NARRATOR: Major funding for Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation Incorporated.

Additional support by Zatarain's, bringing the flavors of New Orleans home for over 125 years.

Zatarain's, born and raised in New Orleans.

From the spice of jambalaya to the flavors of a classic crab boil, it's a taste of New Orleans made at home.

And by Camellia Beans, rooted in New Orleans since 1923.

A family business with a devotion to beans spanning four generations.

Camellia Beans, a taste of home.

DOOK: Today on "A Chef's Journey," we're in New Orleans East for a visit to Dong Phuong Bakery, one of the bright spots on the city's rich culinary landscape.

Founded in the early 1980s by South Vietnamese refugees, Dong Phuong is known for its traditional pastries, its banh mi loaves, and its unique brioche-style king cakes.

So let's go inside and meet Linh Garza, the next generation to lead the nationally recognized bakery.

Come on in.

♪ (theme music playing) ♪ DOOK: We're in the kitchen at Dong Phuong Bakery with Linh Garza, the daughter of the founders, De and Huong.

LINH: My parents started the bakery when they immigrated from Vietnam back in the early '80s.

My grandfather, my mom's dad, has a bakery in, uh, in Vietnam.

And he still does.

DOOK: Oh, wow.

LINH: My mom never really wanted to go into this business.

She had a, you know, a year in college.

She wanted to be a banker.

You know, she wanted to wear pretty dresses.

She wanted that professional life.

But of course, the war ended that, uh, that dream.

So when they came over in the, the early '80s, it was just a way to survive, to put food, feed us three kids.

She just felt that there was, I guess, an opportunity.

The Vietnamese community in New Orleans East was growing at the time, so there was a lot of people who were craving some you know, pastries and sweets and breads.

She started to dabble into it in our little duplex kitchen that we lived in, and she had to write home to her, her parents to get some recipes.

There's no email.

DOOK: Right.

LINH: So it took months to get recipes back from Vietnam.

As the community grew, we also grew, and my dad joined into the venture.

In Vietnam, he was like you know working and going to school, trying to be an engineer.

So he started reading all these books, technical books on baking, and then through a lot of scientific experiment or testing, trials, and errors, he came up with the Dong Phuong bread as we know it today.

DOOK: Oh, wow.

Not only is it a celebration of culture and tradition, we love it in our community.

LINH: Coming from another country, not knowing, not knowing the culture, not knowing the language, and just being welcome, I think that's it's, it's just wonderful.

DOOK: As you talk about cultures and showcasing and then the blending of, as we all work together and come together, it's the tradition you have now taken over in king cakes.

But when did that start?

How did that start?

LINH: Because we are so close-knit in the Vietnamese community, I was, I was sort of more close to that side and not really understanding the, all of the New Orleans culture... DOOK: Hmm.

LINH: ...the New Orleans tradition.

So after Katrina, we had a lot of our Vietnamese customers come in and ask us, because they have kids that have grown up... DOOK: Oh, I get you.

LINH: ...like I did, right?

DOOK: Yeah.

LINH: And they're like, "My kid's asking, they got the baby."

DOOK: Oh, in a king cake.

LINH: "I need a king cake."

You know, and they're like, "Do you make it?"

The options were pretty limited... DOOK: Mm-hmm.

LINH: ...you know to our community around here.

So my mom was like, "Well, I think we can make something.

We have, we have a brioche dough.

I mean, it tastes kind of similar and everything."

And she was like, "Well, we'll just put some sugar on it, and we'll see what happens," you know, like, growing up, my, my sister and brother and I, we were the taste testers.

DOOK: Yeah, y'all were the taste testers.

LINH: Yeah, we're the taste tester, right?

So her first version, we're like, "Oh, no."

So she was like, "Well, why don't we kind of like combine two things?"

Like, "We use our dough..." DOOK: Yeah, yeah.

LINH: "...our brioche dough, but the way we make croissants, you know, we'll do the layers and everything.

