right now, we don't do that for a cuisine, because we do mix and match some of the cuisines in some of the dishes, sometimes.
16:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So I still think people still so relating to Cantonese and Vietnamese people as they grow up, eating a lot of Cantonese.
16:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I grew up eating Cantonese, so I'm always leaning toward Cantonese.
16:57
[SPEAKER_00]: But having a sprinkle of my laugh flavor, I can see one in a,
17:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, challenging styles, uh, stuff in their some way shape of form is also helpful and, you know, kind of open people palate.
17:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
17:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I was just going to say, there's a fine line between, um, knowing that, like, Sichuan's kind of hard to eat.
17:21
[SPEAKER_02]: If you think about it.
17:21
[SPEAKER_02]: It's really spicy.
17:22
[SPEAKER_02]: There's some very specific flavors with like peppercorn, right?
17:26
[SPEAKER_02]: But Cantonese is like very accessible for all these, right?
17:29
[SPEAKER_02]: But then at what point do you say I'm going to be inventive and I'm going to introduce to the Vietnamese community or to, you know, the mass general people, I'm going to try to make certain flavors pop and you're going to like have to, you're going to have to try this.
17:44
[SPEAKER_02]: But then you're like sacrificing data.
17:47
[SPEAKER_02]: You know that Cantonese is going to sell more.
17:49
[SPEAKER_02]: It's more popular.
17:51
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you balance the the the the trajectory of the business?
17:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think it's kind of warrant to use that word to courageous, right?
18:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So you just have to have to courage to do it.
18:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
18:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Putting your business I risked, obviously, right?
18:08
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think people trust us enough to know that yes, it's risky that you're trying different things on a menu.
18:16
[SPEAKER_00]: But more likely than not, they can enjoy it.
18:19
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the same with last time you brought a friend over and we technically throw everything at you.
18:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Not knowing what you're telling your crew that I was like, yeah, we're not knowing which one you're going to enjoy.
18:30
[SPEAKER_00]: But I really think if you just keep an open mind, I think most of the food that we bring out, you're not going to have a bad time.
18:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
18:38
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we put a lot of thoughts into all of them and just have to encourage us to just keep trying.
18:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think that's important.
18:46
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a company out in the US called the Hills Stone Group.
18:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know it?
18:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, I've heard of them.
18:53
[SPEAKER_02]: OK.
18:53
[SPEAKER_02]: So they're in charge for like Houston's the statehouse.
18:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And they do everything right.
18:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And when I think about the version of the Vietnamese Hills Stone Group, I think of key concepts.
19:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Because you walk into it and you just know, the branding is very subtle.
19:09
[SPEAKER_02]: But you can see the genetic
19:12
[SPEAKER_02]: uh, tie-in of all the places that you do, key-clomp- Yeah, um, key-caf-e-e-e-ni-nap-qua- They all have this sort of like, you know, it's highly stylized.
19:24
[SPEAKER_02]: The food is always consistent.
19:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just like what they host some group.
19:28
[SPEAKER_02]: It's, there's a vision there, and the services are, you know, you've elevated the services here in, in, in, in little segment.
19:35
[SPEAKER_00]: The toughest part for us is that, you know, um, with those groups, they always choose, um,
19:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, if they go to Exciting California, they're probably going to just go L.A. Yeah.
19:48
[SPEAKER_00]: That the biggest challenge for me, knowing for a fact that any of our restaurant, if we didn't L.A, we'd do much better.
19:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if I just do, that's why like just outside of here, I'll just tell you right now, Boena Park, or right, we outperform this whole entire area.
20:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Really?
20:05
[SPEAKER_02]: That's heartbreaking.
20:07
[SPEAKER_00]: That's heartbreaking and heartbreaking.
20:08
[SPEAKER_00]: It's heartbreaking and no, knowing for a fact that if we just do this anywhere else, we do much better.
20:16
[SPEAKER_00]: But I still choose to do it here.
20:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I'm so connected to this community and I want to contribute and I want to do more, we don't have enough sales here.
20:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, oh boy, wow.
20:27
[SPEAKER_00]: But Kika, Kika face seems to be just popping up every time I go in.
20:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, of course.
20:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, some concept would be that's easier approach, because the price point is lower, right?
20:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, to go to Kika, coffee house, you know, I got to spend more than 10 bucks in driving.
20:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, most people feel more comfortable coming here, though, however, they have to spend a little bit more art, e-night, but the community, though.
20:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Once they cash on to it, they cash on to it.
