How chef Yia Vang’s Minneapolis restaurant became one of the best in the country.
For chef Yia Vang, live-fire cooking isn’t a trend. “This is actually a part of who I am,” he says. “This is how our people cooked hundreds of years ago. This is how our people cook today. If you go into the hills of Laos, into the mountains of Laos and you meet the Hmong people out there, this is how they still cook.”
At Vang’s Minneapolis restaurant Vinai, the open-fire cooking can take the form of the Vinai feast, in which flame-grilled meats and seafood — along with rice, noodles, and vegetables — are laid out on a bed of banana leaves, or as Vang refers to them them “nature’s tinfoil.”
The groundbreaking restaurant was recently awarded a spot on Eater’s 2024 list of the best new restaurants in the country. Named for the refugee camp in Thailand where Vang was born, Vinai pays respect to the nomadic culture of the Hmong, a people with roots throughout Laos, Thailand, and other areas of Southeast Asia. “For a group of people that don’t have a land of their own, country of their own, flag of their own, what gets passed down historically about them is in their food,” Vang explains. “Our cultural DNA is intricately woven into the food that we eat and, when you dine with us, you’re not just eating a meal, you’re not just eating a dish, you’re actually partaking in our history.”
For the feast, a communal meal meant to be eaten by hand, Vang builds a fire with Minnesota oak and charcoal. He stuffs red snapper with lemongrass, ginger, garlic, and shallots before placing the fish in a grill basket over the flames. Deboned chickens are next to cook, the fat dripping from the basket, followed by pork accompanied by a “Hmong sofrito.” Ribs seasoned with a coffee rub also cook low and slow over the fire. And head-on shrimp are marinated with salt, fish sauce, and chile oil before taking their turn in the heat.
“This is my happy place, Vang says: “cooking for friends over fire.” Watch the newest episode of Smoke Point to see Vang prepare the fire-fueled feast from start to finish.
