Reflections on the 2014 KOTO Taste the Stories gala in Vietnam

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about eating Saigon. I love coming to Vietnam, if not to eat, then to at least see my pops and get hella cheap spa treatments. (A 60-minute full-body massage runs about $25 USD, and that’s some of the nicer places.)I also love coming to Vietnam and meeting interesting people. From the locals to the ex-pats, everyone’s got a story.On the trip during which Eating Saigon 1.0 took place, however, my purpose went beyond visiting the family, eating good food, and spoiling myself at the spa. I was there as the 2014 goodwill ambassador for KOTO, a not-for-profit program that equips disadvantaged youth with culinary, hospitality, and life skills needed for successful and sustainable employment.I first learned about KOTO through Hong and Kim from The Ravenous Couple. We had somehow fallen in touch after my MasterChef win, and when I said I was going to Ho Chi Minh City in 2013 to be a guest judge on the first season of “MasterChef” Vietnam, they advised me to visit KOTO if time allowed.The hubs and I learned online that KOTO stands for "Know One, Teach One," with a mission conceived in 1996 by a Vietnamese-Australian named Jimmy Pham. Jimmy was born in Vietnam but grew up in Sydney and did not return until he was in his mid-20s. During his visit, he met some street children and noticed how they were famished and barefoot. Out of kindness—or perhaps out of dedication or even self-imposed indebtedness to one’s people—Jimmy arranged for these street kids to enjoy a warm meal and a shower. Their images burned into his heart; like many of us of Vietnamese heritage whose families, through sheer luck, managed to escape Vietnam after the Fall of Saigon, maybe Jimmy saw himself in these kids. If he hadn’t made it to Australia, if my parents hadn’t made it to America, we, too, could very well be unfed and unclean.During our springtime visit to Vietnam in 2013, the hubs and I reached out to KOTO. They were excited to meet me. We had coffee with Jimmy, and they gave us a tour of a training center still under construction. Even though it was February (and still considered winter by American standards), the air was unbearably thick inside the structural skeletons. Two KOTO staff members, two KOTO students, my family, my friend Cindy (who was my aide on MasterChef), and I stood around discussing KOTO’s long-term ambitions and their tangible projects in support of such goals. Cindy, the hubs, and I were sweating our arses off in the uncirculated humidity, while everyone else, obviously accustomed to the Saigon swelter, had not a bead of moisture on their brows.After the tour, I got to meet many of the KOTO trainees (thankfully in an air-conditioned building). Despite our disparate backgrounds, the students were just like the classmates of my childhood: they listened intently, asked questions, and of course, there was the class clown who constantly cracked jokes. It was so visceral to talk with and hug these cheerful youth; it reminded me that as someone who is blessed with certain gifts and talents, I am charged with using this platform to give back to the community.And that was how the relationship was born.Fast-forward over a year later, and I’d signed on to be KOTO’s goodwill ambassador for 2014. I returned to Saigon in July to design a menu and attend the KOTO Taste the Stories gala, where proceeds went towards the KOTO initiative, specifically to open a training center in HCMC. I’m happy to report the new training facility opened in September, and this past year saw 72 students graduate, bringing the number of KOTO alumni to 563.At the gala, I wore a formal gown and had my hair and makeup done. I took photos with all of the gala guests in front of a step-and-repeat. I spoke to media and shook several hands of VIPs, including those of Singapore Airlines (who kindly sponsored my flight to HCMC).But where I felt the most comfortable and happy was back in the Park Hyatt Saigon kitchen when I dropped in to check on how dinner service was going. The ovens and burners made the space very hot, much like my previous visit to the unfinished training center. Uniformed cooks--many of them KOTO graduates--bustled back and forth, carrying stockpots of my pea mint soup and trays of my chilled chicory panna cotta. And it was here that I felt most at home, among the organized chaos, with the diligent chefs. It was here that they and I felt as one.From the board to staff, from alumni to students, thank you, KOTO, for your heart and sweat. You remind me always to Know One, Teach One. Xoxo

• Visit the KOTO website to learn more about the organization./li>
• Watch a news story about Taste the Stories fundraising dinner.
• Find out how you can support the KOTO programs and trainees.