Inside the first Vietnamese restaurant in the US to win a Michelin star

Camille Restaurant, located in the Lake Baldwin area, Orlando, was awarded a star by the Michelin Guide last year and is the first purely Vietnamese restaurant in the US to receive a Michelin star.

Camille began operating as a temporary restaurant (pop-up) before officially opening in Baldwin Park, Orlando in June 2023. After 10 months of operation at a fixed location, the restaurant has convinced Michelin judges thanks to its intensive cooking techniques and consistency in food quality.

According to culinary experts, Camille is where “French techniques are applied to honor Vietnamese flavors in the most sophisticated way”. This recognition has broken down barriers to the concept of Vietnamese cuisine in the US, bringing traditional dishes to high-end tasting menus.

Chef Tung Phan, founder of the restaurant, said Camille is a reflection of his identity as a Vietnamese American. He combines the culinary experience he learned at the French cooking school Le Cordon Bleu with the core principles of Southern Vietnamese cuisine including freshness, balance between sour, spicy, salty, sweet and prioritizing multi-layered textures.

The restaurant’s menu focuses on restructuring familiar dishes. A typical example is “espuma pho”. Instead of serving a traditional bowl of pho with hot broth, chef Tung Phan extracts the aroma from pho spices such as cinnamon, star anise, and cardamom and converts this broth into bubbles (espuma). This technique helps preserve the typical flavor but brings a new visual and tactile experience to diners.

The restaurant uses a variety of raw materials. Produce like navel oranges are sourced from local farms in Florida to ensure freshness. Special ingredients to keep the “soul” of the dish, such as Vietnamese coriander or fish sauce, are imported. Combining premium international ingredients such as Japanese ocean tuna or French foie gras also helps Camille’s dishes meet the strict standards of the Michelin star rating system.

The dish that makes a strong impression on culinary experts is Hanoi pho. The dish is inspired by Northern pho, using diced Wagyu beef (tartare), combined with rich broth and served with innovative doughnut-style quiche. This combination is said to keep the soul of pho but enhance the structure and ingredients.

Camille’s menu also makes its mark with a salmon dish served on a bed of chicken thigh mushroom noodles, combined with tamarind and pineapple sauce. This creativity shows the ability to balance the typical sour taste of Southern Vietnam with Western seafood processing techniques.

Desserts at Camille were also rated by Michelin as a highlight in the tasting menu. The red bean cake is an example of the chef’s innovation based on the French concept of “cheese course”. Red bean cake is layered with a strip of fatty cheese and drizzled with strawberry sansho pepper sauce, creating a strange but convincing interaction of taste buds.

Chef Tung Phan said his goal is to convey the experiences of a Vietnamese American through each dish. “I took this opportunity to really understand the dishes my parents were attached to, preserving those flavors and ingredients, but presenting them from a modern and unconventional perspective,” he shares.

Tung Phan was born in Vietnam and came to America with his family when he was 2 years old. Before becoming a professional chef, he was a breakdancer (b-boy) who toured in Europe and Asia. Traveling to many places exposed him to new cultures and cuisines. After seeing an advertisement for a cooking school on television, he decided to study at Le Cordon Bleu. After more than two years working at a Michelin star restaurant in the US, he opened Camille restaurant. The mindset of a dancer, spontaneity, rhythm and improvisation, he brings to his kitchen.

“I have never completely repeated a dish,” Tung Phan shared. For him, a dish must ensure flavor before considering appearance. He often puts a dish on the menu when he feels it is about 80% complete, then continues to tweak it based on diners’ reactions until it reaches perfection before replacing it with a new dish.

Different from the usual flashiness of luxury restaurants, Camille is designed to bring a cozy, home-like feeling. The restaurant serves a tasting menu with limited space, including an 8-seat kitchen counter and private table areas.

Currently, Tung Phan leads a generation of young chefs cooking Vietnamese dishes. He always reminds chefs to have confidence and pride. “Vietnamese food can absolutely be as high-class and sophisticated as Korean or Japanese cuisine,” he said and hopes to have more cooperation with Vietnamese chefs in the US and Vietnam.

“Vietnamese cuisine will become more and more respected over time,” said chef Tung Phan.