Chef Hung Huynh was born in Vietnam and raised in Massachusetts. He grew up working in his family’s restaurant, became a Culinary Institute of America graduate, and won the coveted Top Chef prize from the third season of Bravo’s popular reality TV cooking show. He has worked as executive sous chef at Guy Savoy in Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, and is now Executive Chef at Solo, a Mediterranean and Asian restaurant in Manhattan known for innovative kosher cuisine in a high-tech dining environment.
Chef Hung Huynh stands before his dishes at the Bocuse d’Or USA competition at Epcot, Walt Disney World. Photo by Christey Krause
Chef Hung was selected as one of the eight competitors for the Bocuse d’Or USA, to compete at Epcot, Walt Disney World, to represent the USA in the international Bocuse d’Or competition in Lyon, France, in January 2009.
During a question and answer session, Chef Hung mentioned the difficulty he had in preparing for competition, as Solo’s kitchen is strictly kosher, which made practice for Bocuse nearly impossible. Nevertheless, he brought everything he had to the competition.
Foodbuzz was kind enough to send Christey and me to the Bocuse d’Or as part of their Foodie Correspondent Program, to write about and photograph the competition. This interview is our second post about our experience. Chef Hung graciously agreed to speak with me during the cocktail reception, before the gala dinner where the winner was announced. He had started cooking at 8:30 that morning, and finished his dishes at 2:10pm.
