Celebrity Chef to Cook in the D.C.

Mai Pham, world-renown Thai and Vietnamese chef and restaurateur, will sign cookbooks, offer special tastings and hold cooking demonstrations Thursday, Oct. 29, from 11:15 a.m.-1 p.m. in Westmont’s Dining Commons. The guest appearance is courtesy of Sodexo, which is contracted by Westmont’s dining services.

Pham, owner and chef of nationally acclaimed Lemon Grass Restaurant and Lemon Grass Asian Grill and Noodle Bar in Sacramento, writes for national publications, conducts cooking classes and seminars, and serves as a consultant to various food organizations throughout the U.S. She recently launched Star Ginger, a fast casual concept that features southeast Asian street and comfort foods, to UC Berkeley.

Pham is the author of “The Vietnamese Table,” which received a prestigious James Beard Award nomination, and “The Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking,” which was featured on Martha Stewart Living and NPR’s Fresh Air. She is currently writing and editing the forthcoming “Flavors of Asia,” a collaborative book with the Culinary Institute of America that showcases seven Asian cuisines.

In 1975, at the end of the Vietnam War, she came to the United States with her family and completed a degree in journalism at the University of Maryland. Following a seven-year career as an on-air correspondent for a number of ABC news affiliates and later as a speechwriter for the then governor of California, she returned to her love of food and launched Lemon Grass Restaurant in Sacramento.