That will lighten up."

DOOK: Lighten it up.

LINH: "...lighten it up a bit."

And so that's kind of where it kind of started, and we're like, "Oh."

DOOK: That has become part of our Mardi Gras tradition as well, as we go around the city tasting all the beautiful king cakes.

LINH: Uh-huh.

DOOK: It's been an honor to be in the kitchen and see where you make the magic, but we have to go and taste some of this great stuff.

LINH: Come on.

DOOK: Let's do it.

LINH: Let's go.

DOOK: Oh, wow, I mean, this here is amazing.

LINH: So these are our traditional Vietnamese pastries.

So this is the recipe she got from Vietnam from her parents that she wrote back to.

So these are the bean cakes and the moon cakes, and this is what her father's bakery in Vietnam is known for.

Like, actually, the whole village in Vietnam.

DOOK: I see some are here when you talk about the layer, and we have praline bread, so that's when we start the blend and merge... LINH: Yeah, we started to blend.

DOOK: ...those where we are.

LINH: Exactly.

DOOK: Oh, this is fascinating.

I love this, this station here is the banh mi station.

Tell me what that is.

What is a banh mi?

LINH: Well, a banh mi is a sandwich.

DOOK: Okay.

LINH: ...filled with different meats and vegetables.

So it's developed its new name in the city.

It's a Vietnamese po'boy.

DOOK: I'm getting ready to... LINH: It's a Vietnamese po'boy.

DOOK: ...say like our po'boy.

Well, I definitely want to taste it, and so... LINH: Okay.

DOOK: ...fix me up whatever banh mi you want me to have.

LINH: Let's go with the number five.

It's a lemongrass pork... DOOK: Oh.

LINH: ...sandwich.

(speaking in Vietmanese).

DOOK: So what's a traditional topping... LINH: Do you... DOOK: ...that goes on it?

LINH: You need the pickled carrots.

DOOK: Mm-hmm.

LINH: ...the, uh, cucumber, do you like it hot?

DOOK: I love a little heat.

LINH: Then you need the jalapeno.

DOOK: Give me a little jalapeno.

LINH: Yes, and some cilantro on top.

DOOK: Thank you so much.

Oh, my, and before I get out of here, these cakes are fabulous.

And then we go ahead and the showcase on these beautiful meat pies, croissants.

Tell me about this crawfish pie.

LINH: My mom used to make this, uh, dumpling... DOOK: Uh-huh.

LINH: ...which is shrimp with bamboo shoots.

And I was like, "You know, it's really good, but you know what would sell in New Orleans?

A crawfish pie."

You just replace the shrimp with the crawfish, and so it has a, a, uh, a marriage of the Asian elements, the bamboo, then the crawfish.

It's really... DOOK: Oh.

LINH: ...it, and it's spicy, it's... DOOK: That's talking about the next generation coming in... LINH: Yes.

DOOK: ...putting their spin and... LINH: Yes.

DOOK: ...their techniques and their recipes.

Now, I know there's another generation behind you, your daughter, Mia.

LINH: Yes.

DOOK: This has been amazing.

Thank you so much for having us, I enjoyed it.

LINH: Oh, thank you.

DOOK: And I can't wait to dive into this sandwich.

And this is just what I need to get me inspired to get back in this kitchen.

Welcome to my kitchen, where inspiration and creation come together in a celebration of culture.

We just left Dong Phuong, which is a Vietnamese bakery.

And when you think of Dong Phuong, you think of their bread and you think of banh mi.

So we're gonna dive into a vegetarian banh mi here.

We're gonna make the bases of that banh mi.

Just adding a little olive oil.

I have some whole peeled tomatoes, will go right on in here.

And for the bases, what I mean is the bases of that sandwich, right?

When you think of that banh mi, you think of that umami, uh, spread that they put on before they put on any meat, before they put on any herb or any pickle and vegetable.

And we'll add some onions.

