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| Jamie Tran immersed in her culinary story |
A Hue woman living far from home
Jamie, whose family name is Tran, is the Executive Chef and owner of “The Black Sheep” restaurant, located in the magnetic city of Las Vegas. Eight years after its debut, what “The Black Sheep” has achieved is a delicate harmony between Vietnamese cuisine and modern Western cooking techniques. Her journey began with a difficult childhood in a Vietnamese immigrant family, working with various jobs before becoming a prominent face on television through the reality show “Top Chef”, and a source of pride for the Vietnamese community there.
“My mother’s name is Nguyen Thi Tho. She was born in Hue, but due to age and health, many of her memories of the place have faded. Even my father, who met her in Saigon, only remembers that she was born in Hue,” shared Jamie. When I asked Jamie about “the person who influenced her career”, Jamie spoke of her mother, recalling memories of a child who learned to cook alongside her mother from the age of four.
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| Fried whole rainbow trout is the restaurant’s specialty |
“My mother was a homemaker, but that word is not enough to describe her. My eight siblings and I always helped her, but I spent the most time with her: cooking, cleaning, caring for the younger children, and even handling paperwork, bills, or interpretation.”
In her mind, her Hue-born mother possessed a “natural gift” for cooking, measuring without recipes and seasoning food with love. Because it was not easy to find authentic Vietnamese ingredients, her mother had to get creative, creating dishes with similar flavors to ease her homesickness and help her children maintain their Vietnamese palate.
“She is an incredibly strong person. Our family moved through many places, but my mother always made sure her children were well-fed. When I was little, she prepared food for me to take along as I walked to the bus stop every morning. She was very skillful with her hands; she embroidered flowers and letters onto pillows and clothes so beautifully that I can still vividly remember every detail. My mother could make anything she needed, from small handicrafts to even a wood-fired stove,” recalled Jamie.
In Jamie’s memories, Mrs. Tho embodies the gentle yet resilient beauty of Hue women. When the family first arrived in the USA, she never gave up. She cared for her children with Hue-style meals using whatever she had. To this day, Jamie remembers clearly the flavors and ingredients of those dishes. It was perhaps the way that this woman expressed her love for her family and her homeland. “As I grew up, I understood even more that through the food she cooked, love does not always need words; it was right there in every meal she placed in front of us every day,” expressed Jamie.
The story of “The Black Sheep”
“The Black Sheep” restaurant has been open for nearly eight years. During that time, Jamie Tran was nominated as a finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: Southwest in 2022. The Las Vegas Weekly magazine also named her “Best local chef” in their 2022 Best of Vegas list. Previously, the Eater Las Vegas honored “The Black Sheep” restaurant “Restaurant of the year” in 2017, and named Jamie Tran “Chef of the year”.
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| A starter of crispy Vietnamese spring rolls with Duroc pork and crispy shrimp |
Perhaps inheriting the temperament of Hue women from her mother, Jamie Tran also prefers a gentle approach to the culinary business. She avoids the bustle of central Las Vegas filled with visitors, and instead chose a location in a culinary district about 20 kilometers from downtown, serving many “loyal” local customers. Even so, many diners still travel long distances to enjoy her refined Vietnamese dishes.
“The Black Sheep” has truly elevated Vietnamese cuisine in the bustling city of Las Vegas. Within the restaurant's elegant and minimalist space, the Vietnamese menu is reimagined in a contemporary culinary style, showing a balance between tradition and innovation, a harmonious “dialogue” between memories of homeland and modern kitchen techniques.
From the starter, I could easily recognize the “Vietnamese culinary DNA” in a new form, the Vietnamese spring rolls with Duroc pork (Duroc is one of the world’s three premium pig breeds, alongside Berkshire and Yorkshire, known for its distinctive red coat and commonly raised on large-scale farms in the USA) and crispy shrimp, served with pickled heirloom carrots and radish that evoke the flavors of homeland.
The sophistication reaches its peak with the main courses. The Hue-style vegan sautéed glassnoodles brings a clear image of a family meal: light, delicate, yet with sufficient depth thanks to the combination of baby bok choy, mushrooms, and carrots; or the unique hamburger made by... dumplings.
Even more noteworthy is the rainbow trout, a famous North American freshwater fish, served fried crispy whole with steamed jasmine rice and rainbow swiss chard. The dish brings diners back to the flavors of a Vietnamese family meal, yet presented with a more luxurious flair. The braised pork jowl, served with turmeric pho noodles and kale, is a prime example of how Jamie Tran “upgrades” traditional Vietnamese dishes using the techniques of a five-star chef.
“The Black Sheep is a place where I preserve the authentic “mom’s cooking” Vietnamese flavors while elevating the dishes to a more modern level, using American and French culinary techniques I learned at high-end restaurants in the past. I do not want to “Americanize” Vietnamese food; I only strive to make it more sophisticated and refined,” affirmed the charming owner Jamie, with her dream of “keeping something truly Hue”.
“Currently, almost all of my maternal relatives still live in Hue. Yet for the past 40 years, I have never been back to Vietnam. Next summer, I plan to visit Vietnam, especially Hue,” revealed Jamie.
And I hope that next summer, I will be able to sit down for coffee with Jamie Tran in Hue, alongside local chefs, to further share experiences in running Hue culinary businesses to international standards, during her first return to her homeland after nearly half a lifetime away.