Jon Nguyen
P H OTO S : J A C LY N WA R R E N
CHE F
TRAN AN
Even before Jon Nguyen wanted to be a chef, his grandfather encouraged him to open a Vietnamese restaurant. With a huge Vietnamese community, his hometown of Houston was bursting with bánh mì and pho shops, and his grandfather believed that Nguyen could eventually create one of the greats. He started down a different route, studying government at the University of Texas at Austin. But after graduating in 2005, he found himself barbacking at Benjy’s in Houston's Rice Village, where he worked beside his first mentor, Restaurateur Benjy Levit. In 2009, Nguyen moved to Hanoi to work for his uncle’s retail business. Although he absorbed the food culture around him, Nguyen quickly realized that he did not belong in the retail industry or Vietnam. After a stint in Hong Kong, Nguyen enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu Paris. He 26
STA RCH EFS RISI NG STA RS
graduated in 2013 and moved to NYC to open Tien Ho’s Chelsea restaurant, Montmartre, followed by Danny Meyer’s The Modern. Nguyen took the jump to Miami in 2014 to consult for The Mondrian hotel. He was introduced to Rising Stars alum Dale Talde and eventually opened his South Beach restaurant, Talde, in the Thompson Hotel. In 2018, St. Roch Market approached Nguyen about opening his own concept. The business, a fast-casual Vietnamese shop, had been laid out in his head for years. All that was missing was a name; he decided on Tran An, named after his grandfather. Nguyen opened the stall in 2018 to instant success. Now with a brick-and-mortar sit-down location in the Little River neighborhood and a locally driven market next door called DYL’s (named after his son), Nguyen’s homestyle cooking and hospitality make every visitor feel like family.
jonnguyenlovespho / trananmiami Favorite kitchen tool: Offset spatula or spoon Tool you wish you had: Vegetable slicer Favorite cookbook: The Complete Nose to Tail by Fergus Henderson Most important kitchen rule: Have fun. Place to visit for culinary travel: Peru Where you eat on your nights off: Pretty much anything that is not Vietnamese food Advice to your younger self: Don't put too much pressure on yourself to reach your goals within a time frame you've made up in your head. Let your life happen organically and be patient. As long as you always do the right thing and have the right mindset, the universe will reward you.