We'll add some salt to here.

I have a little bit of basil, a little bit of oregano, and a little bit of dry thyme.

Move that around.

At this stage, we'll add in a little garlic.

(sizzling).

I think we're there.

We'll turn this off the heat, and we'll go right on in.

(blender whirring).

This stage, I'm gonna check the consistency, right?

You see that deepness of red color coming from that tomato.

You certainly have the herbs shining through, a little bit of that salt, and we're right at the texture that we want.

And the next thing, when you think of banh mi, you're thinking of pickles.

So I'm gonna show you how to pickle some red onions.

We'll go ahead on and add our vinegar in.

(sizzling).

And we'll add in our sugar.

And before you add those red onions, you wanna make sure all of your sugar's dissolved into that vinegar.

We do a two-to-one ratio, two cups sugar, one cup of apple cider vinegar.

And you're gonna bring this just to a simmer.

This is what you're looking for to add your red onions, right?

A nice little simmer.

And now we're gonna add our red onions right into that pot.

So as you can see, this is coming right back up to a boil.

We're gonna pull this off the heat and just let it steep.

Now we're coming over to our meaty side, if you will, of our banh mi, right?

Today, we're using portobello mushrooms.

And I like using portobello mushrooms, 'cause it's a meatier mushroom.

So we'll do just a little olive oil here.

I'll start with our peppers, just to give them a little time to sweat.

Now that the reds are in, we'll start to add in our green.

Then wanna add in a little salt.

Then I still wanna bring that herbs through, right?

So I have a little oregano that we'll put in there.

I have a little basil and a little thyme.

(sizzling).

We'll start to add just a drizzle of olive oil, make a little room for our mushrooms.

I want them to resemble the meatiness that you would normally get on a banh mi.

A little salt.

Few more herbs.

That's oregano, coming back with a little basil, and coming back with a little thyme.

So this is right where we want it to be.

We have everything we need to build our banh mi, so let's get started.

Of course, we're gonna start with that beautiful Dong Phuong pistolette.

And we're going just right on in.

I have our spread, our tomato concasse.

Look at that.

Look at that color that we have here.

And now we're getting some of our peppers, some of our mushrooms.

That's going right on in.

And this is gonna give you that meaty bite that you're looking for in that banh mi.

We have some pickled carrots here.

And now a little bit of pickled radish.

Get some of our red onions.

Look how soft they were.

Just that time, that's what you're looking for.

♪ ♪ We have some fresh cucumber, just so the top gets a little bit of this love, too.

And you certainly have to finish that off with the herb salad.

So we're going to go with a little cilantro, hit it with a little basil, and come right on top with a little mint.

Now the job is to close them up and plate them right there.

This is my take on a banh mi.

Enjoy.

For our next dish, I was inspired by a conversation with Linh at Dong Phuong on how their crawfish pie came to be.

So we're going to do a spin on that crawfish pie.

We'll get started here.

I have a skillet getting hot on medium heat.

We'll add in our butter.

And here we're making a crawfish stuffing.

So to that butter, we're going to add in some onions.

Next, I'm going to add our celery.

Just a little there.

After that, we're going to add in some of our garlic.

Give that a little turn here.

We'll have some dried thyme.

And then we'll add in our crawfish tails.

And as you remember, as you add, we'll add, so a little more salt, a little more pepper.

This time, we're going to add a little paprika for color and a little parsley.

Here's where we'll bring it together with our breadcrumbs.

As we add those breadcrumbs, I'll take this off the fire, and that residual heat is going to just fold this in beautifully for us.

Now, we'll set this aside to cool.

It will go in your refrigerator, but before we move that way, we're going to work this dough.

So we'll put our flour in.

I'll take this, and I'll make a well.

Then we'll start to add the wet ingredients.

So that's four egg yolks.

We'll add in our melted butter.

And we'll start to incorporate that pinch of that water.

And then I'll just gradually add that water in.

