yia vang: he ran from who he was. now, it's his greatest superpower.

a kid threw away his mother's Hmong food so no one would see it — the same food just made his restaurant one of Time's "World's Greatest Places." yia vang is a Hmong chef in Minneapolis, a James Beard semifinalist whose restaurant vinai has landed on the New York Times Restaurant List and Bon Appétit's Best New Restaurant. he named it after Ban Vinai, the refugee camp in Thailand where his Hmong parents — refugees who fled Laos after the Vietnam War — met and where he was born. he calls it a love letter to them. but before any of that, he hid his lunch for years — rice, fish sauce, anything that made him look like the Hmong kid instead of a normal one. he'd toss it, keep the empty containers, tell his mom he ate. then he trained in every cuisine that wasn't his — Italian, French, Tex-Mex — before he'd go near the food he grew up on. what brought him back wasn't a lesson. it was an egg his grandmother handed him every time he left her house. he thought it was the saddest gift a kid could get. he didn't understand it until decades later, standing in his own kitchen. we all did some version of this too — shortened a name, dropped an accent, swapped a lunch for one that wouldn't get you laughed at, wore your hair differently. this episode isn't about a chef. it's about what it costs to go back for the thing you gave up and finally, embracing who you are. all of you. no matter your race, gender, background, orientation to social status. there are no apologies. here, we're human first. watch and listen on spotify : ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1tq2vuZiWLvhmTMaaWX2w8⁠⁠ reppin's gram jam: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/reppin_podcast/⁠⁠ follow yia on social: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/yiavang70/⁠⁠ yia's restaurant: vinai https://www.vinaimn.com/⁠⁠⁠https://www.vinaimn.com/⁠⁠⁠ music by dj ace the cut lieutenant Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices