Vanessa and Kim Pham, the founders of Omsom, a company that makes Asian dish starter kits in partnership with chefs.During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, TODAY is sharing the community’s history, pain, joy and what’s next for the AAPI movement. We will be publishing personal essays, stories, videos and specials throughout the entire month of May.
You can hardly scroll through Yelp without being bombarded with proclamations about restaurants being “authentic.”, my sister Vanessa and I hear this word used a lot to describe what we do. It’s often coupled with good intentions and a complimentary tone, but it’s a word that we actually shy away from — it surprises folks to hear that we don’t ever use “authentic” when we describe our company.
This dish was cooked with Omsom's Spicy Bulgogi Starter, which was made in collaboration with chef Deuki Hong of the Sunday Family restaurants in San Francisco.This was a deeply personal choice before it was a business one. As first-generation Vietnamese Americans and daughters of refugees, Vanessa and I started Omsom to reclaim and celebrate the multitudes within Asian cuisines and stories. A large part of this mission is to intentionally reframe much of how the West views Asian food.
Through our introspection, we made the decision to never use the word “authentic” in relation to our work, as the term has become a burden that chefs of color and their cuisines must bear. It is, by and large, a restrictive view on how dishes from communities of color should taste, look and cost. Our chefs are hardly given the same space and freedom to innovate as their white counterparts, and thus, creativity can stagnate when we’re only given a handful of ways to exist.