Vietnamese Celebrity Chef Kimmy Tang

She is, as my mother would say, as “big as a minute” but her energy fills a room. So Chef Kimmy Tang, owner-chef of Bistro Mon Ami always “had me” just with her radiant smile and bear hug.  But that would downplay her exquisite Asian Fusion Vietnamese-centric menu with a French and California influence, and most recently a Romanian twist.

In fact Bistro Mon Ami is names after her favorite restaurant there.  And now, Pasadena diners can  judge for themselves how they feel about Kimmy’s  refined comfort food dishes.

Photo courtesy of Chef Kimmy Tang

Where Tang’s more formal, former Michelia restaurant in Beverly Hills epitomized French-colonial formal dining with savory Chinese and Vietnamese dishes, her more casual 9021Pho Restaurant concept in the heart of Beverly Hills (the former Papa Jakes location) appealed to customers more in the mood for take out and delivery.

.Kimmy’s glorious energy feels as though it is infused into the food and homey service.  Selections ($8.95) are hearty and generous enough to serve two, and she offers her customers a Chef’s Tasting Table menu for $55 that changes weekly.  Dining groups, one a table of eight young ladies, are offered original dinner menus for their regular get togethers.  To ensure that the dishes are never repeated for this or other guests, Chef Kimmy keeps a notebook to insure this, a la N/NAKA.

Chef Kimmy’s family is Chinese but she was born and raised in Saigon. After a harrowing family story of escape and relocation to California after Saigon fell, Chef Tang first followed her artistic bent in the fashion world, then became widely considered a pioneering visionary in the Asian food market with her formal but pleasing Michelia restaurant just outside of Beverly Hills.

In 2008 Kimmy packed up Michelia and set out to explore the world.  She revisited her birthplace, Vietnam, and Europe. It was in Romania that Chef Tang became a culinary consultant for the largest film studio, and a very popular local TV cooking show host.

It was as a volunteer in the Romanian orphanages that ignited in Chef Kimmy a heartfelt desire to help children. Kimmy currently aids Romanian orphan immigrants and sells the artwork of Children’s Hospital patients on  her restaurant walls  to benefit the Healing Arts Reaching Kids (H.A.R.K.) program of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

These days, Chef Kimmy opens her doors to all student interns and works with them on both how a dish tastes but how the flavors are layered to make it taste a certain way.  This and being involved in many community food events continues Chef Kimmy’s personal goal to “make a deposit in the universal bank of good.”