Food + People = Community
Union Hmong Kitchen is a restaurant that features Hmong culture, stories, rituals, foods and flavors. We marry local traditions with those from back home in South and Eastern Asia to bring Hmong flavors to American palates. Every dish has a narrative and we look forward to sharing ours with you, through our food.
“No matter where we were or what we were doing, we could hear the voice of my mom, a tiny Hmong woman, yelling for us to come to eat. My parents believed in eating at the table together. It was a time to take a pause in our lives and connect with each other. Sometimes there wasn’t much to talk about, and sometimes that was the moment my father took to give us a talking to. Regardless, the table was a big part of our family life. At the table we connected with each other and shared a meal.” - Chef Yia Vang
Chef Yia Vang
One of seven siblings, Chef Yia Vang was born in a Thai refugee camp where he lived until his family resettled in central Wisconsin. A trained chef who started his career working as a dishwasher, Yia uses food to tell a story and believes that every dish has a narrative. Through sourcing what’s in season and combining local traditions with those from his family and cultural traditions, Yia brings Hmong flavors to American palates and invites people to change how they think about food by considering the influences in each bite.
His vision for Vinai, his new restaurant concept, (slated to open in 2024 in Northeast Minneapolis) is to create a home for his Hmong food that celebrates his parents’ legacy and tells his family’s story through food. Yia is the host of Outdoor Channel’s Feral along with TPT’s Relish series and has been featured on National Geographic and CNN’s United Shades of America. Among other accolades, he was the cover story of the May 2020 issue of “Bon Appetit” magazine. Yia was also named MSP Magazine's “Chef of the Year 2019" and was recently voted “Best Chef 2020” in City Pages “Best-of” issue.
Read more about Yia’s and our food’s cultural ties in “A Note on Traditional Food vs. Authentic Food”