The glossy menus, sleek decor, and iconic logos of international hotel restaurants often obscure the human stories behind each dish. While catering to global guests, these restaurants often serve meals with origins in family kitchens and regional culinary traditions. Young, local chefs balance nostalgic associations with contemporary techniques and creative expression to create these menus. Returning for its second year this past September, Ngon Challenge continued to celebrate and nurture Vietnamese culinary talent across Marriott International’s hotels and resorts in Vietnam.
Reflective of Marriott’s commitment to showcasing authentic experiences, Ngon Challenge’s most important criterion was that entrants revive a traditional dish with thoughtful use of preserved and fermented elements. Similarly, dishes were judged based on sustainability and local sourcing, as well as culinary execution and creativity.
The contestants were eager to impress the celebrity chefs on hand.
From 76 entries across Marriott International hotels in Vietnam, 11 finalists gathered at JW Marriott Hotel & Suites Saigon for the September 25 Final Round, following a menu creation workshop to refine their dishes and presentations. Amid an audience of foodies and industry luminaries, each chef arrived honored to compete and determined to win. Only three could be named Ngon Masters.
“Honestly, Hanoi cold snail noodle soup is gradually being forgotten. I want to bring it back so that people can enjoy it and rediscover it, after all the changes and adaptations it has gone through from one person to another,” shared Top 3 Ngon Master Phạm Xuân Thắng of Sheraton Hanoi Hotel, of his Hương Ốc – Ký Ức Hà Nội. He elevated his beloved grandmother’s snail noodle dish by replacing traditional noodles with handmade rice rolls and a delicate consommé that balanced fermented rice vinegar and lá lốt-wrapped snail sausages.
Phạm Xuân Thắng's Hương Ốc – Ký Ức Hà Nội's flavors were as precise as its presentation.
While his creation may not resemble the humble bowls his grandmother prepared for him growing up, her love and passion are in each bite. He noted, “It has been with me from my childhood through adulthood, and even now, it continues to bring me success. I’m very grateful to my grandmother.”
Hương Ốc – Ký Ức Hà Nội allowed Phạm Xuân Thắng to honor his grandmother while meeting expectations of contemporary diners.
While Thắng looked to personal memory to revive a disappearing Hanoi dish, Top 2 Ngon Master Trần Minh Phụng of The Westin Resort & Spa Cam Ranh turned to his family’s culinary tradition and the fermentation practices found across Vietnam.
Phụng’s bánh xèo tacos with Bình Ba lobster reinterpretation gracefully reimagined Central Vietnam’s iconic street food dish via impressive creativity. Instead of serving the dish only with nước mắm chua ngọt, he accompanied it with a small amount of concentrated caramelized fish sauce with chili that united sour, sweet, salty, and rich flavors. This was paired with a reinterpretation of a family favorite, cá um cà. The threadfin bream fish was transformed into a succulent filling and brilliantly returned to its own skin for an ingenious presentation atop fermented tomato juice that honored home-cooked flavors.
Trần Minh Phụng's bánh xèo tacos achieved a balance of creativity and tradition.
While relying on novel techniques for the dishes, Phụng said that “Vietnamese people, and anyone who knows about these techniques, understand that fermentation has existed in Vietnam for a very long time, along with many other traditional techniques. Whether you’re in the North, Central, or South of Vietnam, people across the country use some form of this technique.”
For Top 1 Ngon Master Nguyễn Xuân Hiển of Sheraton Saigon Grand Opera Hotel, the relationship between tradition and innovation was expressed through local ingredients, resourcefulness and a low-waste approach rooted in Mekong Delta cooking.
Nguyễn Xuân Hiển's medley of Mekong Delta flavors won him the contest's top spot.
Sustainable ingenuity was on full display in Hiển’s southern Vietnamese sour soup with fermented rice. He explained: “Back in the countryside, people used whatever ingredients they had available. For example, when cooking rice, we would save the leftover rice and the rice water instead of letting it go to waste. We could combine the leftover rice with the rice water to make cơm mẻ, which could then be used when cooking fish. As for the fish, in the past, when we caught fish from the canals and rivers, we would simply clean it, cut it into pieces, and put it into the soup. We would combine it with local vegetables that grew around the house or along the canals, such as điên điển flowers, water lilies, lotus flowers, and typical Southern Vietnamese herbs.”
Local ingredients brings hometown flavors for Nguyễn Xuân Hiển while being mindful of sustainability.
While he elevated his winning version by using grouper and crab, he also relied on familiar, locally grown vegetables and herbs. “For example, water spinach, green bananas, and ngò gai. I use green chuối xiêm because it gives the dish a slightly crunchy and chewy texture, which is really interesting to eat. These are ingredients that we can grow at home, or that naturally grow around us, so we don’t need to transport them long distances and consume extra energy.”
The dish’s low-waste approach was further established by using fish bones and crab shells to build the broth, allowing Hiển to share the Mekong Delta’s flavors and memories without losing the soul of the original dish.
Trần Duy Quang's rice cake was praised for its delicate handling of bold flavors.
Beyond the three Ngon Masters, the judges also recognized Trần Duy Quang of Renaissance Danang Hoi An Resort & Spa with the Best Dessert Award for his contemporary interpretation of Hoi An rice cake. Inspired by a childhood memory of the rice cake his grandmother would buy, Quang preserved its fermented flavor and characteristic airy texture while introducing coconut, mango and contrasting contemporary textures.Now in its second year, Ngon Challenge is continuing to build a longer-term platform for Vietnamese culinary talent, carrying the chefs’ stories from the competition into dining experiences for guests across the country. Each dish will connect diners with the culinary legacies of Vietnamese families and regional traditions, while revealing the passion and creativity of the chefs working across Marriott International’s hotels and resorts in Vietnam.
The Ngon Challenge finalists, judges and VIP.
