Our Father:
During a Maoist regime in China, Vann Hong escaped the communist mainland to reach Hong Kong, a free society of a British colony at the time. He was one of the fortunate while others faced imprisonment or worse. Here, he worked very hard as a chef’s assistant and absorbed all the knowledge of Chinese Culinary. He had left the island shortly after a few years and had bound for Cambodia a land of promising, a language of unknown, but with a spectrum of opportunities.
A long journey of unsettled feelings awaited him, and he finally arrived in Cambodia. Upon arriving in the second largest city called Battambang, Vann had to make quick adjustments to the language and the society to survive. While there, he worked many different jobs but at last landed a job of his dream of becoming a chef, entrusted by his boss to manage the restaurant. Vann has always wanted to become an entrepreneur and be his own boss. Here, he met his wife Saroth, a young and beautiful Cambodian lady, and began an apprenticeship in the art of Chinese and Cambodian cuisine. The fusion was so successful that led to an award of a contract to become the head chef of the Cambodian Olympiads for the 1964 Olympics. From 1962 to 1964, Vann became so popular that he became a household name in the restaurant business for many Cambodians, and he is known as “Chek Mann” or “Uncle Mann” as his nickname.
The dream has been halted to a screech and Vann had never thought that he would experience the communist regime again in his lifetime when Cambodia had been liberated by the Khmer Rouge. In the four years that the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia, it was responsible for one of the worst mass killings of the 20th Century. The brutal regime, in power from 1975- 1979, claimed the lives of up to two million people including his oldest son and many relatives of his wife’s family members. By the late of 1979, Cambodia once again was invaded by Vietnam is another communist regime. Vann had made a promise to his family that he would never be living under the communist regime ever again. He and his family fled the country to Thailand and temporarily settled down in the Khoa-I-Dang Refugee camp hoping to immigrate to America. After almost a year and a few relocated camps, the family was sent to Mairut Refugee Processing Center in Thailand, waiting to be immigrated to America. Finally, the long and exhausting wait has been a blessing in the sky when the family has granted the visa to travel to the United States of America in late 1981.
As the plane landed at Chicago O’Hare Airport, for the first time in so many years, Vann could see the freedom waiting for him to explore the journey of the land of opportunity. He started working right after a few months of his arrival with a laser focus that one day he would own his own business. With his entrepreneurial mindset, in 1988 he started his own restaurant six years later in Logan Square. After almost 15 years of servicing the community, Vann has retired, and Bunlang Hong, one of the sons took ownership of the business. Bunlang has graduated from IIT with Electrical Engineer, but with his unsurpassed passion and the love of culinary, he has followed his father’s path and dreams to become the owner and the chef of Van Phat. After more than 30 years of its establishment, Van Phat Restaurant has stood the test of time, and proudly affirm that this is the American dream, with hard work and dedication, anything is possible.