Today we’d like to introduce you to Qui Tran.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My family started the first Vietnamese restaurant in Saint Louis Missouri back in 1985. I was 8 years old at the time. No one in my family spoke much English at the time but you can imagine how hard it was as an 8 year old child to try to figure out what certain words were so you could try to translate as best you can for your parents. I think my English and my parents English were at the same level at the point. Growing up in the family restaurant allowed me to understand the entire aspects of how the front of house and back of the house works. I started cooking at the age of thirteen so I am very grateful to have learned that life skill. I also waited tables, host and manage the whole operation when needed. As I grew and learned the business, I decided to leave the former location that my family had started for the last 25 years and decided in 2010 to expand and move the operations to a larger location. I can probably say that I’m glad I did and thankfully it’s worked out. After about 7 years I decided to open a fast casual concept called Nudo. Nudo is a pan Asian restaurant that specializes in Pho and Ramen. I currently have two locations in the Saint Louis area. Also very grateful it has worked out and the community has received us well. I also seeked out the expertise of one of the four Ramen Gods of Japan in Shigetoshi Nakamura. I brought him over from Tokyo to help consult on Nudo. Chef Nakamura owns 14 Ramen restaurants in Tokyo and 10 more worldwide. Fortunately my team and I have won many accolades including being on the cover of Food and Wine magazine and many shows including the Zimmern List,Food Paradise and a James Beard nomination.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Obviously the restaurant business is one of the most difficult. There are always challenges. The true struggle is to try to pinpoint what type of culture you would like to create. For me and I’m sure many other restaurants, I wanted a place that was consistently good with the food and service and also create an environment where my staff would be in position to thrive. Those things take time to build and seven years later we still continue to improve on these things daily.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I would never tell you I do the best of anything. I didn’t invent the cuisine. I just try to serve the community food that I like to eat and hope that the community receives it well. And fortunately they have. We give back to the same community that has supported us for so long and do a lot of charity work throughout the year. Cancer research, women’s shelters, dog shelters,etc.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
One of the things that matter to me is that I’m able to introduce my heritage via food to others. I believe America to be an idea. Not a race, it’s a place where we can share all share our food and backgrounds and still all be American.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.maileestl.com and www.nudohousestl.com
- Instagram: @maileestl and @nudohousestl
