The Queen’s community got the chance to enjoy meals cooked by celebrated Vietnamese Chef Mai Pham, who visited campus on March 8.

Chef Pham led a cooking demonstration at KHAO restaurant in the JDUC at lunchtime, and served some of her famous Vietnamese dishes at Leonard Dining Hall during the dinner service.

Pham is the chef/owner of two nationally-acclaimed Vietnamese restaurants in Sacramento, Calif., has authored three cookbooks, and appears regularly on Food Network.

“The chef was awesome. She was very approachable and really cool,” says PhD candidate Gabriela Castillo, who attended the cooking class. “She focused a lot on techniques for things we can do in our homes. She taught us that each ingredient in the recipe requires its own technique for pre-creation, for example, when she was explaining how to properly caramelize mushrooms. I learned a lot.”

Hospitality Services is running a Global Chefs series and has previously hosted Martin Redzynski from Poland who, in addition to Mai Pham and Canadian Chef Michael Smith, have brought their talent and passion for food to Queen’s campus.

Check out Hospitality Services’ calendar of events.