How would you

differentiate Hmong food from other cuisines, Asian or otherwise? When asked this question, Minneapolis-based chef, restaurateur, and TV personality Yia Vang bristles.

“When I get asked that question, my response is always, ‘Is that question asked of any other kind of food?’” Vang patiently explains. “It’s always ‘well, Hmong food, you don’t have a country of your own. You guys don’t have a flag or an anthem.’ So, a lot of times when I hear that question, there’s always that undertone of, ‘well, how are you guys a legit culture?’”

It’s a response that underscores the in-between position of the Hmong in America. A people who have historically lived in lands including Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and China—they’ve never had a state of their own. Many Hmong people assisted the U.S. during the Vietnam War, and have since settled into American communities such as the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Vang currently operates Union Hmong Kitchen in Minneapolis, a rare Hmong-centered restaurant.

Does Vang consider himself a trailblazer for bringing Hmong dishes to American palates? Like so much of the way he approaches his cooking and his career, his answer is thoughtful and complicated.

“The first thing I always tell people is that when we started [Union Hmong Kitchen], there was no intention of blazing any trail, or being the ambassador of whatever,” Vang says. “It was literally, for me, feeling like a boy who was trying to make his mom and dad proud of him. It’s like that kid who goes to school and makes his little papiermâché project or his little pottery project that’s half falling apart. But he brings it home and it has this sign, it says ‘for Mom and Dad,’ even though it’s half broken.”

Vang’s accomplishments do not evoke crumbling pottery. After a childhood spent in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, Vang started his culinary career working up through the ranks of some of the Twin Cities’ most acclaimed kitchens. Since branching out on his own, his sparkling cooking has landed him accolades including a Best New Chef Midwest nomination from the James Beard Awards in 2022 (Union Hmong Kitchen also received a nomination nod for Best New Restaurant), and nomination this year for Best Chef, Midwest.

He also spent a good deal of time along the way learning traditional Hmong cooking from his mother. Vang’s signature dishes have a flavor unique to current American palates, and a family feel. Favorites include grilled butterflied chicken with lemongrass sauce, smoked pork belly hash with grilled vegetables and duck eggs, and grilled rainbow trout with herbed salad and fried rice. His popular sticky rice and hot sauce at Union Hmong Kitchen originated with his mom, and his housemade sausage started with his dad’s own.

“We get to educate people about Hmong food and about Hmong people,” Vang says. “If you want to know our people, you have to know our food. Our cultural DNA is woven into the food that we eat as young people.”

That DNA originated for Vang when his parents met in the Ban Vinai refugee camp in Thailand a er the Vietnam War ended in 1975. Vang is one of six siblings and came to America in 1988 when he was 4 years old. While the Twin Cities are home to the