Austin’s reputation as a barbecue destination has caused all kinds of great, culture-melding food to sprout up here. Củi, the new restaurant from husband-and-wife duo Quyen Nguyen and Hien Le, enters the fusion barbecue arena at 7318 McNeil with a unique spin on Vietnamese cuisine.
Neither Nguyen nor Le have any formal culinary training. According to Nguyen, who moved to the States from Da Nang as a teenager, Củi arrives as a passion project and a rejection of the traditional immigrant trajectory he was expected to follow.
“Young people, we always want to do something fun,” he says. “When I finished high school, I wanted to become a chef. My mom slapped me in the face and said, ‘No, it’s very difficult work!’ She wanted me to be a nail technician because I was very bad at school! You know, being Vietnamese, right?…