Helene An

Helene An (Nhu Tran) (born April 12, 1944) is a Vietnamese-American chef, restaurateur and cookbook author known as the "Mother of Fusion Cuisine." She introduced Vietnamese cooking to mainstream America with her innovative AN's Famous Garlic Noodles. Helene was honored by the Smithsonian in 2007 and 2019, the Asian Hall of Fame in 2022, and the California Hall of Fame 17th class in 2024. 
==Personal Life==
Helene An was born in 1944 in Hanoi, Vietnam, into a Mandarin aristocratic family. Raised in a household with private chefs specializing in French, Chinese, and Vietnamese cuisines, she developed an appreciation for diverse culinary traditions. In her twenties, she married Danny An, a South Vietnamese Air Force pilot. After the Fall of Saigon in 1975, An fled Vietnam with her three daughters and later reunited with her husband in San Francisco following a brief stay in the Philippines.
==Career==
In 1971, Helene An’s mother-in-law, Diana An, purchased a small Italian deli in San Francisco, which was later renamed Thanh Long. Facing initial challenges, Helene An adapted the restaurant's menu to cater to local tastes by blending Vietnamese, French, and Chinese influences. This transition helped Thanh Long become one of the first Vietnamese restaurants in San Francisco. An's creation of Garlic Noodles, which combined Italian pasta with Vietnamese flavors, became a popular dish at the restaurant. The success of this dish contributed to the restaurant's growth from 24 seats to 240 seats.
In the 1990s, the An family expanded their restaurant operations, opening Crustacean San Francisco in 1991 and Crustacean Beverly Hills in 1997. Additional establishments followed, including AnQi Bistro in Costa Mesa in 2009 and Tiato in Santa Monica in 2010. The family plans to open a new Crustacean San Francisco in 2024, with Crustacean Jeddah also scheduled to open in late 2024.
==Recognition==
Helene An’s work in fusion cuisine and Vietnamese cooking has been acknowledged through several awards. In 1981, Michael Bauer, a restaurant critic for The San Francisco Chronicle, referred to her as the "Mother of Fusion Cuisine". An was awarded the Pioneer Award in Culinary Arts by the Smithsonian Institution in 2007 and 2019 for her role in popularizing Vietnamese cuisine in the United States. In 2016, she published the cookbook An: To Eat, which features 100 of her signature recipes and documents her culinary journey. An was inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame in 2022, and in 2024, she was included in the 17th class of the California Hall of Fame.
==Secret Kitchen==
The concept of the "Secret Kitchen" was introduced by Helene An as a way to protect her family's proprietary recipes. The Secret Kitchen, present in An family restaurants such as Crustacean, is a private cooking area where only select family members are allowed to prepare certain signature dishes, including Garlic Noodles. The kitchen is designed to maintain the confidentiality of the methods and ingredients used in these dishes.
In 2004, the An family sought to trademark the term "Secret Kitchen" to protect their recipes. This effort was documented in The Los Angeles Business Journal, which outlined the family’s legal actions to secure their intellectual property. Additionally, The Wall Street Journal discussed Helene An's motivation to establish the Secret Kitchen as a defense against imitation.
The family also trademarked "AN’s Famous Garlic Noodles" in 2010 to protect the specific dish from imitators. Despite numerous imitations of Garlic Noodles across various restaurants, the original recipe remains protected within the Secret Kitchen.
Category:Vietnamese chefs
Category:1944 births
Category:People from Hanoi
Category:Restaurateurs
Category:Cookbook writers