And what you're looking for is, as that dough pulls away from that glass, it has incorporated the butter, it incorporated the water.

So we'll finish that off.

So I'll pick this up here.

We're going to take this dough.

Going to shape it into a ball here.

And we're going to put this in a bowl.

We're going to bring this to our refrigerator, along with our stuffing.

We're going to let the dough rest for 30 minutes, and then we'll be able to work it.

So we have our dough.

It's coming out the refrigerator, and here's where we'll start to roll it and knead it just a little bit.

So I'm going to dust this board, take him out, and we're going to work it this way.

Fold it, knead it just a little bit, fold it, knead it.

Now, at this stage, what you want to do, we want to cut this into sections so we can work our dough.

So a little here, a little there, but this will start to form our pies.

So I take that one here, roll him up, put it here, and then you just give it a pat.

Make sure you dust your roller, and then we're coming out.

So we're looking right here just to get 1/8 of an inch thickness.

Set that here.

I have one egg that's been beaten.

This is our glue.

Right in the middle, we're going to add in our crawfish stuffing.

And you can see how those breadcrumbs really sopped up all that juice, so you know the flavor's there.

And then we're coming right over.

And you just want to marry that on the glue side.

Now, I have a fork here, if you like to make little seashell edges.

And that one's done.

We'll put that on this pan here.

I've sprayed that pan with a non-stick spray.

I have my oven preheated at 350 degrees, and we're going to dust these with a little egg wash.

Now, the key to the egg wash is you don't want to hit the outer boundaries.

You just want to go right on top.

It's going to give you that beautiful shine and color that you're looking for.

These are ready.

We're going into our oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

We'll put that there, and then for lagniappe, because we're in New Orleans, I'm going to give you, just to let you know where this stuff went, a little bit of that crawfish.

So hearing that story of Linh creating those crawfish pies, this is our take on it.

I hope you enjoy.

Looking around in Dong Phuong, they had so many pastries.

So I want to do a play on the banh flan, and I'll show you how my spin will be.

We'll start by making the caramel, and that's the most important thing to this dish.

We'll fold in our sugar.

And I'm on a medium heat, and what you want to do with the water is you want to pour around the edges.

Do not stir during the caramelization process at all.

That is really important to remember.

So for our custard, we're going to warm up some milk and sugar.

I'll have that in this pot here.

I'll add the milk.

That's three cups of milk.

And what we're looking to do is just to dissolve that sugar.

You want it to come right to a steam, and you take it off the heat.

You're looking for just a little steam to come up, not even a simmer.

That makes that sugar dissolve with that milk.

We have three egg yolks, and we'll whisk those guys.

To that, we'll add in three whole eggs.

(eggs cracking).

(whisking).

We're whisking this in.

And to that, we'll add in our vanilla.

These are beat... we're really, really close on this milk.

This is what you're looking for.

Just a little steam that's coming off that milk, nothing else.

You see that ring that's happening?

It has to happen throughout this whole pot.

That's what you're looking for.

The bubbles start changing, big, slow pops.

That's when you see it, and you know we're close, right?

And I'll actually finish this off the heat.

You can just move it around ever so slightly.

And you can see it's still darkening in my hand, and you come right into here, here, a little bit more here.

And while that's setting, this milk is cooled just enough where we can start to temper it with our eggs.

And what I mean by temper is you're just going to introduce a little bit of this heat to those eggs.

You don't want to scramble these eggs, right?

So I just have a little scoop.

Patience is the key when you're doing this, right?

Just don't go in and try to dump it all in.

And I think one more scoop, we'll be halfway, and we'll introduce the rest of this milk in there.

And now we can fold in the rest of this.

So now we're moving our flan to pour it on top of that caramel, but I want to show you something.

We're going to pass it through a sieve because, as we were talking about being very gentle to beat that egg, certainly this will see where you had some that just wasn't beaten all the way.

That's why this is so important.

It's going to catch that before it goes into, right?

