Tin Vuong

Who is the most influential person in your family?

My grandfather. He raised me. I mean, my parents were always working so he was babysitting me all the time, really. Telling me what’s right, what’s not. He’s just old school. Taught me how to plant things and respect shit and he did what grandfathers do. Just watch out for you, teach you the right things.

Did he cook or your grandmother?

Both of them. They would say if you couldn’t find it, grow it. What are you waiting for? [Laughing]. They moved here in the late ‘70s and they didn’t have Asian markets around, so what do you do? You have to grow your own shit. So my grandfather just started growing things that we eat. You know what I mean?

When did food capture you?

Probably in college, trying to find something to eat and kind of cooking for yourself and fending for yourself. Finding cheap eats, that’s pretty much what it was.

You mentioned Costco’s Chicken Bake in a top ten list somewhere. Is that one of your cheap eats?

[Laughing] Yeah. Really nothing more you can say about it. It’s very inexpensive and it’s really good. It’s like a chicken pot pie, it’s just good. Caesar dressing and rolled in a puff pastry and… it’s good. It’s like junk food but it’s fucking good.

What keeps your interest in food so fresh?

Eating out, knowing there’s a lot of restaurants that aren’t very good and that you can do better. Or other restaurants are doing great things and that you want to do great things like them. Finding a void in certain genres of food that you know you can do or that interests you at a certain point. Just like anything, there’s specific time frames in your life where you have different palates and your tastes are different.

Sometimes it’s like clothing, you know? Sometimes you bought a shirt 5 years ago or 2 months ago and then you’re like, “Dude, why did I buy this?” [laughing]. Food’s like that, too. It’s very personal. You wonder, “Why was I making this shit?” Some of the menus I look at from like 5 years ago, I have no idea what the fuck was I doing. Thinking this is dumb, what was I thinking?

Makes total sense.

It comes with age and experience and life. Anything that happens to you or comes into your life expresses you. Building Little Sister was an expression. It was doing the food that I cared to do most. It wasn’t for anybody, it was for myself. It was to showcase a food that was underrated.

How did you choose the locations for your restaurants?

Organically. Sometimes it just happens. Broker tells me there’s a space open and it just happens. Everything up to now has been organic. This space came up, I wasn’t looking for it, but it just came up and had to hop on it. It’s expensive rent [laughing] but if you want to do it you have to take a risk.

Yeah, that seems to be the thread through you.

If it happens, it happens.

If there’s a “go with the flow” guy, it’s you.

Just go with it. Planned things don’t always work out, either, and you’re just going to get disappointed. Sometimes in your career you just have to just trust in yourself, in what you do and hope for the best.

Can you explain the process of creating dishes?

I cook things that I want to eat but couldn’t find, especially in the South Bay. A lot of family meals or staff meals become the menu. You cook things that you care for, that you crave, things that are simple and good and thoughtful.

So is Little Sister one of those simple, home-cooked places?

It sounds that simple, but it’s really not. It’s a lot of layering flavors and understanding flavors. Experienced chefs understand why you layer flavors, it’s just not throwing things together. But it’s food for the soul, it’s food for thought, it’s food for you, it’s food for me. It feeds a need. Makes you feel good.

It’s a thing you can always go to.

Yeah like it just makes you feel good.

When you need that certain something.

That’s what it is. When you leave here you’re like, I don’t know what I ate, but whatever I ate was good.

What are the influences behind Little Sister’s food?

My upbringing, culturally. Like I said, finding a restaurant that does this type of food well is hard. I have a lot of clients or customers who come in like “Dude, you nailed it.” Like that’s how their mom used to make it or that’s how it was in a certain region. I’m not trying to change anything else really, just trying to find the right flavor combination that represents that culture.

I have to eat something a hundred different times or a hundred different ways before I know how I’ll make it. It’s like chicken pot pie, everyone makes it different, but especially in a certain region it needs to taste a certain way. It’s like hotdogs. Everybody has a style.

Early in your career you were centered in Orange County. Why did you choose to open restaurants in L.A.?

L.A. has always been my home. I mean I grew up here, it’s what I know. I always knew I was going to come back to LA. Just like anything, it felt right. Being transplanted somewhere else you just can’t call it home, but especially knowing L.A. has just been changing diversely and I think it was the right time to come back. I have a lot of support here and it’s great to do it with friends and family and it’s just cool walking down the street and you know where you’re going. It just feels right.

Any plans of opening anything back that direction?

I do. There’s always something you want to go back to and fill that void, you know. It’s exciting because you leave a footprint where you’ve been and you get the urge to go back, but only with a project that makes sense. Part of the problem sometimes is that certain pockets support what you do and certain pockets won’t get it. And I’m not here to educate people so either you like it or you don’t. It’s not for everybody.

I love that.

Yeah. I don’t educate people. It’s not my job.

You have several seemingly disparate restaurant concepts. Where’s it all going? What’s your ultimate goal?

Good question, I have no idea. Different concepts are feeding different needs for my personal need of being a chef. I’m in a place where I get to do what I want to do, but I want to make sure that it feels right. There’s always someone going to judge you and that’s okay because when they stop talking about you that’s the problem.

Especially now when you’re kind of in the driver’s seat, you want to do thoughtful things, things that feed you. Until that stops, I don’t know. When it stops, stop. Don’t force it. How’s that?