20:55
[SPEAKER_00]: E9 across the street there, to two years to catch up.
21:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I still have faith in this community to pull, right?
21:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And I still have faith that we would eventually figure it out.
21:11
[SPEAKER_00]: and people will come.
21:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And once they know how we do things here and how important it is for them to support, they will.
21:22
[SPEAKER_00]: For like this restaurant, particularly, we still haven't touched catering.
21:26
[SPEAKER_00]: We still haven't touched events.
21:28
[SPEAKER_00]: We still haven't touched, you know, meal services, which is like mental box services and meal prevalence.
21:34
[SPEAKER_00]: There will be a lot more sails to be made.
21:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're confident in the fact that it's only to have the infrastructure, sails are going to come.
21:45
[SPEAKER_00]: But first we have to do the right thing.
21:46
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to do great good food and have the best experience.
21:52
[SPEAKER_00]: We still don't think we are there yet, because we're still in self-opening period.
21:57
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll get there.
21:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Where do you get the stamina to keep all of this going?
22:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, a lot of people ask me, oh, we have a virtualization on James Beard, you know, like, how did you get here and, you know, how did you create a company that right now, like, we we're going to analyze at a hundred million dollars this year, right?
22:20
[SPEAKER_00]: But we'll close it.
22:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
22:23
[SPEAKER_00]: How did you create a hundred million dollars company?
22:26
[SPEAKER_00]: An answer is one step at a time.
22:35
[SPEAKER_00]: go straight to work.
22:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Last I didn't sleep until three, right?
22:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Still writing reports, still writing, playing for the future, doing a lot of analysis.
22:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing a lot more strategies now.
22:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Still talking with my partners, everyone on the other side of the globe.
23:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, work up in the morning obviously come here and then have meeting after this and I'm probably going to work on it until closing and go home.
23:09
[SPEAKER_00]: 15, 16 hours a day is a very normal.
23:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Seven days a week and just the last 23 years.
23:18
[SPEAKER_00]: So essentially, if you ask,
23:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, yeah, I mean, if you wanted to give up all of the parties, you know, while you're looking at, like, I'm 39, it's like, I just start to go out to see your travel this year, I think.
23:33
[SPEAKER_00]: For the last 39 years of my life, it has always been saying no to friends to parties, too.
23:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you're always in the kitchen.
23:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I've always sent down on this, or I'm doing research somewhere.
23:49
[SPEAKER_00]: not to have a lot of friends choosing, not to go to parties, not choosing, not to go to anything fun and just putting my head down every single day, 23 years straight.
24:02
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it's going to take.
24:04
[SPEAKER_00]: So one step at a time.
24:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to introduce this concept to my audience.
24:10
[SPEAKER_02]: You and I, we talk about creating, you know, a series of podcasts together.
24:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, whether it's politics, whether it's AI, whether it's food, oh, yeah.
24:20
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I want to, I really want to kickstart this idea together with you.
24:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And even if it's just a short, uh, sub-series, yeah.
24:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Littersegan, and of Vietnam as a country.
24:34
[SPEAKER_00]: come together.
24:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
24:37
[SPEAKER_00]: We cannot forget the past.
24:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And you have to honor the past.
24:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
24:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And you have to really acknowledge what Vietnamese people are living in the US.
24:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Have to go through.
24:50
[SPEAKER_00]: But because of that, because you honor that past, I want to be the connecting peace where I say, we understand the past and we want to support you.
25:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And all of those people will guess what age you're at right now.
25:04
[SPEAKER_00]: They're in their 70s and 80s.
25:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to see them hold this thing with them forever.
25:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I want.
25:14
[SPEAKER_00]: the next few years or the last 10, the next 10 years.
25:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us, let us be there for you.
25:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us, like, understand your pain.
25:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And I, I don't want it, I don't want it.
25:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to honor it, but I want to be there for you.
25:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to take care of you.
25:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be able to, all of our kids to come together.
25:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Our parents have sacrificed so much.
25:35
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to transfer that wealth to you.
25:38
[SPEAKER_00]: take care of them.
25:39
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we take care of them?
25:40
[SPEAKER_00]: There's so many other things.
25:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you're not going to be cooking for them three times a day.
25:45
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not going to be changing their diapers.
25:47
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to have some sort of social support for all of these people that paved the way that built little sagoan.
25:56
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, these are, you know, gay, we call it a gay go-toe, right?
25:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, there's people that built roots.
