The Barongs
Mrs Maria
Co-founder and chef, Mệ Vui · Bali, Indonesia
“Learning, passion and perseverance can change our destiny.”
Maria Huyen was born in Huế and studied literature at Huế University. As a girl her family was too poor to have a kitchen, so she built one in the garden from wood, leaves and clay.
After she married, her mother and mother-in-law brought her into cooking. She travelled the length of Vietnam to learn its food, then trained under Sakal Phoeung, President of Escoffier Vietnam, at the Sofitel.
She began as a stay-at-home mother in a forty square metre bistro where she was both the cook and the dishwasher. Today she leads more than ten Mệ Vui kitchens in Bali and Vietnam. “If I can do it, you can do it too. Perhaps even with me. Why not?”