You're being careful not to put in air, but now any loose eggs that wasn't beaten can come right on in here.

We'll start on this side.

You want to leave a fourth of an inch to the top.

You cook this low and slow.

I have my oven set at 325.

So I'm going to cook this custard in a water bath.

It's going to allow it to cook evenly.

Even we have a kitchen towel that's at the bottom of this, right?

We don't want any bubbles coming up through that water.

This is going to allow this flan to cook very evenly.

So now let's add our water.

Now you want to be careful not to get any splash.

That's another reason why that towel helps.

If you want to use a ladle to come in, that's perfectly fine, too.

We're going halfway up.

We'll go and open our door.

And the thing about this is we're cooking it at a low heat, so don't worry too much about letting that out.

You just need it to have a little more time in the cooking process.

So now that that's open, we're going to come and be very careful.

Now, this goes in for 45 minutes to an hour, but at the 45-minute mark, I want you to open it and just give that pan a shake, and you'll see a little jiggle.

That's when you know you only have 15 minutes left.

Now, after you pull it out the oven, you have to let it rest and sit overnight and cool in your refrigerator.

That's really where that flan sets, and it allows you to come out.

So we did some earlier, but before I get those, I'll clean this up, and I'll show you how to plate it up.

So these have cooled in a refrigerator.

You just take that knife, and you come right around the side, work that edge.

And you're going to pick up some of that caramelization.

We'll take a cup here, go here, and come right on up.

And look at that, where that caramelization is set.

♪ ♪ Let's see what we go here.

All right.

So there you have it.

My spin on the banh flan.

And I certainly enjoyed my time at Dong Phuong Bakery, understanding the Vietnamese culture of New Orleans.

So thank you for joining me as we explore the food traditions of New Orleans and understand the reason why we cook what we cook.

I'll see you on the next chapter of "A Chef's Journey."

NARRATOR: In his new cookbook, Chef Dook Chase explores the legendary dishes and unique food traditions of New Orleans.

This companion to "A Chef's Journey," with all the recipes from the series and more than 125 color photos, is available for $32.99 plus shipping.

To order, call 1-800-815-3153 or purchase online at wyes.org.

JUSTIN: And you know what the key is to a good barbecue sauce?

Grape jelly.

DOOK: Grape jelly?

JUSTIN: I put grape jelly in my barbecue sauce.

DOOK: Oh, man, you got spins on all kinds of things.

JUSTIN: And it gots to be the cheap grape jelly.

DOOK: Okay.

JUSTIN: Can't be that high-end.

DOOK: Yeah.

JUSTIN: No preserves.

DOOK: I got you.

JUSTIN: We do jelly here, baby.

DOOK: Gotta get that sweet grape, baby.

JUSTIN: That's it.

DOOK: Let's go for it.

Cheers to the classics of New Orleans.

What am I saying?

ZOE: Maybe you could use your whisk.

DOOK: Yeah, ooh.

And you thought I was the bossiest one in the kitchen.

Check this out.

CLEO: You listen to the fryer, it'll tell you when something is, is fried.

When you first put it in there, oh, it sounds angry.

It's, it's mad right now.

It's, it's really mad.

But then when it gets to be just about done, it'll calm itself down.

DOOK: Look, you all have inspired me.

I have to get back in the kitchen.

Vito, you walking.

You see that?

That's good.

Vito.

GIRL: No.

DOOK: No.

Thank you.

NARRATOR: For more information about "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey," visit wyes.org.

Major funding for "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation Incorporated.

Additional support by Zatarain's, bringing the flavors of New Orleans home.

Rooted in the city's rich culinary traditions, Zatarain's is born and raised in New Orleans.

From rice mixes to frozen meals, it's an authentic taste of New Orleans.

And by Camellia Beans.

You shouldn't rush a red bean.

Let it cook, then you can gather around with family and share in its distinct culture.

Camellia Beans, a taste of home.

♪ ♪