26:02
[SPEAKER_00]: There, there are the backbone of this community, and now they're getting older, and yes, I mean, you're going to have a lot of them that very well-off, and okay, I'm not just talking about those people, but I'm not...
26:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, those two, but they're going to be people not going to have to catch around, you know, have to do with cancer on their own.
26:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, where are those people?
26:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be there for those people.
26:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know that our country, 100 million people of us, oversee, and then the two million people of us here, you know, you know, 20s and 30s and 40s, that we want to be there for them.
26:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell them that everything is going to be okay and love Trump's hate.
26:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree.
26:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
26:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the world.
26:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to see that, not festival.
26:57
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to see the out people coming together.
27:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Coming together for the first time.
27:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
27:03
[SPEAKER_00]: United.
27:04
[SPEAKER_00]: United.
27:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
27:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And as you can see, all the young kids here, they already forgot about, they already flying back to Vietnam and having fun.
27:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
27:10
[SPEAKER_00]: They love it there.
27:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
27:12
[SPEAKER_00]: What's stopping us from bringing out people together, and I strongly believe that we have to bring up people together one way of shape or form, and that's my life mission.
27:21
[SPEAKER_00]: My life mission is bringing the Vietnamese people from Vietnam and the people out here and around a globe together.
27:29
[SPEAKER_00]: We share that machine for, yeah, I'm not shameful to put it out there and tell people that yes, I'm a crazy romantic, you know, I have a dream to sort of guy, I'm still dreaming every day, and I, I, I, I strongly believe that we have to do it.
27:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, if not us then who have not now done when?
27:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Victor.
27:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Magnumite.
27:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Have a new year.
27:57
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going into the year of the horse.
27:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And I appreciate you sitting and spending time with me.
28:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And hopefully this next year we can create a sub series together.
28:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, perhaps all this discussion about bridging and all this discussion about how we build.
28:13
[SPEAKER_02]: How we find similarities even in the political world of like conservatives and liberals and then Vietnam versus Vietnamese American to ask for all of it needs to come together.
28:23
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a crazy thing that we didn't talk about and hopefully we have a series talking about just specific about AIHA I think.
28:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, the whole entire world is still revolving around China and the West, which is the US and Europe.
28:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Once we hit HAI first, I'll tell you this right now, try your very best not to die in the next 10 years.
29:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you can just try to live, try to, like, very best to survive in, like, five to ten years.
29:07
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to make it.
29:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
29:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I strongly believe cancer research is going to be solved.
29:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Protein folding is already, the alpha fold is already proving that we're going to solve the proteins, you know, all of that and protein folding and that would help, you know, longevity of things and people are going to, you know, maybe straighten or, you know, really stopping the shorten of the chromosomes.
29:35
[SPEAKER_00]: really get people to get past 100 or even 150 years.
29:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I strongly believe them.
29:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And at that time, I still strongly believe that my manufacturing going to be solved, you know, logistics going to be solved, and it's even going to be solved.
29:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm very hopeful and I'm very, very optimistic about a future and hopeful that I can be not part of that wave of investment to bring back to Vietnam.
29:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there's a book written by Peter Diamandis called Abundance.
30:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Abundance is correct.
30:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Abundance is great.
30:05
[SPEAKER_02]: You really discussed this idea of Abundance by Diamandis.
30:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And it talks about, you know, water being solved and, you know, vertical farming, you know,
30:19
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I'm going to end on this question.
30:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Only the energy is the only limit right now.
30:24
[SPEAKER_00]: The energy is the only limit.
30:25
[SPEAKER_02]: But they'll figure it out.
30:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
30:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And guess what?
30:27
[SPEAKER_00]: We already have.
30:28
[SPEAKER_00]: We will have a new version, you know.
30:32
[SPEAKER_00]: The first one, which is SpaceX, to do all the data centers and other great energies and compute.
30:37
[SPEAKER_02]: When you came on the podcast years ago, I was still in the mode of saying, and asking, what does it mean to be Vietnamese, right?
30:45
[SPEAKER_02]: So I've now moved on to the second phase of the podcast.
30:51
[SPEAKER_02]: My question starting in 2026 now is, and I'm going to end with this question with you, is, where do you see the evolution of the Vietnamese culture worldwide?
31:01
[SPEAKER_00]: evolution of Vietnamese culture, and why is it important that we evolve our Vietnamese culture?
31:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Very important.
31:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And I hope everybody can go on this.
31:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know where it lives now.
31:11
[SPEAKER_00]: It used to be on Netflix.
31:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And it talk about music of Korean music, K-pop.
31:16
[SPEAKER_00]: has nothing to do with anything, but as I was watching it and like, oh my god, this is going to be d way for you to be.
31:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So what they did was right after the war with North Korea, South Korea, music, South very much like North Korea.
31:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so it's very sad, it's very old school, the acting, it's not going anywhere.
31:45
[SPEAKER_00]: underground rap group that kind of like blow up kind of underground.
31:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And the government saw that movement and said, oh my god, like all these young kids having this kind of new wave of music.
31:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And what they did was very a person.
32:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Because they learned that from the Japanese culture.
32:09
[SPEAKER_00]: They say, hey, if the Japanese people,
32:14
[SPEAKER_00]: can go from bombed out bombed out war two or two and then you know being greeted by the whole entire world and now every time that you say Japanese like oh my god hello kitty oh my god sushi we buy in it we buy into it so they were so good at it by exporting the culture
32:34
[SPEAKER_00]: We could do that.
32:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what dated at that time, after the war like in the 60s and the 70s, what they did was, we're gonna double it out on exporting culture.
32:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they say, okay, we're gonna put one whole and high percent of GDP of revenue of GDP, one percent entertainment to entertainment.
32:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Every, if you're doing entertainment, you get funding.
33:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna, what it is, so everybody was creating.
33:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody was focusing on entertainment.
33:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And because of entertainment, beauty was following.
33:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Fashion was following.
33:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's exploded into this world exporting culture, like, look at it out.
33:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Music now there's like, keep up with everywhere.
33:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I strongly believe if the Vietnamese government would have just later on to the idea of spending, not even one whole percent, just half of our percent of GDP into entertainment, into art creation, liberal arts.
33:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And so in the past, I posted a picture on my page.
33:42
[SPEAKER_00]: In the past where liberal art meets technology, created Apple, created Google, created Silicon Valley.
33:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I strongly believe with AI and AGI and liberal arts.
33:58
[SPEAKER_00]: that will be the explosion of the Vietnamese culture.
34:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I love your answer.
34:03
[SPEAKER_02]: This conversation helps me out a lot too.
34:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'll tell you, I have a big problem being Vietnamese American.
34:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I feel trapped, I feel, you know, they're cultured.
34:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't because you grew up in Vietnam.
34:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, so many of my friends grew up in Vietnam or grew up in America and they are white, right?
34:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And so there's a distinct identity, but hearing you talk today really offers like this sort of hope.
34:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Now Vietnamese Americans have a role in the world.
34:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Because essentially in Southeast Asia, we're going to be one of the strongest.
34:33
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to get access to that, right?
34:36
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to have, right now, we're going to 6xLGDP, right?
34:40
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be one of the best country people can invest in, right?
34:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Investing into Vietnam right now, probably going to be our future probably going to be the key for a lot of people or a lot of asset management or
34:51
[SPEAKER_00]: strong asset classes, kind of come.
34:53
[SPEAKER_00]: So I strongly believe that if you can be that bridge, you'd be very strong.
34:57
[SPEAKER_00]: You just well positioned the world.
34:59
[SPEAKER_00]: In Asia, we're going to be top 10.
35:01
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be top 20 economy in the whole entire world everywhere.
35:06
[SPEAKER_00]: We will be number 20 or from 20th to 25th.
35:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Largest economy in the world by 2050.
35:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that put us in a very strong position, like milk that position, and even at a culture here, you know, like, let's just take notes along for some, you know, you're gonna see a lot more high and very highly-produced, very, very good.
35:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there's no shops that are coming that you get a blow your mind, yeah.
35:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah.
35:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So, just wanna feel ways up for you to take a look at, you know, and that put no shop into a hospitality, can I agree with you?
35:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much today.
35:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I really appreciate it.
35:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I was good to talk to you because we talked to so many people.
35:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you talk to so many people and so for me is I also, I, yeah, you have so many ideas, you know, What's not about the ideas, the divisions we've always been clear for, right, right, right.
36:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And so these are just the steps, right, right, to get there.
36:04
[SPEAKER_00]: So awesome.
36:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much again.
36:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thank you.
36:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, good to talk to you.
36:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thanks.
36:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for listening to the Vietnamese with Kenneth Wynne.
36:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Special thanks to Brittany Tran, to Jane Wynne, Catherine Wynne, Tina Fam, Sydney Jamie and Crystal Tran.
36:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Please find us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at the Vietnamese podcast.