Today we’d like to introduce you to Saeng Douangdara.
Hi Saeng, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I am a food creative focused on making Lao food mainstream and uplifting the Lao community. I do this as a personal chef, Lao food teacher, and video producer. My family and I came to the United States as Lao refugees of the Vietnam War and grew up mostly in Janesville, Wisconsin. My mom always cooked at home, and I would watch my mom and occasionally help her peel the wrappers for eggrolls. Most of the food I knew growing up eating was Lao food my mom made and the free lunches in elementary school. I started cooking and sharing Lao food when I went to college at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
My food career started when I was working at UCLA as an academic counselor. In the evenings after leaving work, I would head over to Santa Monica to teach cooking classes at Gourmandise School of Sweets and Savories. With my passion for teaching and food, I decided to leave my full-time job and pursue a career in the food creative world. I traveled back to Laos for the first time for a month; I backpacked from the North to the South of Laos to understand the food and to find my place in my community. It was the first time I got to meet my relatives that still lived in southern Laos. This visit was life-changing as I got to facetime my mom with her sister who she has not seen since fleeing the country.
After returning from Laos, I got the opportunity to be a personal chef for an NBA. This was my Bootcamp of diving into the personal chef life and it was a dream to cook Lao food for this client. I started getting more clients and thus started my business Saeng’s Kitchen LLC, and cooked for many people I always looked up to in Hollywood. With the pandemic, I had to make a pivot in my career. It gave me more time to focus on my other creative endeavors. I produced more videos for my YouTube show, “Lao Food at Saeng’s Kitchen”, that teaches people how to cook Lao food and also gave me opportunities to work with media companies in food videography. At the moment, I am excited to say that I am working on another cooking show that I will be hosting for a media company.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As a food creative that specializes in Lao food, it is tough with the lack of visibility for the cuisine. Every time I told people my background and food, they would ask me if it was just like this or that cuisine. There are times where people in my community didn’t feel our food was worthy of being seen or they didn’t think other people would like Lao food. This is slowly changing because more people are becoming trailblazers for Lao food. Many Lao people started opening Thai restaurants across the nation when they first settled in the United States because there was a huge wave and understanding about Thai food.
Over 25 years have passed and now I see many Lao entrepreneurs finding the confidence to open Lao centered restaurants. I do acknowledge that this big wave of Lao restaurants was started with the Lao Food Movement. Chef Seng from Washington D.C. created this movement to empower the community since she has many award-winning Lao restaurants in D.C. Social media has helped connect like-minded folk and shine a bright light on Lao food and that’s where I use my skill set. I create high-quality Lao cooking tutorials on social media to help fuel the Lao Food Movement. I am obsessed with Lao food and want people to try it out. My dog is even named after a Lao steamed bun, Galabao!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Saeng’s Kitchen LLC?
My business, Saeng’s Kitchen LLC, provides personal chef services around the Los Angeles area. We guarantee high quality and personalized home cooked meals for all our clients. We meet one-on-one with our clients to make sure our services are a good fit and then do a specialized food assessment to go over the client’s needs regarding dietary restrictions and allergies. We also prepare your kitchen, pantry, and cookware and set it up so it is ready to cook delicious home meals. We offer in house and online cooking classes to empower all our clients with the right knowledge and tools in the kitchen. We are most proud and known for our delicious Lao food and have extensive knowledge of cooking other Asian cuisines. With the pandemic, we had to pivot to focus more on providing online cooking classes, Lao food consultation, recipe development, and food videography.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Please go try Lao food! I compiled a comprehensive list of Lao restaurants around the nation here: https://saengskitchen.com/lao-food-around-the-world/. I recommend ordering Lao sausage, kua mee, thum mak hoong, laab gai, and khao poon! And if you don’t live near a Lao restaurant, I encourage you to make Lao food with my video recipes here: www.youtube.com/saengdouangdara. Name it, eat it, and call it Lao food! #eatmoreLaofood
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.saengskitchen.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/saengdouangdara
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/saengdouangdara
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/saengdouangdara
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/saengdouangdara
Image Credits
Saeng 2,3, 4, and 5 – Ava CookingOutLao Saeng 7 – Kulap Vilaysack
